Even if they *could* support AVX in Llano, would AMD really want their first implementation of AVX to be crippled (128b exe units) vs the contemporaneous SB implementation?

I guess it would be a trade-off. A little better performance than not supporting it vs. bad marketing from head-to-head comparisons with SB on "AVX benchmarks". Might it not be better to wait for a 256b implementation? I suppose that depends on how long it will be for such a successor in the llano market space.