Zotac ZBox Blu-ray AD03 takes AMD Fusion into the living room ( Fusion arrives....finally)

Hexus.net ^ | Wed 5th Jan, 2011 | Parm Mann

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We've yet to test AMD's Fusion platform for ourselves, but the support being shown by the industry can only be a good sign.

We're seeing Fusion-based notebooks and computer systems pour out of this year's CES, and joining the likes of HP, Lenovo and Gigabyte is Zotac, whose ZBox Blu-ray AD03 aims to take Fusion into the living room.

The compact mini-PC, pictured above, isn't entirely new, but unlike previous models, the new AD03 packs a dual-core AMD Fusion E-350 APU complete with integrated Radeon HD 6310 graphics.

AMD's platform is showing plenty of early HTPC potential, and Zotac's ZBox is shaping up to be a neat little number for those who don't want to build their own.

Despite its slim appearance, the system sports 2GB of memory, a 250GB hard disk, a slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive and built-in Wireless N connectivity. The array of ports, meanwhile, is made up of HDMI, DVI and VGA out, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, four USB ports - half of which are of the 3.0 variety - and optical output for the onboard 7.1 audio. Oh, and it's VESA-compliant, too, so mounting it to the back of your big-screen TV should be a breeze.

We've yet to hear official details regarding price and availability, but $499 is the figure floating around the Internet. A barebones model - with no pre-installed memory or storage - is said to be on its way for $399.

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And:

AMD Fusion C-50 APU tested

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Wipes the floor with Intel Atom N550

Guys from Dutch Hardware.info site managed to get their hands on Toshiba's N550D netbook with AMD's Fusion C-50 dual-core APU clocked at 1.0GHz. When compared to Intel's Atom N450 and N550, it is quite clear that those are no match for AMD's Radeon HD 6250 graphics found in the C-50.

Of course, bear in mind that we are talking about the C-50 APU, a dual-core clocked at 1.0GHz that only consumes 9W. The Radeon HD 6250 GPU found in this APU is clocked at 280MHz. Just for reference, the top AMD offer, E-350 is a dual-core APU clocked at 1.6GHz with Radeon HD 6310 graphics clocked at 500MHz. On the other hand, Intel's GMA 3150 really has nothing on these new AMD DirectX 11 parts.

The most convincing win is in 3DMark06 where Intel's GMA 3150 barely goes over 153 marks, whereas the C-50 easily scores 1769. The scores are quite interesting as in some tests, Atom manages to outperform the C-50 (like in Cinebench 10) but once again we are talking about AMD's C-50 and not the E-350 which is clocked at 1.6GHz.

You can find all the scores here.

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Will add some other links ...so we can get a feel for the first AMD chips with graphics on the chip...believe this is a Brazos with the Bobcat architecture chip.

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From Anandtech:

page2 --AMD Meetings: APUs Make a Big Splash

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We also had a visit with AMD at their meeting rooms, which were filled with product demonstrations. Brazos laptops and netbooks occupied a large area just inside the door—we counted at least 20 different laptops of varying sizes and capabilities. The vast majority of there were running an AMD APU, in this case Brazos. There were 10” E-350 netbooks, 11.6” E350 ultraportables, and even 14” to 15.6” solutions all using the power friendly APU. A few of the systems also had K10.5 CPUs with the new 6000M GPUs (we’ll get to those next). Browsing around the show floor, though, Brazos looks to be making some real waves, providing a compelling alternative to Atom in the sub-$500 netbook market. In the next couple of months, we should see a lot of Brazos systems, from small nettop/desktop systems to netbooks… and yes, tablets as well. AMD reports battery life of up to 12 hours on some of their test netbooks; the reason they’re able to get such long battery life is pretty simple:

[Avery Iota Kracker]

Zotac. Nice planet, but it’s a beotch trying to find a cup of good coffee there.

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The Brazos Performance Preview: AMD E-350 Benchmarked

And:

Previewing AMD's Brazos, Part 1: More Details on Zacate/Ontario and Fusion

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AMD's Zacate APU, 19mm x 19mm package, 413 balls, 75mm^2 die

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Trying to help Freepers make sense of the deluge that is on it's way....

AMD Zacate E-350 Processor Performance Preview

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AMD Brazo Platform, Ontario and Zacate Processors

Specifications & Features

AMD E-350 Processor - Zacate @ 1.6GHz and it's tiny.

The version of the chip we looked at specifically was the higher-end 18 Watt chip that will be branded as the E-350 Fusion processor. This incarnation of Fusion goodness runs at 1.6GHz.  The 9 Watt version, codenamed Ontario, will be coming to market in Q1 2011.  The E-350 has dual "out of order" X86 cores built on a 40nm process technology, with a total of 1MB of L2 cache (512KB per core).  The chip also supports full X86-64 extensions and sports a 64-bit FPU as well.  On die is also a single channel DDR3 memory controller that is rated up to a 1066MHz interface speed and supports up to two DIMM slots.  Finally of course, is AMD's DX11-capable graphics core; specifically a Radeon HD 6310, which also incorporates AMD's new generation UVD3 video decode block that can be found on the recently launched Radeon HD 6800 family of graphics processors.

Paired with the Hudson IO controller chip, or Southbridge, and a few miscellaneous interface chips for things like Gigabit Ethernet and USB3 and you have essentially our full test platform for this performance preview.  Speaking of which, let's detail all of our test systems for you, next.

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And what about futures:.....Discussion on a Forum:

ontario and zacate performance improvements on 28 nm

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CPUs Talk about processors and related technology

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What is the performance increase we should expect from them, once they start being produced on 28 nm next year?

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Was this even confirmed? Will TSMC actually have enough yields on 28nm to churn out huge quantities of Ontario? By next year?

Better Q is: When will Fusion hit 28nm?

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GF announced they are starting risk production for 28 nm later this year.. radeon 7000 series (southern islands) must be coming sometime next year.. AMD must logically produce their chips on GF.. so it shouldn't be crazy o assume we will see those chips next year..

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These here are some scaling parameters from TSMC 40G to GF 28HP
in case of the ARM core.

http://www.globalfoundries.com/newsr.../20100601.aspx



http://www.madboxpc.com/globalfoundr...-en-28nm-hkmg/



Regards, Hans

__________________
~~~~ http://www.chip-architect.org ~~~~ http://www.physics-quest.org ~~~~

[nikos1121]

What in Sam Hill are you people talking about. Can you condense in three sentences what this is all about? I haven’t a clue as to what you’re talking about... :-)

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From just above...Global Industries doing an ARM Chip:

More:

GlobalFoundries muestra ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core en 28nm HKMG

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Ok...bear with me...I see your profile page with an excellent looking convertible ....

I had a 65 Mustang convertible once...for my wife...

Candy Apple Red with a white Top....beautiful...she loved it and never wanted to let go of it!

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So here is the issue...you walk into..a show room...say a Best Buy showroom...and see a really slick device that can do some very nice things...

Smart Phone,..Tablet,...small netbook...small Laptop...whatever....

What questions should one ask?

I am old fashioned...so I would do much like I would with shopping for a car....except this may be getting more complicated...even

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What is inside that drives all of this magical stuff...?

And how do I get the pictures out of it....

Now that is where the word FUSION comes in...

It's a nice marketing word....for a very great technical achievement...

AMD now has a chip containing multiple processor cores and circuits to drive an LCD display.( takes less power.)

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3 sentences:

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Now that is where the word FUSION comes in...

It's a nice marketing word....for a very great technical achievement...

AMD now has a chip containing multiple processor cores and circuits to drive an LCD display.( takes less power.)

[nikos1121]

Then that should increase the quality, speed and functioning and lower the costs too?

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Sorry for the Looooong Delay in Replying.

Missed seeing your reply in all the traffic from other threads....

The Short answer is mostly YES!

The AMD Fusion E-350 APU ( Getting technical )
is even showing up in an Acer Tablet
which will run either Windows 7 or Android of some Flavor....

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Guess I was technically wrong the Tablet is equipped witha lower speed Fusion chip...

The 1GHz AMD C-50 dual-core processor and ADM Radeon HD6250 GPU

Read more: Acer favours the Iconia Tab W500, we go hands-on - Pocket-lint http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/39291/acer-iconia-w500-a500-a100#ixzz1Huk5priv