We have had Thunderbird as a performance system for knowledge workers in the AMD series and Jasper as a standard system for process workers for 20 years.  At the same time, we have Superhawk and Diamond correspondingly based on Intel technologies.  As of July 2012, Thunderbird will be Jasper based with high performance hardware.  This is a weird but sensible idea for a while.   We will explain the last statement.

Jasper is the only desktop system not having a CPU that integrates video graphics display processing.   Jasper has its graphics processing done by a chip integrated in the North Bridge on the motherboard.  This Jasper arrangement has been around for at least 10 years. 

Thunderbird A75, which is outgoing, is different to Jasper.  Thunderbird A75 does not have a CPU and a VGA chip separately but an APU which consists of both functions.  This is the same as what Intel had done to its desktop platforms ahead of AMD by about 12 months.  The APU for Thunderbird has 4 CPU cores and 2 dozens of GPU cores in one physical die.   Obviously this APU socket called FM1 is not compatible with AM3+ socket which is used for the CPU on a Jasper motherboard.

According to the latest market information, AM3+ is way more popular than FM1.  The reason seems rather obvious.  AM3+ covers the high and low end and FM1 is for the middle.  Intel does it differently.  Intel applies the combined processors to the middle and low end whereas discrete processors to the high end.  On comparison, the AMD scheme could be seen as confusing to customers.  In business management terms the middle is called the no-man’s land and the middle has a lower growth potential than either poles.

AMD has not withdrawn FM1 but is pushing FM1 down the ladder and working to bring out new FM2 for the middle.  FM1 is still available but only with lower rated APU which does not suit Thunderbird.  FM2 has no production schedule yet as of July 2012.  This situation has prompted Compucon to introduce Thunderbird FX6100 to succeed Thunderbird A75. 

FX6100 is an AM3+ CPU with 6 cores and 8MB L3 cache.  It is faster than A75 CPU.  Thunderbird FX6100 has a discrete EN201S card with 16 CUDA cores and 1GB dedicated memory on the card, and this card is faster than A75 GPU.  This discrete combination will produce higher performance than A75.  Nevertheless other minor features are not as generous as A75 as this motherboard has a smaller real estate than used for Thunderbird A75. 

We will monitor the AMD FM2 release schedule closely and make the best move.