A leak by motherboard maker Gigabyte has confirmed AMD's plans to release Athlon-branded processors based around the Trinity accelerated processing unit (APU) core alongside the already-announced A-series models.
A slip at Gigabyte's web division - since corrected - saw a compatibility list for the company's GA-F2A75M-D3H motherboard, an FM2 socket featuring AMD's A75 chipset, uploaded to a public-facing portion of the site. Alongside the usual A10, A8, A6 and A4 APU models, three surprise entries made an appearance in the list: Trinity-based Athlon X4s.
All featuring a 1MB x 4 L2 cache layout, the Trinity-based Athlons appear to be constructed from APU parts where the graphics processor portion didn't make the grade. As a result, they have no on-board graphics capabilities at all - meaning they're not strictly speaking APUs, despite being built from the same Trinity cores as the A-series parts.
The bottom-end part is the Athlon X4 730, a 2.8GHz quad-core processor with a 65W TDP. Moving up the ranks, the Athlon X4 740 boosts the clock speed to 3.2GHz while retaining the 65W thermal envelope. Finally, the Athlon X4 750K runs at 3.4GHz and - if the K suffix means that same as in previous processor releases - should come with an unlocked multiplier for overclockers.
The chips have been rumoured for a while, with an earlier leak hinting at their specifications back in July. Gigabyte's fat-fingered posting has all-but confirmed the parts, and handily proved that the Athlon branded Trinity processors will require dedicated graphics - and, unfortunately, be unable to make use of the video output capabilities of FM2 motherboards.
What is not yet known is AMD's launch plans for the chips. With no official comment yet available, it remains to be seen whether AMD launches the Athlon X4 Trinity parts at retail or holds them back for use by original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers only.
A slip at Gigabyte's web division - since corrected - saw a compatibility list for the company's GA-F2A75M-D3H motherboard, an FM2 socket featuring AMD's A75 chipset, uploaded to a public-facing portion of the site. Alongside the usual A10, A8, A6 and A4 APU models, three surprise entries made an appearance in the list: Trinity-based Athlon X4s.
All featuring a 1MB x 4 L2 cache layout, the Trinity-based Athlons appear to be constructed from APU parts where the graphics processor portion didn't make the grade. As a result, they have no on-board graphics capabilities at all - meaning they're not strictly speaking APUs, despite being built from the same Trinity cores as the A-series parts.
The bottom-end part is the Athlon X4 730, a 2.8GHz quad-core processor with a 65W TDP. Moving up the ranks, the Athlon X4 740 boosts the clock speed to 3.2GHz while retaining the 65W thermal envelope. Finally, the Athlon X4 750K runs at 3.4GHz and - if the K suffix means that same as in previous processor releases - should come with an unlocked multiplier for overclockers.
The chips have been rumoured for a while, with an earlier leak hinting at their specifications back in July. Gigabyte's fat-fingered posting has all-but confirmed the parts, and handily proved that the Athlon branded Trinity processors will require dedicated graphics - and, unfortunately, be unable to make use of the video output capabilities of FM2 motherboards.
What is not yet known is AMD's launch plans for the chips. With no official comment yet available, it remains to be seen whether AMD launches the Athlon X4 Trinity parts at retail or holds them back for use by original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers only.
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