AMD is giving a sneak peek into the future, well next year 2011 that is. AMDs future processors will be called APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) and during a Press Conference yesterday in Taipei, the company’s Senior VP and GM, Rick Bergman showcased a DirectX 11 demo of the 2011-bound APUs. Don’t confuse that with say Intel’s Clarkdale which has in fact two processing units (CPU and a GPU) both sitting on the processor package.

Fusion is a single, power-efficient chip that combines both the CPU and GPU into a single die – the APU. “Hundreds of millions of us now create, interact with, and share intensely visual digital content,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Product Group. “This explosion in multimedia requires new applications and new ways to manage and manipulate data. Low resolution video needs to be up-scaled for larger screens, HD video must be shrunk for smart phones, and home movies need to be stabilized and cleaned up for more enjoyable viewing. When AMD formally launches the AMD Fusion family of APUs, scheduled for the first half of in 2011, we expect the PC experience to evolve dramatically.”

In addition to the announcement and the demon of the new APUs, Rick Bergman also introduced AMD’s new Fusion Fund, a program that is intended to promote and support the development of new solutions that will take advantage of the processing power and design of AMD’s future Fusion APUs. Details about the new Fusion Fund are available at the company’s website.

“The computing industry is undergoing a long-envisioned and inevitable transition from text-based computing to a digital world of natural human-to-system interfaces and rich visual experiences that are incredibly vivid and realistic,” said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, AMD Fusion Experience Program, and Fusion Fund managing partner. “AMD Fusion APUs are designed to expand the art of the possible for software developers, accelerate application performance, and deliver levels of power efficiency conducive to cooler and sleeker PC devices. The Fusion Fund will help expand the Fusion ecosystem focused on realizing the next generation of computing for the mainstream market.”

A video of AMD’s Fusion in action is available below, doesn’t look half bad for sure.

Click here to view the embedded video.

AMD released a series of CPU’s ranging between $74 and $169 and thus competing with Intel Clarkdale processors. The new lineup is made up of three Athlon II central processing units, as well as the Phenom II X4 910e and the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition. The releasing of the new lineup also brought about the renaming of the quad-core Athlon II X4 620 to the Athlon II X4 630.

The Athlon II X4 635 is a quad-core chip with a speed of 2.9GHz. It has an L1 cache of 512KB and an L2 cache of 2MB. The second in the line, Athlon II X2 255, is a dual-core processor with a clock of 3.1GHz, an L1 cache of 256KB and an L2 cache of 2MB. Lastly, the triple-core Athlon II X3 435 has a speed of 3GHz and L1 and L2 cache memories of 384KB and 1.5MB, respectively.

The Phenom II X4 910e and Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition units both have an L3 cache of 6MB and L2 cache memories of 2MB and 1MB, respectively. While the quad-core Phenom II X4 910e has a clock of 2.6GHz and a 512KB L1 cache, the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition processor is described as the fastest dual core desktop processor, with a speed of 3.2GHz and an unlocked multiplier for overclockers. Its L1 cache is of 256KB.

The Athlon II X4 635, Athlon II X3 440 and Athlon II X2 255 processors have starting prices of $119, $84 and $74, respectively. The Phenom II X4 910e is priced at $169 and the Phenom II X2 555 carries a price tag of only $99. In addition, the renamed Athlon II X4 620 (now the Athlon II X4 630) is retaining its price of $99. All units should reach stores shortly.

OC Workbench stipulated some information about a couple of upcoming Intel processors that will be released later this year. This includes the Core i7-980X, a new six-core Gulftown processor with a 3.33GHz clockspeed.

* Core i7-930″ (Bloomfield, 2.8GHz, tb/3.06GHz) 2 / 28

* “Core i7-980X Extreme Edition” (Gulftown, 3.33GHz, tb/3.6GHz) 3 / 16

* Core i5-680 (Clarkdale, 3.6GHz, tb/3.8GHz) 4 mid-May during the month

* “Core i7-880″ (Lynnfield, 3.06GHz, tb/3.73GHz) 2010/Q2

* “Core i3-550″ (Clarkdale, 3.2GHz, tb / No) 2010/Q2

* “Pentium E6700″ (Penryn, 3.43GHz) 2010/Q2

* “Core i7-970″ (Gulftown, 3.33GHz, tb/3.46GHz) 2010/Q3

Intel is set to release the first 32nm desktop CPUs on 3rd January 2010. Releasing first are the Clarkdale CPUs – part of the Westmere, or 32nm Nehalem die shrinks. A total of four models are expected, Core i5 650, 660 and 670, clocking in at 3.2, 3.33 and 3.46 GHz respectively. They will be priced at the $176, $196 and $284 respectively.

The other Clarkdale CPUs are the Core i3 530 and 540 covering $123-$150. The Core i3 CPUs will not feature Turbo mode. A budget Pentium G6950 is also expected at $84, without turbo, HT and 1MB less L3 cache.

Although Fudzilla clearly dates clearly dates the Core i5 Clarkdales at January 3rd, there is no mention of the Core i3 and Pentium models.

All Clarkdale CPUs come with an IGP on die, and fit into the LGA1156 socket that currently powers Lynnfield CPUs. The branding is quite a mess – further complicated by Core i5 7xx series, which are quad core Lynnfields. One might have suggested a simpler Core i7 for Bloomfield, Core i5 for Lynnfield and Core i3 for Clarkdale, but Intel did not want to differentiate them this way.

A further model, Core i5 661 is also expected. The only difference between this and the 660 is that the IGP will be clocked higher.

Once the Core i5/i3 Clarkdale CPUs hit market, it will effectively phase out the entire Core 2 range. AMD will pitch their quad cores against Clarkdale dual core/quad thread CPUs. That will be an interesting battle. Though Intel dominates the >$200 CPU market, AMD do have the better price/performance ratio in the mainstream <$200 segment. We can expect Clarkdale to fill in. It will be interesting to see how two highly-clocked cores of the powerful Westmere architecture go against four of AMD’s aging K10-based cores. One thing is certain – Clarkdales will consume far less power, and will be cheaper for Intel to manufacture. Unfortunately for AMD, we are still a long, long way away from the next-generation Bulldozer architecture.

While many motherboard manufacturers are taking the time at Computex to show off motherboards based upon Intel’s P55 chipset, ASUS is showing off a little bit more.

Dubbed the P7P57 motherboard, it is based upon Intel’s P57 express chipset and is ready to support Lynnfield and Clarkdale CPUs when they arrive. ASUS didn’t shed too much light on the motherboard, but we did learn that it will support Intel’s Braidwood technology as well as dual-channel DDR3 support.

ASUS also said that the board wil have an 8-phase power design and EPU for system level energy efficiency. It is a little interesting how ASUS brags about more phases giving the board more power then immediately points out that it will be energy efficient.

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