Rise of AMD BOBCAT Processor with Fusion

It was revealed during a speech from AMD executive vice-president Henri Richard in Computex 2007 and was put into production Q1 2011.One of the major supporters was executive vice-president Mario A. Rivas who felt it was difficult to compete in the x86 market with a single core optimized for the 10-100 Watts range and actively promoted the development of the simpler core with a target range of 1-10 Watts. In addition, it was believed that the core could migrate into the hand-held space if the power consumption can be reduced to less than 1 W.

Bobcat cores are used together with GPU cores in Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) under the "Fusion" brand. A simplified architecture diagram was released at AMD's Analyst Day in November 2009. This is similar in concept with earlier AMD research in 2003,detailing the specifications and advantages of extending x86 "everywhere".

The Bobcat x86 CPU core design has since been completed and implemented in AMD APU processor products with a TDP of 18 W or less. The core is targeted at low-power markets like netbooks/nettops, consumer electronics and the embedded market. Architecture specifics:

64-bit core

out-of-order execution

Advanced branch predictor

Dual x86 instruction decoder

64-bit integer unit with two ALUs

Floating-point unit with two 64-bit pipes

single channel 64-bit memory controller

32KB instruction, 32KB data and a 512KB L2 cache.

SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3 ISA, SSE4A, MMX

Bobcat: The second of two new x86 architectures, Bobcat is aimed at the low-power, ultrathin notebook and netbook spaces. Expect Bobcat-based cores to go up against Intel Atom and Via Nano. AMD has aspirations of hitting a sub-1 W power ceiling, though there will likely be models exceeding that figure. Bobcat is designed to be synthesizable, meaning AMD can build it into complementary logic blocks more easily than a processor laid out by hand. In other words, expect to see Bobcat CPUs rolled into AMD's Fusion initiative.

Asus Eee PC 1215B Netbook Specs

Preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium OS

Powered by a 1.0 GHz C-50 dual-core APU

12.1-inch LED-backlit display with a native 1366 x 768 pixels resolution

250GB hard drive, and 1GB of RAM

Ethernet LAN, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi

Memory card reader, and a 0.3 megapixel webcam

Boasted by a 6-cell battery that enabling up to 8.5 hours of operate

1 x VGA Port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor)

1 x HDMI, & three USB 2.0 ports

2 x Audio Jack (Head Phone / Mic-in)

Dimensions: 11.65″ x 7.99″ x .91″~1.46″, & Weight: 3.21 lbs (with Battery)

In January 2011 AMD introduced several processors that have implemented the Bobcat core. As of April 2011, this core is in the following AMD Accelerated Processors:

Series ^ Model CPU clock

(MHz) CPU

cores TDP

(W) L2 cache

(KiB) Radeon

cores GPU clock

(MHz) DirectX

version UVD DDR3 speed

C-Series C-30 1000 1 9 512 80 277 11 UVD 3 1066

C-Series C-50 1000 2 9 1024 80 276 11 UVD 3 1066

E-Series E-240 1500 1 18 512 80 500 11 UVD 3 1066

E-Series E-350 1600 2 18 1024 80 492 11 UVD 3 1066

G-Series T-24L 800 1 5 512 80 ? ? ? 1066

G-Series T-30L 1400 1 18 512 80 ? ? ? 1333

G-Series T-40N 1000 2 9 1024 80 276 11 UVD 3 1066

G-Series T-44R 1200 1 9 512 80 276 11 UVD 3 1066

G-Series T-48L 1400 2 18 1024 80 ? ? ? 1066

G-Series T-48N 1400 2 18 1024 80 492 11 UVD 3 1066

G-Series T-52R 1500 1 18 512 80 492 11 UVD 3 1066

G-Series T-56N 1600 2 18 1024 80 492 11 UVD 3 1066

Z-Series Z-01 1000 2 5.9 1024 80 276 11 UVD 3 1066

^ E-Series & C-Series are standard parts, G-Series are embedded parts

Will update a Review soon