AMD and ATI finally tie the knot, embark on "Fusion" honeymoon
We all knew it was just a matter of time, but AMD has finally completed its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI, after jumping through all the necessary regulatory and shareholder hoops. They sure aren't wasting any time, either. The newly joined pair is taking this special moment to announce their upcoming -- and totally expected -- integrated platforms, which should debut in 2007 and will present a rough equivalent to Intel's integrated offerings. However, the new AMD also has a new "Fusion" technology in the works which goes quite a bit beyond regular old integrated graphics. The "new class of x86 processor" integrates the CPU and GPU at the silicon level, supposedly allowing for better performance-per-watts and all other kinds of good times. This sort of "modular" processing has a lot of potential, and we should be seeing Fusion-based products in late 2008 or early 2009. The chips are supposed to make it into everything from laptops to desktops to servers, and could provide a delightful twist to the AMD vs. Intel wars everybody is gearing up for.
[Via Randomly Accessed]
