AMD has changed its original plans to introduce chips that combine CPU and and graphics cores to 2011, at a time where the when it will roll its first 32 nm products.

AMD's executives gave an update of th company's progress toward profitability, products, marketing, manufacturing and operational initiatives on Thursday at the company's 2008 Financial Analyst Day in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The company has canceled its plans to release in 2010 its first dual-core 45 nm processor that would combine graphics and x86 cores. Instead, AMD will inntroduce in 2010 a four-core notebook processor in a BGA package.

AMD's "rival" Intel is expected to release a notebook processor that includes a graphics core in the end of 2009.AMD's first 32 nm processors will be delivered in 2011. The Orochi (UMPC/notebook) and Llano (mainstream desktop/notebook) chips will be the first to use AMD's next-generation Bulldozer core. The desktop chips will have four x86 cores and support four to eight Mbytes cache and DDR3 memory. The Llano chip will also include a graphics core.

Also in 2011, AMD will deliver Ontario, a 32nkm notebook chip with two x86 and one graphics core, supporting DDR3 memory.
Desktop/notebook Roadmap 2009-2010

AMD also provided details bout the CPU roadmap for mobile and desktop PCs for 2009/2010.

In 2009, the 45nm quad-core "Deneb" CPU (8m cache, DDR2/3) will power the entusiast desktop platforms. The "Propos" quad-core chips will be also available at that time featuring 2MB of cache and they will be found at mainstearm desktop PCs.

In the notebook segment for clients, AMD will release in 2009 the new 2-core "Caspian" CPU (2MB cache, DDR2) followed by the quad-core "Champlain" CPU (2MB cache, DDR3) in 2010. For ultramobiles, AMd prepares the "Conesus" (2-core, 1M cache, DDR2) chip for 2009 and the "Geneva" (2-core, 2M cache, DDR3) chip one year later.

AMD has launchedits Fusion for Games beta application, a gaming utility as part of their "The Future is Fusion" campaign. Through the campaign, AMD aims to re-brand their hardware technologies -- microprocessors and graphics both. To the consumers, AMD will detail the solutions derived from AMD products to optimize the performance of the computing systems: essentially a collaborative campaign run by AMD and their technology and product partners.

Fusion also reflects AMD's upcoming Fusion microarchitecture that combines AMD's x86 CPU capabilities with Radeon GPUs to offer a hybrid solution. The AMD Fusion for Games software released, is in beta stage and currently works for Windows Vista (32-bit only), future versions will offer greater platform support, including Windows XP. It offers three gaming profiles -- Advanced, Basic and Expert. One can choose and edit one of the three profiles or create an entirely new profile.Fusion basically shuts down 70 or more background processes which hog the CPU and memory on typical computing system. This can be enabled by simple on-off feature that talks with the CPU and GPU on the system. The application also packs new feature such as AMD Boost and AMD overdrive. However this application works only on a system that has both carrying the processor and graphic card AMD branded; there is no cross-platform compatibility. As it stands, the utility is little more than a simple tweak; nothing special.

Taipei (Taiwan) – AMD pushed Fusion as one of the main reasons to justify its acquisition of ATI. Since then, AMD’s finances have changed colors and are now deep in the red, the top management has changed, and Fusion still isn’t anything AMD wants to discuss in detail. But there are always “industry sources” and these sources have told us that Fusion is likely to be introduced as a half-node chip.

It appears that AMD’s engineers in Dresden, Markham and Sunnyvale have been making lots of trips to little island of Formosa lately - the home of contract manufacturer TSMC, which will be producing Fusion CPUs. Our sources indicated that both companies are quite busy laying out the productions scenarios of AMD’s first CPU+GPU chip.The first Fusion processor is code-named Shrike, which will, if our sources are right, consist of a dual-core Phenom CPU and an ATI RV800 GPU core. This news is actually a big surprise, as Shrike was originally rumored to debut as a combination of a dual-core Kuma CPU and a RV710-based graphics unit. A few more quarters of development time gave AMD time to continue working on a low-end RV800-based core to be integrated with Fusion. RV800 chips will be DirectX 10.1 compliant and are expected to deliver a bit more than just a 55 nm-40 nm dieshrink.

While Shrike will debut as a 40 nm chip, the processor is scheduled to transition to 32 nm at the beginning of 2010 - not much later than Intel will introduce 32 nm - and serve as a stop-gap before the next-gen CPU core, code-named "Bulldozer" arrives. The Bulldozer-based chip, code-named “Falcon”, will debut with TSMC's 32nm SOI process, instead of the originally planned 45 nm.

As Fusion is shaping up right, we should expect the chip be become the first half-node CPU (between 45 and 32 nm) in a very long time.