Summarizing AMDs Financial Analyst Day announcements. A look at the company's future plans

Here we go: As some of you geeks know AMD had their Financial Analyst day yesterday. AMD talked about their future plans. The companys "The Future is Fusion" slogan is becoming a reality, and indeed AMD's future is definitely Fusion Technology. The first Fusion chip will be a 40nm Core featuring 80 GPU Core Units and up to 2 K10.5 Cores (the same architecture used in Athlon II and Phenom II CPUs).  The low end Ontario APU will have a TDP of 9W for both variants; the single core at (1.2Ghz) and the dual core at ( 1Ghz), but both feature the same GPU are and the same GPU core speed of (280Mhz). The mid range APU codenamed Zacate will feature a faster GPU core of (500Mhz) and a faster CPU core clock of (1.5Ghz for the single core and 1.6Ghz for the dual core model). Rumors around the web about the release date claim that the APU could be released as soon as this month since AMD started to ship the processors today at 4AM CET.

Next year's plans introduce the 32nm Bulldozer CPU, this time gamers come first (planned release is Q2 2011) and later the server parts based on the new C32/G34 sockets. So we will be seeing new AM3+ boards too in Q2 2011 so people using their AM2(+) boards with an AM3 CPU might be able to upgrade to AM3+ and DDR3 memory with the option to insert a Bulldozer part later on. Performance wise, you will get up to 8 Bulldozer cores (4 x 2 Modules) with an improved memory controller. Some other enhancements include a new and improved TurboCore feature which is also available in the server parts. The high end AMD APU codenamed Llano is launching in the second half of 2011. Further on AMD plans to introduce a next Bulldozer CPU in 2013. The APU will be improved further on to work in tablet PCs. AMD will be facing strong competition as Intel also plan to unleash their own next gen architecture (Sandy Bridge) by next year.

Moving on to GPU news, AMD talked about the yet to launch Cayman and Antilles Dedicated Graphic cards: Bad news first, Antilles the dual GPU Radeon 6000 Series card will be delayed. And the good new is that AMD hasnt mentioned any delay of the Cayman based GPUs which should stand against nVidia's recently released GeForce GTX 580 Card.

An exciting 2011 is ahead of us, the signs of the upcoming year are already here: The launch of the first native consumer APU in the world. My expectations IT-wise for 2011 are quite simple: More BANG for the BUCK!