New computer

[Concillian]

AMD is just plain not the way to go right now. Their next gen is due out mid-year. I'm praying they're something more competitive.

I had to check to make sure it was public info before posting. The Llano APUs should show up in systems in about 2 months (under the platform name Sabine. I believe the southbridge involved supports USB3). We've started shipping production units to our customers.

For what Jarulf is discussing, Llano is still not something I'd consider, I was mainly referring to Bulldozer.

Llano will be WAY better than anything currently available for systems without a discrete GPU, that much is pretty guaranteed ($500-1000 notebooks + small form factor / all-in-one PCs). It should definitely be a big product for AMD, as the performance advantage is only part of the benefit AMD has over Intel on the integrated graphics side. The drivers and software are MUCH more mature for AMD. Intel has an extraordinarily lackluster history of driver support with it's integrated graphics products, and I'd buy AMD for that reason alone for all-in-one / notebooks where there is no expectation of having a discrete GPU.

However, given the CPU side of it is little more than a current Phenom II, just smaller (and with very welcome power gating improvements), it's pretty unlikely it will be able to compete in raw CPU power with Sandy Bridge. It's not the niche they're looking for with the product, so it's not designed to be a product that would be exciting for people who are talking about using a $200+ video card.

I was more referring to Bulldozer. This is the more interesting product for someone with a discrete card. The full die is dedicated to CPU and the architecture is completely different, so there is a bit of suspense about performance. It's bound to be better than Llano for a computer with a discrete GPU. How much better is what needs to be seen, as well as the price difference.

Llano has started shipping to OEMs, and components will be available to e-tail / retail "later". Bulldozer is not expected on shelves until at least Q3. Klaus probably knows all this and more that he can't tell us, but for the others interested, there is the rundown on CPUs.

Of course Intel isn't idle, their shrink of Sandy bridge is coming between Q4-2011 and Q2 2012. This is just a shrink, no major architecture changes, so should bring power savings and nominal speed improvements (10-20% or so, traditionally).