As AMD prepares new dual-core, triple-core Llano desktop processors, it will start phasing out Phenom II CPUs

By Sean Portnoy | July 13, 2011, 4:08am PDT

Summary

AMD’s gradual roll-out of its Llano accelerated processing units (APU) continues, with information on new dual-core and triple-core desktop processors being leaked. At the same time, the company is looking to halt production of Phenom II CPUs to make room for the new chips.
Details have emerged about the dual-core A4-3400 and E2-3200, the former of [...]

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AMD’s gradual roll-out of its Llano accelerated processing units (APU) continues, with information on new dual-core and triple-core desktop processors being leaked. At the same time, the company is looking to halt production of Phenom II CPUs to make room for the new chips.

Details have emerged about the dual-core A4-3400 and E2-3200, the former of which will come in the third quarter and the latter in the final quarter of 2011. The A4-3400’s CPU cores will run at 2.7GHz and include Radeon HD 6410D graphics, while the E2-3200’s two CPU cores run at 2.4GHz and it comes with Radeon HD 6370D graphics. Both have a 65W TDP, though neither supports AMD Turbo Core.

There will also be the A6-3500, which is essentially a A6-3600 quad-core Llano with one core disabled. This has already been benchmarked by Turkish site Donanimhaber, which reports that its Radeon HD 6530D graphics helped it score 5173 on 3DMark06. The A6-3500 does apparently support Turbo Core, boosting its 2.1GHz CPU cores to 2.4GHz, and the fourth core may wind up being unlocked by AMD.

Given these new parts, it’s not surprisingly that AMD will start phasing out its other older desktop chips. It looks like all Phenom II CPUs will be phased out by the third quarter at the earliest and Q4 at the latest. Athlon IIs will probably also mostly be gone by 2012 as well. If you’re looking to build with one of these older chips, it might be wise to put off purchasing until later this year when prices could be slashed, though the new Llano processors could be priced aggressively enough that you’ll want to go with the new APUs instead.

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