A6-3500 Triple Core Imminent

News circulating about imminent availability of a new model of desktop APU based on Llano silicon, the A6-3500. Like the four other desktop variants of Llano, this processor will drop into a Socket FM1 motherboard and provide both CPU and graphics processing power to the system.



The specs for the A6-3500 almost exactly like the specs for the next model up, the A6-3600. Both run their CPU cores at 2.1GHz and can raise them to 2.4GHz via Turbo Core, both have 444MHz Radeon IGPs with 320 shader ALUs, and both will fit into a 65W TDP envelope. The difference? The A6-3500 has only three cores and 3MB of L2 cache, versus the A6-3600's quad cores and 4MB of L2.



The A6-3500 is priced at $95, about $40 below the fastest desktop Llano, the A8-3850.

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Llano Chipsets and Socket

Llano processor is not the only component of the Lynx platform. It also uses chipsets. Since the APU already contains the memory and PCI Express bus controllers, the chipsets consist of only one chip – the South Bridge also known as FCH (Fusion Controller Hub).

AMD currently offers two FCH variants: A55 and A75. The A75 model has native support for all contemporary interfaces, including USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps. The lower-end model A55 supports only old SATA 3 Gbps and USB 2.0 interfaces.


Mainboards for desktop Llano processors based on the above described chipsets come with a special Socket FM1 which is incompatible with AM3. Socket FM1 has significantly different number of pins – 905. All these pins are necessary to ensure that the CPU is connected not only with the chipset and the memory sub-system, but also with the PCI Express x16 graphics bus and monitors.


For the cooling systems, AMD tried to maintain compatibility with the existing infrastructure, so the old Socket AM3 coolers will work just fine with the new processors.

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Desktop Llano Lineup

The first batch of desktop Llano processors includes four APU models with four x86 cores inside. Just like the mobile Llano APUs, they don’t have a marketing name and are assigned A8 and A6 series numbers. A8 series includes higher-end APU models with a "Sumo" graphics core featuring 400 stream processors, while the A6 series includes slower modifications with lower clock frequencies and “lighter” graphics core with only 320 stream processors.

Here is the complete list of currently available Llano processors for the desktop Lynx platform:


There are significant differences in the specs not only between the two different APU series. Two models within each series are, in fact, two totally different products with dramatically diverse heat dissipation levels. The highest-performing models have 100 W TDP, but at the same time there are models with 65 W TDP and Turbo Core support. The clock frequency of the energy-efficient processors has been reduced by about 20-25% below that of their 100 W counterparts, but the features and frequency of their graphics cores remain the same.

Llano’s clock speeds are lower than the frequencies reached by the latest Athlon II and Phenom II processors. And it means that Llano are slower processors, which major advantage will be not the performance of x86 cores, but the performance of their graphics core. So, it makes sense to upgrade from a Socket AM3 to a Socket FM1 platform only for the sake of achieving better energy-efficiency and not in an attempt to boost the performance.

In the desktop segment, AMD’s pricing strategy is to make the A8 Llano processors an alternative to junior Core i3 Sandy Bridge models. The A8-3850's main competition will be the US$134 Core i3-2105. This is a fairly new part which has the same CPU clock as the i3-2100 but a fully enabled HD Graphics 3000.

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Mobile A-series Llano finally launches

AMD has launched seven mobile parts of A-series "Llano" Fusion APU today, and the desktop models have yet to make an official appearance soon.


AMD is making some bold claims, in terms of battery life where the company is promising up to 10.5h of usable battery life. In fact, AMD claims that its A8-3510MX APU has 3.5h better battery life than a similar notebook with Intel's Core i5-2410M processor.



When it comes to graphics performance, AMD has always had a huge lead here over Intel, but AMD has thrown in a few new features that should further boost the appeal of its APUs. First up AMD has added what the company called Perfect Picture HD which is a post-processing option for cleaning up 1080p video, a feature that might prove popular with people shooting their own HD home videos. The second feature, called Steady Video is rather quite impressive, it actually pre and post processes the video to reduce camera shake and it even works with online videos.

As always, AMD is being very competitive on price and the company is expect notebook with its new APU's to start at US$499 with an A4 APU, whereas with an A6 we're looking at around US$599 and finally A8 models will come in at around US$699. Of course these are best case scenarios and we'd expect a lot more expensive machine to be available as well, depending on configuration. For those looking for a boost to the graphics performance beyond the APU's integrated solution, AMD supports CrossFire on the platform and claim up to a 75 percent performance boost for its discrete mobile GPUs when pairing them up with an APU.

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Llano Competitive Positioning

According to some new leaked slides, systems based on AMD's top-of-the-line, A8-series Llano APUs will in fact compete against those based on higher-end Core i5 and lower-end Core i7 processors, with prices of $699 and upward. A6-series Llano chips look set to go against higher-end Core i3s and lower-end Core i5s, while the A4 series will seemingly tackle the lower end of the Core i3 family.


More shocking still, the slide suggests that PCs based on AMD's next-generation E-series processors—Zacate's successor—will compete dollar-for-dollar with systems based on Intel's Pentium processors. However, the slides are dated May 17, which predates the introduction of Intel's new Sandy Bridge-based Pentiums.

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AMD's Llano APUs Expected to be Affordable

Desktop versions of Fusion - Llano accelerated processing units (APUs) by Advanced Micro Devices are likely to be rather inexpensive, which may make them popular among PC builders as well as end-users. According to media reports, the new desktop chips will cost starting from $70.

The initial family of AMD A-series "Llano" APUs will include five chips and beside that, AMD will also offer a low-end E2-series solution featuring Llano design. The most affordable solution in FM1 form-factor will cost $70 (E2-3250), whereas the most powerful A-series chip will be priced at $170 (A8-3550P).


AMD A-series desktop APUs will have either four K10.5+/Husky x86 cores as well as Radeon HD 6000-class "BeaverCreek" (320 or 400 stream processors) graphics core or two x86 cores and "WinterPark" (160 stream processors) integrated graphics engine. The chips will support dual-channel DDR3 memory controllers, up to 4MB of cache, select processors may also feature AMD Turbo Core dynamic acceleration technology as well as a special multi-GPU graphics support.

AMD A8- and A6-series APUs set to compete against Intel Core i3-2100-series microprocessors, whereas the A4- and E2-series chips will rival Pentium and Celeron solutions.

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