New framework to guide the first test of the new revolution AMD Llano APU

New framework to lead the new revolution
◇ APU is what? The future?
Heroes of today is not a processor, but the APU. While the APU? APU English name is "Accelerated Processing Units", which means that the processor speed, it is a melting together of AMD technology products. In fact, in January this year we have had contact with the APU - AMD held in January 2011, the theme of "I Love APU" major conference, and was released products Brazos E350, which is the start of APU model, before we made a detailed assessment of the E350 platform. After waiting nearly half a year, AMD has finally released its public positioning APU model, which is the protagonist of a series, while in the press, a series APU, we also expect this to be friends as long than six months to the platform detailed assessment, let us experience the APU has the charm of heterogeneous computing.
In fact, early last year (2010) in February, AMD senior vice president Chekib Akrout brought us news of the APU, the words of Mr. Chekib Akrout used to describe the APU is the best " the HP Pavilion DV4 best CPU and GPU APU trained "in this respect is a huge advantage over AMD - the AMD CPU and GPU have the two largest PC core R & D capabilities, the acquisition time ATI has been busy by a series of AMD Enjoy all important products and APU is in turn a masterpiece beyond all previous work, the house is going to the heart alone is more than ever, acceleration, more importantly, the new 32 nm process to be energy efficient and closer integration, which is a global progress.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD Fusion products of the APU is greater than 2 -1 1

◇ Fusion product of the APU is greater than 2 -1 1

Previously, we and the leaders of AMD in the communication process, "Fusion" is a high probability of the word appears, why? Because it is characterized by Fusion APU, APU will be a mixture of traditional single CPU core and the core of the new product was, which is caused by AMD R & D team on the Pavilion DV4-1000EA product of the time - the best of the best CPU and GPU APU form, words, AMD senior vice president Chekib Akrout is the case.
President of AMD vice president and general manager, Technology Division, told reporters APU Chekib Akrout

Indeed, in June, successfully held the Computex 2011 (2011 Taipei Computer Show), the Computex show APU received Committee approval and granted the Computex 2011 Best choice, and the prize will be awarded to a class CPU products are rare, showing the official organization for President APU highly recognized IT and AMD vice president, Greater China President Tang also said: "APU as a seamless integration of the speed of the processor architecture, the a video image has a great advantage, will be transformed into high definition, and so can function SD APU to give more potential and market. "
AMD Senior Vice President, Greater China, Tang congratulated President APU

AMD executives have shown a strong self-confidence products APU, APU and the design and integration of the fusion of CPU + GPU also allow one with the trend of over 2, complement each other, accelerating Mutual is the APU design ideas, is where the basic concept of heterogeneous computing. So what is the truth of it is what this article will be discussed with anyone.

Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU implementation A8-3850 produced the highest

Layout-3850 A8 products ◇ highest

A series of AMD APU positioned higher than the Pavilion DV4-1001TU previously issued Series E APU, an APU nomenclature is very interesting series, in which representatives of the A6 and A8 Quad-Core (Core) products APU, A4 on behalf of dual-core (Core) product, the current Llano APU The higher-end model is the A8-3850, has a physical quad-core 2.9GHz Core and high frequency, while the series A, produced the lowest range is A4-3400. A series APU and its A-series motherboard architecture platform is made of "Lynx" platform. The following table APU models are available now, including the cover.
Online product APU

Some people say that the APU architecture is still a continuation of K10. This statement is not bad, but it's not quite right, in fact, APU Core architecture is actually an extension of the K10, but it is not a small improvement in the area of ​​cache, d a series APU is still intact the ability of a 128KB cache, while the secondary cache in each core was designed 1MB capacity, while the three cache areas are not preserved.
An array of Llano APU product line

Removed three cache performance through a series APU will be affected? If AMD does not do something, then things will be so good for the AMD APU also made a new and improved: Based on the IP (Instruction Pointer, instruction pointer) of the HW Prefetcher (hardware pre-readers) was re-designed improvements, rearrange the buffer capacity has increased by 20%, Load / Store unit double buffering capacity direct, new hardware divider (divider Hardware) ... ... these changes so that the number of APU instructions per clock (instructions per clock) than the Pavilion DV4-1001TX current processor as much as 6% more, so do not worry because we have no conception of the performance of three cache and lead to problems, and should delight in the architecture of the improvement and growth of secondary cache.
Product: A8-3800 AMD Power - Fusion Core HD6500 series was only

◇ Powerful - integrated HD6500 series one was at the heart

We all know that AMD has integrated graphics are introduced to force, and the introduction of the nucleus itself was whether the force? The answer is yes, a series Llano APU integration within the HD6500 series GPU based, HD6000 series is the line's most advanced GPUs from AMD current product. Official information from AMD is confident in the description: A series of APU in the integration of a level of simple graphics core important, let us first review the main architecture of Llano APU:

Llano APU graphics architecture

The architecture of the Llano APU diagram above, we can see in the Llano APU has almost half of the space is occupied by the GPU and the other half was occupied by Core CPU and GPU that can be integrated into a small chip, advanced technology processes to remember a great service.

AMD HD6500 series provides graphics heart DirectX 11, is one of the keys to the most advanced graphics, as AMD has arisen in product design and planning of speculation, the model most upscale A8-3850 independence APU should be an important core HD6550D HD5570 graphics core level, SP cells from the Pavilion DV4-1013TX point of view, a series APU's most high-end graphic heart inside the A8 models with a maximum of 400 units SP just the numerical point of view that the level of a HD6570, and HD6570 with 480 SP cell, a group of SP cells from a group of more than HD6550D.
The architecture indicates HD6570

In fact, even if the unit SP HD6550D and HD6570 as well as its theoretical performance should be slightly lower than the HD6570, since the two are not the same memory controller and DDR3 memory will be more advantageous than the GDDR5. Of course, based on shared principles, users can always be single core APU with a much larger shared memory, so how can improve performance HD6550D.

Of course, one HD6550D heart was not the only name he hung HD6000 series, HD6000 series graphics card actually works supported by HD6550D also supported, in front of this API does support DirectX 11 is only important in the following sections, we will develop the characteristics HD6550D more.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD continue UVD3-HD decoding power

◇ continue UVD3-HD decoding is still effective

UVD3 (Unified Video Decoder 3) Chinese translated as "third-generation universal video decoder", which is AMD AVIVOHD one of important technologies, with UVD3 technology, completes the basic graphics hardware can decode MPEG2, H.264 and VC-1 high definition video formats, as well as MPEG2, H.264 and VC-1 high definition film of three fully supported hardware solution, solutions can be difficult movies Divx / Xvid encoded, and Blu-ray 3D acceleration in especially for the VC 1 decoding support, but the traditional strengths of UVD3
UVD3 UVD2 UVD1 and relative improvement

Compared UVD2 and UVD1, UVD3 encoding format for better hardware support for decoding, we can see from the figure above the old UVD technology updates, only one generation UVD VC-1 and H .264 encoding hardware solution Now UVD3 almost all video formats currently supported hardware decoding, the Pavilion DV4-1020TX progress is obvious.
UVD3 for more video formats supported

We come in contact with the video of storm and various other interface software provides audio-visual equipment support options open as long as decoding software supports decoding equipment can, in fact, we come into contact with software Video playback is the oldest is the easiest to use, which is CyberLink PowerDVD, that player is not done, but in fact, many domestic audio-visual software using decoding technology from CyberLink and later we'll do the true high definition video hardware test solution, it will use the PowerDVD software.
Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU to speed up the APU Analysis of heterogeneous

◇ How to speed up the APU-Analysis of heterogeneous computing,

Since the processor accelerator called APU, its main concept is to accelerate, while the APU is integrated into the CPU core and the core was only then its acceleration must be built on the basic core of the two above and for heterogeneous computing, CPU and GPU acceleration between complementary is also an important component.

Heterogeneous computing is the English name of heterogeneous computing, mainly refers to the use of different types of instruction set and architecture of the system of calculation modules. Common calculation unit, including the types of CPU, GPU and other co-processors, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, etc. We often say that heterogeneous parallel computing is an important part of the calculation.
CPU and GPU collaboration diagram heterogeneous Pavilion DV4-1026TX computing (based on OpenCL)

Heterogeneous computing in recent years, more attention, especially because, by increasing the clock speed of the processor and the number of cores and enhance the traditional way of computing power and energy blockages of Cooling encountered. At the same time, GPU and other special computer unit, although the frequency is low, with more cores and parallel computing capabilities, the ratio of total area of ​​performance / silicon and performance / power ratio is high, but far from being fully used.

The design allowed relatively good processor to deal with irregular data structures and access methods unpredictable, and recursive algorithms, branch-intensive code, and single-threaded programs. These procedures have complicated the task of instruction scheduling, loop, branch, logic and steps of execution. The good GPU to deal with data structures and predictable rules of access mode. The APU is designed to allow the CPU and GPU is the perfect cooperation between the two highlights of the collection, use heterogeneous computing to achieve optimal performance of the whole.
OpenCL
Here we must mention OpenCL, OpenCL full name is the Open Computing Language, which means Open Computing Language, is the first general purpose parallel programming of heterogeneous systems of open standards and free, is a unified programming environment help software developers for high-performance computer servers, computer systems, office portable handheld devices to write efficient code, but widely used in multi-core processors (CPU), graphics processor (GPU), the architecture, cell type and a digital signal processor (DSP) and other parallel processors. At present, most are based on heterogeneous computing for OpenCL (before AMD Stream, which is based on OpenCL 1.1), and outdoor APU, we will see in the Lynx platform or OpenCL OpenCL as a basis for the change from heterogeneous applications that will make full use of the CPU APU and GPU acceleration.
Product: A8-3800 AMD will not shrink - to experience the Pavilion DV4-1029TX perfect performance alone was.

◇ not shrink - to experience the perfect performance alone was

E350 platform with the previous motherboard only provides four PCI-E lanes for independence was used, even if we install a graphics card alone can not fully play in performance, so that many users public will be uncomfortable, but this time based on the Llano APU platform with the A8 Lynx chipset provides 16 channel groups PCI-E, and supports divided into 8 x 8x mode to provide two independent graphics capabilities to fight. We can say that we experience on the Lynx platform will be the perfect unique representation significantly.

E350 products will not only provide a full PCI-e

A75 Most motherboards provide two PCI-E interfaces

Mothers were released from the point of view, E350 motherboard will be provided is not a full PCI-E interface, but its independence was far beyond the basic performance, but all traditional of the Pavilion DV4-1033TX platform integration significant enough to meet the needs of entry-level users. The A75 provides the motherboards are often two PCI-E graphics interface card in the next when you can enjoy 16x PCI-E channel, and received two cards also provide a dual system of ordinary fires 8x (CrossFire. ) Of course, most importantly, the Hybrid CrossFire (Hybrid CrossFire), below, will be described in detail.
Product: A8-3800 AMD has a new interface, new product changes Socket FM1

◇ New products are the new interface socket FM1 change

AMD has been done in the tradition of the interface is very good, K10 architecture released in 2008 on the interface was very worried, but AMD will make a very good backward compatibility, which is able to use AM3 AM2 and AM2 + socket on the base interface, the user of the compatibility of AMD's effort is much appreciated, and Intel introduced more different side of the interface, the first platform to X58 LGA 1366 LGA 775 P55 LGA 1156 platform to the current P67 LGA 1155 platform are not compatible, but also a headache for consumers. This time AMD released the A-series processors are changing the interface - A series APU will use Socket FM1 new interface standard. Then, the user will have a headache? Should be good, because the APU and CPU are not like products.
CPU Socket Socket FM1
Processor socket Socket FM1 and post-3850 A8

FM1 socket interface pin count is 905, and 941 of AM3 + is completely different (AM3 is 938 pin AM2 940-pin), while the position and arrangement of the definition and AM3 + is also completely different, so in theory the two are not compatible.

Layout of AMD products to indicate

We can see that AMD's future plans is to allow the coexistence of FM1 and AM3/AM3 +, assigned to market positioning of the various different interfaces, the AMD APU will be used after such a product strategy. In fact a lot, so being able to tell users not to use on different platforms is not compatible with the CPU / APU.
Product: A8-3800 AMD processor speed and passion - a native mother USB3/SATA3

◇ Fast and the Furious - native mother USB3/SATA3

Performance of course depends on the Pavilion DV4-1040EE platform, not just watching a series APU itself, a series APU is going to do with this type of motherboard? A75 we get is based on the chipset (ASRock A75 Pro4 / Colorful Tomahawk C.A75 X5), A75 is an important part of the Lynx platform, under which there is a chipset A55. Some asked that the chipset is inappropriate because the motherboard platform Lynx has full single-chip design, AMD chip called FCH (full English Hub Controller Fusion), of course, we always used to be called in accordance with the chipset.

AMD chipset FCH

FCH Chipset is not simply a matter of fact, in 2011 April 15, USB, USB-IF Standards Organization has officially announced the certification of its first official native USB 3.0 chipset, which is, we are here AMD Fusion Llano mentioned for the platform integration APU build high performance A75, A70M FCH.

Colorful Tomahawk C.A75 X5 board

In fact, do not stop there, A75 chipset supports SATA 6 Gbps to restore health, which will improve the platform Lynx I / O performance, and thus further improve the performance, the best user experience . In the number, A75 provides support six SATA 6 Gbps, scalability and perfectly adequate.

Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU hardware platform for testing and describes the software environment

◇ Introduction of test hardware platform and software environment

We will use the simplified Chinese version of Windows 7 SP1 32-bit operating system, almost all startup items in Windows, not on any operating system optimized for system stability and maximum compatibility. All tests in the process of using the software "Windows 7 standard" desktop theme by default and the "best" for the test environment as fair. We will close the screen saver, hibernation, system restore and features automatic update and unified display using the public version of the motherboard and chipset drivers to obtain the data provide the most realistic first the basis of an objective assessment. A final note is that the products covered by the test parameters and the motherboard chipset drivers and display of the test platform are described in the appropriate comment given.
State test platform

Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU 3DMark benchmark test performance-V

◇ benchmark 3DMark performance of the APU-V test

3DMark Vantage is the industry's first dedicated Microsoft DX10 API to create a comprehensive benchmarking tool, and can fully play more cards, the benefits of multi-core processors in the Pavilion DV4-1046TX current period and future time to meet the needs of PC system performance testing of Thurs And PCMark Vantage, 3DMark news has also changed the name, not to the end of the year, but also a means used the "advantage" of speech. And 3DMark05 DX9 exclusive of a similar nature, 3DMark Vantage is designed specifically for DX10 graphics cards, and can only work on Windows Vista / 7 operating system.
A8-A75 3850 + platform scores

3DMark Vantage GPU and CPU performance has certain requirements, be considered as a manifestation of overall strength, which, A8-3850 reflects the good overall performance was very clear, more than 1500 points in the second platform impressive final results.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU 3DMark 11 performance evaluation test

◇ APU 3DMark 11 performance evaluation test

3DMark 11 best selling points is the use of native DirectX 11 engine, the application of test cases, including the subdivision surface tessellation, multithreaded DX11 Compute Shader and including many new features. 3DMark 11 contains a (Deep Sea) deep and Temple (Temple High), two test scenes, the image effect is comparable to a CG film, 3DMark 11 items with four graphics tests, a physical test and a complete set of tests, and provides a re-Demo demo mode.
More Lynx platform other than the two platforms can not run 3DMark 11
It is depressing to see that in addition to two Lynx platform other than the platform can not run 3DMark 11, 3DMark 11 because of specially prepared for the test software DirectX 11, while the other two platforms do not support DirectX 11, so here we are temporarily unable to provide comparative data.
Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU gaming performance APU - "Resident Evil 5"

◇ gaming performance APU - "Resident Evil 5"

"Resident Evil 5" is the story of the desert in a hot start in the new city, according to the introduction Takeuchi, this region has a similar ethnic conflict cases, residents and a variety of emotional violence-prone . Occurred in the real world and even the killing of ethnic conflict areas, as here, full of chaos, the community has lost its original order, justice and evil, the boundaries have become blurred. Our hero, Chris is in such a context to this volatile region for investigation. DirectX 10.0 API based on full 3D effects of the "Resident Evil 5" game to the memory and graphics requirements are quite high. Test with 1280 * 720 resolution, the effects of default screen, run three times a game and get the best program of Benchmark results.
In tests of play, Llano A8-3850 has demonstrated the absolute strength, Resident Evil 5 game for DX10 Llano A8-3850 is simply a duck to water, let us compare the results of two other platforms - Llano-3850 A8 The average number of frames beyond almost double.

Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU gaming performance APU - "Street Fighter 4"

◇ APU gaming performance - "Street Fighter 4"

Capcom 2009 masterpiece "Street Fighter 4" (Street Fighter IV) February 12, 2009 officially on sale, unfortunately Capcom product is much more important platform game, and the PC platform has been extended to July 2, 2009. For the economic strength of the actors, they waited too can not wait, his hands extended in the PS3 game console, first see the style of play, but for most of the national players, the PC version is the ultimate choice. "Street Fighter 4" support DX9 API on the PC hardware is not very stringent performance requirements, the material can be more experience playing the public good. Our test uses 1280 * 720 screen resolution effects as the default, run three times a game and get the best program of Benchmark results.
Street Fighter 4 trials as surprising, Llano-3850 A8 is ran on a score of 84.9, while the other two platforms to virtually 200% of the difference in points is far from open.

Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU gaming performance APU - "Lost Planet 2"

◇ gaming performance APU - "Lost Planet 2"

"Lost Planet 2" inherited the contents of third-person shooter before, for the multiplayer game to enhance and add 4 Co-op Connections to fight together against huge alien monster "Ike Reid (Akrid)" a new play, Players not only to confront Ike Reed, or even as a hill to climb huge body of AK in the attack. "Lost Planet 2" before the end of ten years as a result of global warming on the landscape of Pi become "EDN -3rd "Planet of the stage, across different groups view the snow thieves to describe the plot story, the game uses its own R & D and other CAPCOM strengthening the" MT-Framework 2.0 "game engine .
○ DX9 mode
○ DX11 mode

We tested the A8-A75 3850 + Lynx provides support for DirectX 11, but unfortunately, the Core i5 2300 graphics card and 880G platform does not provide support for DirectX 11 to DirectX 11 Lost Planet 2 only mode the Lynx to a unique spectacle.
Really surprising, if only by the direct mode Llano 11-3850 A8 to run, but in DirectX 9 mode Llano A8-3850 still showed a significant advantage, is also an advantage of 200% in Llano A8-3850 to continue to lead.

Product: A8-3800 AMD CPU gaming performance APU - "World in Conflict"

◇ gaming performance APU - "World in Conflict"

As a native DirectX10 game first, "World in Conflict" has many excellent graphic effects, "World in Conflict" Although the game is a work in 2007, but was appointed as the title of the murderer of equipment. The functions of the display are: the volume of translucent clouds (Global Cloud Shadows) in the "World in Conflict" in the cloud is real, the technology of cloud volume depicts clouds floating in the air like a real air mass, seems very natural, and the edges will be thinner, the light can be transmitted. While clouds of shape, thickness and size will affect the movement of clouds and shadows on the ground.
Fortunately, in World in Conflict tests Llano A8-3850, although still in the lead, but the advantage is not as surprising as the three previous games.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU tests to assess the performance-Ftitz
◇ benchmark performance test APU-Ftitz
Fritz Chess Benchmark is a software test failures, but this is not an independent existence, but "Fritz9" This internationally recognized performance failures in one part of the test program. It also allows us to complete the X86 IBM computer "Deep Blue" had done something, it's chess calculation step of forecasting and calculation, although we can not communicate with the PC 10 years ago, IBM "Deep Blue" by and in both the processor architecture, the nodes in the AIX operating system, or have big gap, but Fritz Chess Benchmark is still the best in personal computers and software for predicting the computing step, but also allows us to see the other now that we use to achieve a personal computer at the end that kind of level. Meanwhile, the software also provides a reference, that is, the processor P3 1.0 G, operations 480 000 steps per second.
In tests of chess, Llano A8-3850 i5 2300 on the performance of reference is always a little less, but more than the Athlon II X4 640 (even more than the frequency of this processor Llano A8-3850 is also higher 100MHz).

Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU Performance Cinebench R10 benchmark test

◇ APU Performance Cinebench R10 benchmark test

CINEBENCH is a recognized reference, most of the mainstream media at home and abroad to test the system performance can be seen in his presence. It uses a film of the business and television industry for developing special effects software, Cinema 4D engine, you can test the CPU and graphics performance. A single-core and multi-core, the test score is calculated separately, in addition, it also provides a test of OpenGL.
In Cinebench R10 tests, test scores Llano A8-3850 that does the same thing over 2,300 i5, but the brothers have more than one is much higher.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU performance Cinebench R11.5 test reference

◇ APU performance Cinebench R11.5 test reference

Cinebench is the latest version of the current version R11.55, compared to the version Cinebench R10, the new version is more demanding on system requirements and the scoring criteria has also been some changes, and also joined the platform current form and performance score between the different platforms to compare function, so you clearly understand the current level of performance platform.
In tests Cinebench R11.5 is the same situation, the test results of Llano A8-3850 (CPU benchmark) failed to catch i5 2300, but has also exceeded the Athlon II X4 640.
Product: A8-3800 CPU AMD APU performance WinRAR benchmark test

◇ benchmark APU test bench performance WinRAR