During the chipmaker’s earnings conference call, interim CEO Thomas Seifert said demand for Llano was strong. “We expect Llano ramp to outpace the Brazos ramp," he added.
Looking back at the Brazos launch, AMD also managed to ship about a million units ahead of launch, in Q4 2010. However, introducing Llano is a bit more challenging, since AMD is planning to offer several mobile and desktop SKUs. Many of them, including affordable dual- and triple-core parts are still to launch, hence it is clear shipments will outpace Brazos very soon. AMD’s total APU shipments for the quarter hit seven million, so about six million of them were Brazos parts.
AMD expects Llano processors to make up as much as 50 percent of its total CPU shipments by the end of the year. In the first quarter of 2012, the Llano share could even hit 60 percent.
In general, AMD got a lot of traction with its first Llano parts. Reviews are largely positive and the new chips are a viable alternative to Intel processors in value oriented markets. However, it is worth noting that the cheapest Llano SKUs, which are expected to ship in large volumes, are still a few weeks away from launch.
The transition to the new architecture will gain pace as these chips enter the fray and start to phase out venerable Athlons and Phenoms.
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