Trinity
As we mentioned in the introduction, the new Trinity processors are the successors to the current AMD A4/A6/A8 Llano processors. Trinity is manufactured with the same 32nm production process as its predecessor, but internally the chip is completely new.
The CPU part consists of four so-called Piledriver cores. This is the second version of AMD's new Bulldozer processor architecture. The current A4/A6/A8 Llano processors still use four cores from the Athlon II X4 generation. That means that the cores in Trinity are two generations newer than the ones in Llano.
Trinity consists of four 'Piledrive' CPU cores and 384 'Northern Islands' GPU cores
In the graphics department Trinity has an integrated Radeon GPU with 384 cores. Llano's GPU was based on the architecture of Radeon HD 5000 GPUs, but the new chip has Radeon HD 6000 architecture, codenamed Northern Islands. Certain improvements from the Radeon HD 7000 series have also been added, including hardware-based video encoding.
Like its predecessor, Trinity has a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. It officially supports DDR3-1866 modules in desktops and DDR3-1600 in laptops. A new addition is the support for low-voltage modules. The integrated PCI-Express 2.0 x16 controller for connecting an optional dedicated graphics card remains the same as in its predecessor. There are a total of 24 lanes, of which four are used for the connection with the chipset.
The various components marked on a die photo.
Trinity is a little bigger than its predecessor. The Llano chip is 228 mm² and contains 1.18 billion transistors, while Trinity measures 246 mm² and contains 1.3 billion transistors.
Let's make the comparison with Intel right-away. Intel's Sandy Bridge processors (32nm) are 216 mm² and contain 1.16 billion transistors, while Ivy Bridge (22nm) is 160 mm² and measures 1.4 billion transistors. You can clearly see that Intel is able to fit the same number of transistors on a smaller chip thanks to its new manufacturing process, which in theory can lower production costs. AMD has a valid counter-argument, however. 32nm has matured and 32nm wafers are currently still cheaper to manufacture than 22nm versions.
For laptops the most important difference between Llano and Trinity is the energy consumption. Like its predecessor, the TDPs are 65 or 100 watts, but the usage should be lower in practice.
