AMD A10-5800K "Trinity" APU On Linux

While some information with Windows-based results for AMD's latest-generation "Trinity" desktop APUs have surfaced in the past few days, this morning the full embargo concerning the latest AMD Trinity hardware expires so full details and results can now be shared. In this article are the initial Linux test results of the AMD A10-5800K Trinity APU using Ubuntu at Phoronix.

The 2012 AMD A-Series Trinity APUs consist of up to four "Piledriver" cores with each dual-core package having its own L2 cache, plus there's AMD Radeon HD 7000 series class graphics integrated into this APU. The Trinity APU is manufactured on a 32nm process and features approximately 1.3 billion transistors. AMD looks at the Trinity desktop APUs as being competitors to Intel's Core i3 processors.

Last year's AMD A-Series Llano APUs used Socket FM1 while with Trinity there's FM2, which will also be used by the Trinity successor to be introduced in 2013. Trinity APUs are to be paired with motherboards based upon either the A55, A75, or A85X chipsets for targeting the entry, ideal entertainment, and performance segments, respectively. The top-end A10 Trinity APU can clock up to 4.2GHz while there's been overclocking by AMD with TurboCore 3.0 to push the high-end APU as high as 6.5GHz with a GPU speed topping out at 1.05GHz, but this was with liquid nitrogen cooling.

What's being tested currently at Phoronix from the Trinity line-up is the high-end AMD A10-5800K. The A10-5800K quad-core runs at a base clock of 3.8GHz with a Turbo frequency up to 4.2GHz, a GPU clock speed of 800MHz, 384 Radeon cores, 4MB of L2 cache, and DDR3-1866MHz memory support. The A10-5800K features Radeon HD 7660D class graphics. This APU is also unlocked for providing the best overclocking capabilities. Other Trinity APUs being introduced include the A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, A6-5400K, and A4-5300, but only the A10-5800K model was provided as a sample to Phoronix by Advanced Micro Devices.

That's the basic information you need to know about the AMD 2012 A-Series. Of course, where Phoronix focuses upon and provides its value is with the Linux support and performance, so let's begin.