AMD is gearing up to begin internal testing of its next-generation Deccan platform after the New Year.
Digitimes claims that the new platform will start getting tested in the first quarter of 2011. This means that AMD is pretty much on schedule with the sequel to AMD's first Fusion platform, Brazos.
Deccan uses AMD's Krishna Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), which combines graphics directly within the core processor, and the Yuba chipset.
Brazos is a similar setup and uses the matching Ontario processor and Hudson chipset.
AMD seems to be striking while Ontario is still wet behind the ears. We are expecting to see the early Brazos systems at the CES expo next week.
It is only been spotted so far in netbooks like the Toshiba NB550D and so far is known to include the dual-core 1GHz C50 processor. The C50 is expected to be twice as fast as Intel's Atom D510.
Digitimes said that Deccan platform should be in production sample testing by mid-year with a view to beginning mass production by the end of 2011.
It mentioned that hardware manufacturers such as Acer and MSI have been signing up to Brazos.
But the fact of the matter is this: AMD is able to provide more CPU power, vastly more GPU power, OpenCL, better looking graphics (something often forgotten when comparisons to Intel's GPUs are made) and for what it's worth, DX11 capability, and all that on a die that is actually smaller than that of an Atom chip.
If you expect it to be twice as good on the same amount of silicon (something that hasn't happened in the last decade I'm sure!), then yes, you're obviously going to be disappointed. But perhaps that says more about your expectations than the product. How can, with what I described above, AMD's Atom competitor be weak?