Carrizo-L | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:07:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Carrizo-L | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 AMD details ‘Carrizo’: High-density design, lowered power consumption https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-details-carrizo-high-density-design-lowered-power-consumption/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-details-carrizo-high-density-design-lowered-power-consumption/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:02:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=237258 At the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2015 Advanced Micro Devices unveiled the first official details regarding its code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units. As reported, the new chips are aimed specifically at notebooks and therefore were designed from the ground up to be extremely power efficient and integrate all functionality possible. AMD “Carrizo” accelerated processing units …

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At the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2015 Advanced Micro Devices unveiled the first official details regarding its code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units. As reported, the new chips are aimed specifically at notebooks and therefore were designed from the ground up to be extremely power efficient and integrate all functionality possible.

AMD “Carrizo” accelerated processing units feature four x86 cores based on the “Excavator” micro-architecture, the pinnacle of “Bulldozer” family evolution, Radeon R7 graphics processing unit with 512 stream processors featuring GCN 1.2 architecture, advanced multimedia engine with hardware 4K/UHD video decoding, a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller as well as an built-in I/O controller. The “Carrizo” is the first APU to comply with heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) 1.0 specification, therefore, eventually it will take maximum advantage of GPU-accelerated programs. AMD “Carrizo” APUs contain 3.1 billion of transistors, 29 per cent more than “Kaveri”, but its die size is similar to that of the predecessor, whereas its power consumption is significantly lower. To archive that, AMD had to use a number of tricks.

amd_presentation_carrizo_1

Although both “Kaveri” and “Carrizo” are made using 28nm process technology, the former relies on GlobalFoundries’ 28SHP (28nm super high performance) fabrication tech that is designed for the highest clock-rates. In a bid to enable extreme frequencies, high-performance chip design libraries decrease transistor density, which results in bigger chips. While it is unknown which process technology is used to make “Carrizo”, it is known that AMD used high-density chip design libraries (HDL) for the chip. According to the company, usage of high density libraries and automated design methods (akin to those used for graphics processing units) helped the company to reduce sizes of “Excavator” cores by 23 per cent compared to “Steamroller” cores inside “Kaveri” and reduce their power consumption by whopping 40 per cent.

amd_presentation_carrizo_2

Usage of high-density libraries and automated design decreased the number of metallic layers inside “Carrizo” from 13 to nine, which also helps to cut-down power consumption and reduce leakages. Moreover, according to AMD, it used more high Vt transistors for the GPU part of the accelerated processing unit to reduce GPU power leakage and therefore reduce power consumption of the whole chip. This is not something really surprising since high VT transistors have always been used for mobile GPUs in general, only this time we are talking about far heavier usage of them in certain parts of the APU.

amd_presentation_carrizo_3

Design methodology, high-density libraries and possible transition to a different fabrication process are not the only things that AMD has done to cut down power consumption of “Carrizo”. The new APU is the first in a series of hybrid chips that contain a number of technologies designed to make microprocessors more energy efficient.

amd_presentation_carrizo_4

First of all, “Carrizo” incorporates voltage adaptive operation, or, adaptive voltage and frequency scaling (AVFS), which, when applied to both CPU and GPU in the APU results in 19 per cent and 10 per cent power savings respectively. AVFS modules (there are ten of such modules per “Excavator” core) monitor various aspects of chip’s condition (temperature, voltage, etc.) to adjust frequency and voltages in real-time. Essentially, AVFS reduces the typical operating voltage for a given frequency by adapting to per-part and environmental conditions, which reduces leakage and active switching power. While AVFS hardly brings a lot of benefits at high TDPs, the technology helps to reduce consumption at relatively limited thermal envelopes at given performance. In short, “Carrizo” will show its best at 15W – 20W. The chip itself is unable to work at extreme frequencies and AVFS will not provide advantages at 30W and beyond.

amd_presentation_carrizo_5

Another innovation that will reduce power consumption of “Carrizo” based notebooks is a new S0i3 power state, which achieves the same power level as the S3 state (standby), but without requiring intervention of the operating system, which means that it can be activated on the fly under the control of power management at sub-second time frames. While this may not dramatically reduce power consumption, it clearly makes the APU less power hungry.

amd_presentation_carrizo_6

While the density of integration and drastic measures to improve power efficiency of “Carrizo” are nothing, but impressive, when it comes to pure performance, not everything is that rosy. The “Excavator” x86 cores deliver only 5 per cent higher IPC compared to “Steamroller”. While the cores got smaller and more power efficient, this is a result of usage of HDL, AVFS and automated design. Despite expectations several years ago, the “Excavator” continues to have a weak floating point unit (FPU) consisting of two 128-bit FMACs, which are considerably slower than Intel’s contemporary 256-bit FPU. Therefore, even if AMD decides to create a high-performance design with “Excavator” cores, such chip will hardly deliver competitive performance since the amount of performance-related improvements compared to “Steamroller” seems to be limited. While the “Carrizo” may be a great APU for low-power mobile devices, it will not scale beyond that market. Therefore, if you demand high performance from AMD, wait for the company’s  new “Zen” micro-architecture to arrive in 2016. However, if you want an AMD-based ultrabook or 2-in-1, “Carrizo” is a great thing to look at.

amd_presentation_carrizo_7

Thanks to maximum integration, AMD “Carrizo” should help notebook makers to simplify their designs and cut-down their costs. Since “Carrizo” is pin-to-pin compatible with lower-cost “Carrizo-L”, this will also increase flexibility of laptop platforms. That flexibility translates into lower prices, but not necessarily into thinner and sleeker chassis, but AMD needs to just retain its share on the market of notebooks, not bring breakthroughs. Therefore, it will not be a problem for the company if higher-end “Carrizo” ends up in chassis designed for lower-end “Carrizo-L”.

In general, AMD’s “Carrizo” looks like an interesting APU. The developer seems to pin a lot of hopes on heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) capabilities of the platform to deliver required performance to applications that really need it. In fact, AMD has pinned most of its hopes on HSA-enabled programs for a while now, which is why it has not really tried to address performance issues of “Bulldozer”, which were evident to it back in late 2010. The advances that AMD has made with its “Carrizo” show that the company still can improve its microprocessors, which is a good thing in general.

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KitGuru Says: The big question is how competitive will AMD’s “Carrizo” chips be against Intel Corp.’s chips with similar power requirements. To be precise, which 15W – 20W system-on-chip will be faster in real-world applications. That’s the question that we will be able to answer in the coming months, when AMD finally releases its “Carrizo” chips commercially.

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AMD to lower R&D spending on computing and graphics products https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-to-lower-rd-spending-on-computing-and-graphics-products/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-to-lower-rd-spending-on-computing-and-graphics-products/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2015 07:45:42 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=232105 Advanced Micro Devices said this week that in the light of changing market environment and dropping revenues it will reprioritize its research and development (R&D) investments. The company will lower spending on creation of computing and graphics (CG) products and will boost funding of enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) projects. Since AMD’s revenue for the …

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Advanced Micro Devices said this week that in the light of changing market environment and dropping revenues it will reprioritize its research and development (R&D) investments. The company will lower spending on creation of computing and graphics (CG) products and will boost funding of enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) projects.

Since AMD’s revenue for the fourth quarter of 2014 was down to $1.24 billion, a 22 per cent drop year-over-year, it had to decrease its R&D spending during the quarter to $238 million from $293 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. AMD expects its revenue in Q1 2015 to decrease 15 per cent sequentially (±3 per cent) to around $1.054 billion, a decline of 24.7 per cent from the same period a year ago. Because of the major revenue decline in the Q1 2015, AMD will have to cut its operating expenditures (OpEx) and R&D budgets for the quarter. At present, it is expected that AMD will spend around $200 million on research and development in Q1, down from $279 million in the same period a year ago. As a result, the company will have to make tough choices which projects to fund. Apparently, the company decided to cut-down R&D spending on development of new CG products and boost spending on its EESC products.

“We will increase our R&D investments in enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom,” said Lisa Su, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conference call with investors and financial analysts. “AMD is the only company in the industry that can offer a full continuum of high-performance standard and custom solutions, spanning both the ARM and x86 ecosystems, and we must leverage this position to drive differentiated and innovated solutions for our customers.”

amd-embedded-processors-chip-artwork

AMD’s enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom products heavily rely on technologies originally developed for the CG segment. To win contracts in the EESC segment, AMD needs to design certain new server platforms, semi-custom solutions as well as embedded chips using the aforementioned building blocks.

Theoretically, as a part of increased R&D investments in EESC projects, AMD could boost spending on development of its high-performance “Zen” and “K12” micro-architectures that will be used to power future Opteron and other microprocessors. If that is true, this may be a good news since AMD does need competitive high-end chips for various markets. Unfortunately, the structure of AMD’s R&D budget is not completely certain and it is unknown how declines on CG R&D really affect spending on new CPU micro-architectures.

amd_embedded_artwork

Two things that are clear now: AMD is going to decrease overall R&D spending this quarter both sequentially and annually, AMD will reduce investments in new graphics processing units.

“When you look at the OpEx side of the house, it is probably true that on the CG side is where the expenses are coming down, more than probably in the embedded, enterprise, and semi-custom,” said Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer of AMD. “But overall, we are managing the OpEx in line with revenue, while protecting the investments on the R&D.”

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KitGuru Says: Although Lisa Su promised not to decrease AMD’s research and development investments going forward several months ago, since R&D budgets depend on revenue, the company will just have to lower its investments if its sales drop. Sales of computing and graphics (CG) products in the Q4 decreased to $662 million, down 15 per cent sequentially and 8.4 per cent year-over-year. Therefore, AMD has a perfect excuse to lower its CG R&D budgets. Unfortunately, without fundamental CG technologies, the company’s EESC products just cannot be developed…

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AMD: We will release new APU, GPU products starting in the Q2 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-we-will-release-new-products-starting-in-the-second-quarter-of-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-we-will-release-new-products-starting-in-the-second-quarter-of-2015/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:52:42 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=231836 Advanced Micro Devices said on Tuesday that it will release new products that will help it to regain share on the markets of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) starting in the second quarter 2015 and going into the second half of the year. The comments from AMD confirm rumours that AMD …

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Advanced Micro Devices said on Tuesday that it will release new products that will help it to regain share on the markets of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) starting in the second quarter 2015 and going into the second half of the year. The comments from AMD confirm rumours that AMD intends to release “Carrizo” APUs as well as new Radeon graphics cards in the Q2 2015. Unfortunately, the Q1 2015 will be tough for AMD as the company is on-track to report its lowest quarterly revenue in more than a decade.

“Going into the second quarter and the second half of the year with our new product launches, I think we feel very good about where we are positioned there,” said Lisa Su, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conference call with investors and financial analysts. “Commercial will definitely be important, as well as improving our overall mix.”

amd_fusion_apu_chip_1

New APUs and CPUs

AMD stressed that it is on-track to release its highly-anticipated code-named “Carrizo” APUs for notebooks and all-in-one desktops already in the second quarter, 2015. Previously it was reported that the “Carrizo” chips would hit the market only in the late Q2 or even Q3 2015. Apparently, the company has reconsidered its plans and is now on-track to launch its new chip that it pins a lot of hopes on rather earlier than later. It remains unknown when the company intends to launch its code-named “Carrizo-L” chip commercially, but given the fact that this APU is easier to make and is less advanced than the fully-fledged “Carrizo”, it should be relatively easy for AMD to release it on time.

“We are enthusiastic about our Carrizo launch that will take place in the second quarter,” said Ms. Su.

amd_fusion_kaveri_steamroller_piledriver_excavator

Sometimes in the second quarter of the year AMD is also expected to release new APUs for desktops, which are currently known as the “Kaveri Refresh”. The new chips will operate at higher clock-rates than the currently available “Kaveri” and will increase performance of AMD’s APUs a bit. Given the fact that AMD’s current-generation desktop platforms are considerably behind Intel’s offerings both in terms of performance and feature-set, it is unlikely that it will be easy for AMD to win market share in traditional desktops using the “Kaveri Refresh” line.

amd_opteron-x86-front-back

In addition, AMD is projected to release its long-awaited ARMv8-based AMD Opteron “Seattle” processors featuring up to eight ARM Cortex-A57 cores and designed for ultra-dense server market. Do not expect the chip to revive sales of AMD, but it will still improve its bottom line.

“We will see production shipments [of AMD Opteron ‘Seattle'] in 2015,” said the chief executive officer of AMD. “But primarily we have seen a lot of ecosystem partners spending quite a bit of time on the software on our silicon.”

New GPUs incoming

AMD is also expected to release all-new graphics processing units starting the Q2 2015. It is believed that the first new GPU to be released by AMD this year will be the company’s new flagship graphics adapter currently known as the Radeon R9 380X, which will feature 4096 stream processors and 4GB of stacked high-bandwidth memory (HBM) with unprecedented bandwidth.

amd_radeon_artwork_angle_new

Another new offering from AMD is rumoured to be code-named “Trinidad”, which is designed for the mainstream market and will replace the AMD Radeon R9 270-series “Curacao” graphics processor. The “Trinidad” graphics chip will likely sport 1280 or more stream processors to deliver new levels of performance to the market segment.

Based on unofficial information, AMD’s new graphics products family is code-named “Caribbean Islands”, it will be based on the GCN 1.2 architecture and will feature a number of new multimedia and video playback technologies.

Worst quarter in over a decade?

Even though it is tremendously important for AMD to release new CPU and GPU products to boost sales and regain market share, the company will not rush new offerings to the market. AMD’s partners in the channel still have a lot of old inventory in stock and introduction of new products will not necessarily improve AMD’s positions, but will rather force it to sell them at relatively low prices to make them attractive to resellers. Therefore, in the first quarter of 2015 the company will continue to “improve channel health” and get rid of old products that are still available on the market.

“From Q1 to Q2, I think the largest improvement will be around the channel health,” said Lisa Su. “We have had this channel problem for a couple of quarters, and it is important for us to correct that. We definitely reduced some inventory in Q4, and we will take significant action to reduce that inventory in Q1, and that will give us an opportunity to return to a more normal desktop channel business.”

amd_headquarters

Since AMD sees necessity to reduce inventory in the Q1 2015 as its main task for the quarter, financial woes for the company will continue in the next several months. AMD expects its revenue in Q1 2015 to decrease 15 per cent sequentially (±3 per cent) to around $1.054 billion, a decline of 24.7 per cent from the same period a year ago. If AMD’s revenue drops to levels below $1.09 billion, then it will be AMD’s lowest quarter revenue in about ten years. Major decreases of revenue affect AMD's ability to invest in research and development as well as marketing.

For the Q4 2014 the company reported revenue of $1.24 billion, down 13 per cent sequentially. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $662 million, down 15 per cent from Q3 2014, primarily due to lower desktop processor and GPU sales. Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was $577 million down 11 per cent sequentially, primarily due to seasonally lower semi-custom SoC sales. The company’s gross margin was 34 per cent, the net loss of AMD in the Q4 2014 was $364 million.

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KitGuru Says: As usual, AMD is talking about future products as a way to improve its revenue and profitability. While it is possible that the company will improve its results this year because of lower costs or other factors, it should be noted that AMD publicly said last November and December that its major return to the market will occur in 2016, when it rolls-out its brand-new CPUs, APUs and GPUs based on all-new Zen, K12 and post-GCN architectures.

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AMD pins hopes on ‘Carrizo’ APUs as sales of CPUs and GPUs drop https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-pins-a-lot-of-hopes-on-carrizo-apus-as-sales-of-cpus-and-gpus-drop/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-pins-a-lot-of-hopes-on-carrizo-apus-as-sales-of-cpus-and-gpus-drop/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2015 06:50:47 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=231606 Advanced Micro Devices said on Tuesday that it pins a lot of hopes on its code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units after posting a major decline in sales of microprocessors and graphics adapters for personal computers. According to AMD, the “Carrizo” APUs will finally help it to boost PC chip market share thanks to low power …

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Advanced Micro Devices said on Tuesday that it pins a lot of hopes on its code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units after posting a major decline in sales of microprocessors and graphics adapters for personal computers. According to AMD, the “Carrizo” APUs will finally help it to boost PC chip market share thanks to low power consumption and decent performance.

“We plan to introduce a strong 2015 product portfolio, punctuated by the launch of Carrizo in the second quarter,” said Lisa Su, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conference call with investors and financial analysts. “Consumer and commercial design-win momentum for Carrizo continues to gain momentum because it will deliver the largest ever generational leap in performance-per-watt for our mainstream APUs.”

AMD “Carrizo” accelerated processing units sport up to four high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, Radeon R7 graphics processing engine powered by the GCN 1.2 architecture, a dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller as well as full HSA [heterogeneous system architecture] 1.0 implementation. The “Carrizo” is pin-to-pin compatible with cheaper and more power-efficient “Carrizo-L” APUs that integrate up to four low-power Puma+ x86 cores, Radeon R-series graphics engine based on the GCN 1.0 architecture as well as a single-channel DDR3 memory controller. Both “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” chips for incorporate either on-package or integrated I/O controllers and use next-generation FP4 ball grid array (BGA) packaging.

amd_carrizo_apu_fusion

The chipmaker believes that improved power efficiency of the “Excavator” x86 cores, HSA features and new graphics engine will not only improve performance in various applications, but also reduce power consumption. AMD believes that the combination of Carrizo’s capabilities will help it to win multiple contracts with PC makers.

AMD did not reveal how exactly it plans to improve sales of its accelerated processing units, but keeping in mind that the design of the “Carrizo” is optimized for low manufacturing cost, it will be possible for AMD to offer very competitive prices with its new APUs.

amd_kaveri_a10_mobile

Sunnyvale, California-based AMD on Tuesday posted 2014 revenue of $5.51 billion, up 4 per cent sequentially. The company’s net loss for the year was massive $403 million, whereas gross margin totaled 33 per cent.

Computing and Graphics segment revenue was down 16 per cent from 2013, primarily due to lower chipset and desktop processor sales. Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was up 51 per cent from 2013, primarily due to higher semi-custom SoC sales.

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KitGuru Says: AMD clearly needs to improve sales of its computer chips. At the end of the day, if AMD wants software developers to take advantage of its heterogeneous system architecture and GPU compute capabilities, it needs to ensure that its chips are popular among end-users and PC makers. Unfortunately, AMD’s PC market share has been on the decline for years.

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AMD demonstrates ‘Carrizo’-based laptop prototypes at CES 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/anton-shilov/amd-demonstrates-carrizo-based-laptop-prototypes-at-ces-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/anton-shilov/amd-demonstrates-carrizo-based-laptop-prototypes-at-ces-2015/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2015 23:57:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=229949 Advanced Micro Devices has demonstrated three laptops based on the code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units (APUs) at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015. The demonstrations prove that AMD already has working “Carrizo” silicon at hands; however, it is still unclear when exactly the company plans to initiate commercial shipments of the new APUs. At the trade-show, AMD …

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Advanced Micro Devices has demonstrated three laptops based on the code-named “Carrizo” accelerated processing units (APUs) at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015. The demonstrations prove that AMD already has working “Carrizo” silicon at hands; however, it is still unclear when exactly the company plans to initiate commercial shipments of the new APUs.

At the trade-show, AMD did two very simple demonstrations of the “Carrizo” functionality. It showcased one system powered by the APU playing back a 4K ultra-high-definition video encoded using the H.265/HEVC codec. According to witnesses, the playback was very smooth thanks to hardware decoder of the H.265/HEVC inside the chip. Another demonstration included a “Carrizo” APU-powered system running Lego Batman video game. The game worked without a problem too, thanks to integrated AMD Radeon graphics core based on the GCN 1.2 architecture and well-polished drivers. The third demonstration of a “Carrizo”-powered system was static.

amd_carrizo_laptop_2

Both demonstrations prove that AMD already has “Carrizo” silicon at hands and the software (drivers, third-party applications, etc.) works normally with it. What the showcases like this do not reveal is whether the chip meets performance and/or power consumption targets that AMD set for it. Keeping in mind that AMD produces its “Carrizo” APUs using a process technology that enables maximum transistor density and lowest power consumption, it is impossible to expect “Carrizo” to run at truly high clock-rates. At the same time, we have no idea what AMD’s target rates for its “Carrizo” are.

It is noteworthy that those, who were offered to see the laptops based on the “Carrizo” were not allowed to take pictures of the systems or run benchmarks on the machines. While it is natural for AMD not to allow publications of benchmark results of unreleased hardware, it is surprising that the company decided to prohibit taking any pictures of the system itself.

amd_carrizo_laptop_1

AMD “Carrizo” APUs feature up to four high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, Radeon R7 graphics engine based on the GCN 1.2 architecture, a dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller as well as full HSA [heterogeneous system architecture] 1.0 implementation. The “Carrizo” is pin-to-pin compatible with cheaper and more power-efficient “Carrizo-L” APUs that integrate up to four low-power Puma+ x86 cores, Radeon R-series graphics engine based on the GCN 1.0 architecture as well as a single-channel DDR3 memory controller. Both “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” APUs for mobile and all-in-one desktop PCs feature either on-package or integrated I/O controllers and use next-generation FP4 ball grid array (BGA) packaging.

amd_carrizo_apu_fusion

It is expected that AMD plans to release its “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” APUs commercially in the Q2 or the Q3 2015 (April – September). In general, it looks like the ramp up of notebooks featuring the new accelerated processing units will only happen in the second half of 2015, during the back-to-school season, to be precise.

Previously it was reported that the “Carrizo” APUs will not make it to mainstream and high-performance desktops, but will be aimed at notebooks and all-in-one PCs.

amd_carrizo_laptop

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KitGuru Says: While it is nice that AMD has “Carrizo” silicon at hands, it is alarming to see that AMD’s PC design cycles are getting longer. Traditionally AMD released new PC chips once  a year, but with “Kaveri” and “Carrizo” the timeframe between launches will be more than 1.5 years. This is especially upsetting, given the fact that AMD no longer spends resources on designing new high-performance Opteron or FX-series microprocessors. Perhaps, AMD is just slowly taking away resources from its PC CPU division, which results in longer development cycles

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AMD: first products made using 14nm/16nm FinFET are ‘on track’ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-first-products-made-using-14nm16nm-finfet-are-on-track/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-first-products-made-using-14nm16nm-finfet-are-on-track/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:00:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=225557 Although Advanced Micro Devices has not revealed any details about its 2015 roadmap this year, the company continues to unveil pieces of the puzzle. Last week the firm implied that it will use 20nm fabrication process for select products, but on Tuesday AMD hinted that products made using 14nm and 16nm FinFET manufacturing technologies could emerge …

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Although Advanced Micro Devices has not revealed any details about its 2015 roadmap this year, the company continues to unveil pieces of the puzzle. Last week the firm implied that it will use 20nm fabrication process for select products, but on Tuesday AMD hinted that products made using 14nm and 16nm FinFET manufacturing technologies could emerge only in 2016.

“We will continue to transition and we have our FinFET designs well underway, but we will not be the first user, the bleeding edge of any new technology node,” said Mark Papermaster, chief technology officer of AMD, at Barclays Global Technology Conference. “You will see us be a very, very fast follower, so we are right on track with our FinFET designs and what you will see next year is a really 28nm and 20nm products from AMD.”

According to publicly available information from AMD, all of the company’s upcoming accelerated processing units aimed at high-volume market – code-named “Carrizo”, “Carrizo-L”, “Kaveri”, “Seattle” and other – will be made using 28nm process technologies. AMD also said that the first system-on-chips that belong to the Skybridge product family of ARM and x86 chips will also be made using 20nm fabrication process. Finally, there is 20nm Xbox One SoC in plans as well as 20nm graphics processing units.

amd_carrizo_apu_fusion

Keeping in mind that AMD has not announced any 14nm or 16nm products, it is possible that the first commercial chips made using the aforementioned process technologies are on track to be released sometimes in 2016.

TSMC plans to start volume production of chips using 16nm FinFET process technology in late Q2 or early Q3, 2015. If AMD introduces its 20nm graphics processing units early in the year, it will have a competitive GPU lineup for several quarters. However, if the company is late with its introduction, it will not be able to enjoy any advantages of TSMC’s 20nm fabrication process. AMD's arch-rival Nvidia, who reportedly plans to skip 20nm and use 16nm FinFET instead, will rely on 28nm GPUs until the end of the third quarter of 2015. AMD should release 20nm GPUs in the Q1 2015 in order to have performance and power consumption advantage over its competitor.

GlobalFoundries plans regarding 14nm FinFET technology it licensed from Samsung are not completely clear. Samsung should be ready with 14nm manufacturing capacity even now, but the situation with GlobalFoundries is uncertain.

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KitGuru Says: Outdated process technologies may not be a big problem for AMD (even if it offers 20nm GPUs while Nvidia sells 16nm chips). A really important issue could be products that are not competitive against offerings from AMD's rivals…

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AMD: 50% of revenue will come from non-PC sector by late 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/amd-50-of-revenue-will-come-from-non-pc-sector-by-late-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/amd-50-of-revenue-will-come-from-non-pc-sector-by-late-2015/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2014 22:15:12 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224926 In the coming quarters Advanced Micro Devices will continue to shift its focus from personal computers to other devices. By the end of 2015 about half of the company’s revenue will come from products that are not related to personal computers, in line with the company’s plans. For many years Advanced Micro Devices earned its …

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In the coming quarters Advanced Micro Devices will continue to shift its focus from personal computers to other devices. By the end of 2015 about half of the company’s revenue will come from products that are not related to personal computers, in line with the company’s plans.

For many years Advanced Micro Devices earned its revenue by selling microprocessors and, more recently, graphics processing units and core-logic sets for personal computers. However, it became increasingly hard for AMD to maintain its revenue in the recent years due to tougher competition, shrinking PC market and inability to address high-end of the desktop and server markets with its central processing units. As a result, the company decided to change its strategy and shift its focus to different markets where competition is not that strong, but which present opportunities for AMD.

At some point AMD proclaimed a goal to increase the share of its non-PC business to around 50 percent of the corporate revenue. Apparently, the company is on-track to derive half of its sales from high-growth businesses by the end of 2015.

“Our next target point is by the time we get to the end of 2015 to have at least 50 per cent of our business coming from the non-PC, non-traditional, sector, and then we will see what happens after that,” said Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer of Advanced Micro Devices, during his presentation at the Credit Suisse 18th Annual Technology Conference.

amd_revenue_projection

In the third quarter of fiscal 2014 the company earned $1.43 billion, of which $781 million (54.6 per cent) came from its computing and graphics (CG) segment business, whereas $648 million (45.4 per cent) came from its enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) system-on-chip business unit. Given that the EESC includes sales of Opteron processors for servers and the fact that Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. increase purchases of console chips in the Q3, it is likely that the share of non-PC products in AMD’s revenue should approach 40 per cent this year.

At present, semi-custom system-on-chips for Microsoft Xbox One as well as Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles account for a significant chunk of AMD’s EESC business. Back in October AMD announced two more semi-custom design wins, which will bring the company combined total lifetime revenue of approximately $1 billion over approximately three years starting 2016. According to AMD, these new semi-custom SoCs are not for game consoles or similar devices.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The main problem for AMD is not that it is increasing the share of the EESC business in its revenue, but the fact that sales of its microprocessors and graphics processors are dropping very fast (which is a reason why the share of EESC is growing). The company is on-track to report its third consecutive year-over-year revenue decline for FY2014 in early 2015.

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AMD downplays 20nm process tech: only ‘certain’ products will use it https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/amd-downplays-20nm-process-tech-only-certain-products-will-use-it/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/amd-downplays-20nm-process-tech-only-certain-products-will-use-it/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:55:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224789 Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday implied that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 20nm fabrication process would only be used for select products, whereas the main focus of the chip designer is on more advanced fabrication processes with FinFET transistors. Unfortunately, AMD did not reveal any actual plans. “From an overall standpoint, today the bulk of our products …

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Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday implied that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 20nm fabrication process would only be used for select products, whereas the main focus of the chip designer is on more advanced fabrication processes with FinFET transistors. Unfortunately, AMD did not reveal any actual plans.

“From an overall standpoint, today the bulk of our products are [made using] 28nm,” said Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer of Advanced Micro Devices, during his presentation at the Credit Suisse 18th Annual Technology Conference. “We will have certain products in 20nm and then we will go to FinFET from there. Our partnership with GlobalFoundries is where it comes into play in terms of what is the right point to go and intersect products with technology and introduce those parts out in the market.”

As reported, TSMC’s 20nm SOC (CLN20SOC), 16nm FinFET (CLN16FF) and 16nm FinFET+ process technologies rely on the same back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnect flow, which means that from production cost standpoint the chips made using these three manufacturing technologies should be similar. The 20nm process utilizes planar transistors, whereas the 16nm technologies feature FinFET transistors. The latter allow chip developers to cut-down power consumption and increase performance compared to ICs that feature planar transistors.

tsmc_semiconductor_fab14_production_4

Previously AMD stressed that it planned to transit its TSMC product lineup to 20nm fabrication process first and only then move on to 16nm process technology. As it appears, the company actually decided to limit usage of the 20SOC fabrication process to certain products.

AMD’s upcoming accelerated processing units aimed at high-volume market – code-named “Carrizo”, “Carrizo-L” “Kaveri” and “Seattle” – will be made using 28nm process technologies. Based on market rumours, only select graphics processors and, perhaps, console chips, will be made using 20nm process technology.

Unfortunately, it is completely unclear when AMD plans to start using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET fabrication process and GlobalFoundries’ 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology.

amd_mobility_carrizo_roadmap

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it now turns out that AMD will not become a major customer for TSMC’s 20nm process technology, the lack of any mentions of 16nm products in AMD’s roadmap (which only covers mobile chips) for next year looks a bit alarming. We will probably need to wait for AMD’s Financial Day to fill in the blanks…

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AMD’s ‘Carrizo’ processor may never make it to desktop computers https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/amds-carrizo-processor-may-never-make-it-to-desktop-computers/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/anton-shilov/amds-carrizo-processor-may-never-make-it-to-desktop-computers/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:45:27 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224380 Although AMD’s next-generation accelerated processing unit (APU) code-named “Carrizo” employs the company’s upcoming high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, they may never make it to high-performance desktop computers as AMD tailored its forthcoming APUs specifically for mobile devices. In order to cut-down power consumption of “Carrizo” chips compared to current-generation “Kaveri” APUs, AMD and GlobalFoundries had to …

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Although AMD’s next-generation accelerated processing unit (APU) code-named “Carrizo” employs the company’s upcoming high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, they may never make it to high-performance desktop computers as AMD tailored its forthcoming APUs specifically for mobile devices.

In order to cut-down power consumption of “Carrizo” chips compared to current-generation “Kaveri” APUs, AMD and GlobalFoundries had to make changes to 28nm super high performance (SHP) process technology. The new wiring line of the process that is used to manufacturer AMD’s “Carrizo” APUs helps to reduce power consumption of the chip, but does not allow it to run on high frequencies and thus address the market of high-performance desktops, reports PC Watch web-site citing explanations by AMD.

amd_carrizo_excavator_fusion_1

The wiring layer of “Carrizo” is similar to that of highly-integrated low-power processors like “Beema”. This allowed AMD to increase transistor density of the chip; as a result, despite of the fact that “Carrizo” features higher transistor count compared to “Kaveri”, it has similar die size and manufacturing cost.

While AMD can alter design of “Carrizo” and make it using the “old” 28nm SHP process technology, it is a very expensive and time-consuming process. As a result, AMD could skip it and continue addressing desktop market with Kaveri APUs till 2016.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: First AMD decided to effectively withdraw from the market of high-end desktop microprocessors. The FX processors AMD sells now were introduced two years ago and are morally outdated. Now the company plans to withdraw from the market of mainstream desktop chips. What’s next?

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AMD to boost energy efficiency of APUs by 25 times by 2020 https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-boost-energy-efficiency-of-apus-by-25-times-by-2020/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-boost-energy-efficiency-of-apus-by-25-times-by-2020/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2014 15:35:28 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=224135 Advanced Micro Devices recently set a goal to improve energy efficiency of its accelerated processing units by 25 times by 2020. To achieve this goal, AMD will have to outpace historical energy efficiency trend by over 70 per cent, but the company claims it knows what to do and even outlined a roadmap about features …

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Advanced Micro Devices recently set a goal to improve energy efficiency of its accelerated processing units by 25 times by 2020. To achieve this goal, AMD will have to outpace historical energy efficiency trend by over 70 per cent, but the company claims it knows what to do and even outlined a roadmap about features it needs to implement.

There are several trends in the personal computing industry (note that PCs today are largely mobile PCs in different form-factors). First, devices need to get thinner, slimmer and lighter. Second, devices need to gain battery life. Third, user interfaces need to get more intuitive and user friendly. Fourth, overall performance and feature-set of devices need to improve. While the first two trends require consistent decrease of power consumption by PC components, another two require increase of compute performance. Unfortunately, it is impossible to improve processing speed at a rapid pace and lower power consumption significantly at the same time, which is why developers of devices and their components have to balance between the two.

amd_energy_efficiency

When it comes to compute units, the balance between the amount of processing work they can do and their power consumption is called energy efficiency. The general term itself is very broad, abstract and does not exactly consider use cases. For example, if a 35W notebook processor offers two times higher performance than a 35W processor released a year ago, one could say that its energy efficiency improved by two times, but the problem is that 35W processors no longer fit into modern notebooks. As a result, in the real world one has to find ways to reduce power consumption slowly while gradually improving compute performance. In many cases, chip designers take step-by-step approach and focus on either performance or power consumption.

amd_energy_efficiency_1

Historically power consumption and performance (and the balance between the two, energy efficiency) were determined by manufacturing technologies, micro architectural peculiarities as well as various hardware tweaks. For a number of years now AMD has been saying that in order to improve energy efficiency going forward, software needs to use the right hardware for particular tasks. Paralleled tasks need to be computed on highly parallel GPU cores (since it takes them less time to get the work done, they also consume lower amount of energy than genera-purpose cores), whereas serial tasks have to be performed on general-purpose CPU cores. AMD believes that as software starts to use heterogeneous processing capabilities of modern processing units through OpenCL application programming interface, energy efficiency of PCs will improve over time.

amd_energy_efficiency_6

But while AMD pins a lot of hopes on its accelerated processing units and future software, it does not plan to give up improvements on the hardware level. Among the things AMD intends to implement in its next-generation APUs and CPUs are integrated voltage regulation, ability to scale voltage per every part of a chip, inter-frame power gating, voltage adaptive operation and so on, according to a presentation by the company. Among other things, AMD proposes to dynamically boost performance in certain applications to get the job done quicker and save power on the system level. At the same time, AMD plans to implement an intelligent technology that does prevents dynamic increase of clock-rates for apps that do not benefit significantly from higher frequencies. In general, AMD intends to enable its chips to fine-tune their performance based on workload and environment contexts.

amd_energy_efficiency_5

It should be noted that reduced power consumption is only a part of the equation in the energy efficiency metrics. Performance is an important thing since low-performance chips will not able to compute next-generation workloads. Therefore, it is tremendously important that AMD's microprocessors based on the code-named “Xen” (x86) and “K12” (ARMv8) micro-architectures deliver higher performance compared to today's general-purpose cores; it is equally important that AMD's future graphics processing units also deliver significantly better performance than today's GPUs. Regrettably, AMD said no word about how it plans to increase performance of its central processing and graphics processing units or, at least, what kind of increases should we expect.

Traditionally, AMD sets goals, but does not reveal exact plans. It is unknown which technologies will be incorporated into next-generation Carrizo processor and which will be integrated into its successors. The only thing we do know is that AMD has a technology roadmap for many years to come and that plan will be gradually executed.

amd_energy_efficiency_4 amd_energy_efficiency_3 amd_energy_efficiency_2

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While AMD sets pretty ambitious goals in terms of improving energy efficiency of its platforms, one should keep in mind that a lot of things depend on third-party PC components, software, workloads and use scenarios. As a result, expect AMD (and others’) compute platforms to gain energy efficiency going forward, it is just a natural process. Still, when it comes to commercial products, they need to hit actual performance and power consumption targets to be successful, not just feature abstract energy efficiency.

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AMD delays financial day event as it rethinks its roadmap https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-delays-financial-day-event-as-it-rethinks-its-roadmap/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-delays-financial-day-event-as-it-rethinks-its-roadmap/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2014 02:56:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=223526 Advanced Micro Devices traditionally holds its Financial Day for investors and financial analysts in November, just like Intel Corp. However, it will not host the event this year as it is reshaping its roadmap and reconsiders its goals going forward. A spokesperson for AMD has confirmed KitGuru that the company will not host its Financial …

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Advanced Micro Devices traditionally holds its Financial Day for investors and financial analysts in November, just like Intel Corp. However, it will not host the event this year as it is reshaping its roadmap and reconsiders its goals going forward.

A spokesperson for AMD has confirmed KitGuru that the company will not host its Financial Day this year. Traditionally the chipmaker reveals its roadmap and future plans at the event, but as a result of the fact that it will delay the Financial Day to next year it will not unveil any details concerning its future products other than those it revealed last week.

AMD already delayed its Financial Day event in 2011, when Rory Read became chief executive officer in August and began to reconsider the company’s plans and strategy. As a result the company simply had nothing to present in November.

Given that AMD recently appointed Lisa Su on the position of chief executive officer, it is obvious that the company is again reconsidering its roadmap, strategies and product plans. At present, Ms. Su and her new team are shaping AMD’s short-term and long-term roadmaps as well as rethinking the future of the company in general.

amd_headquarters

For example, earlier this week it transpired that AMD decided not to introduce any new system-on-chips for tablets next year, but will continue to rely on the code-named Mullins accelerated processing unit for Microsoft Windows-powered slates. Since the company’s tablet chips have never been popular, it makes no sense to invest in the segment.

In addition, AMD signed a chipset development agreement with Asmedia Technology this week. While core-logic sets no longer play a key role in PC performance and functionality, they remain a vital piece of PC platform. As a result, the agreement clearly affects the future of AMD and its products.

One of the key things that Dr. Su will have to do is to make AMD profitable again, something that her predecessor Rory Read has not managed to do. Given technical background of Lisa Su, expect her to cease or investments in non-growing low-margin product areas while increasing spending on products that either provide good margins (e.g., high-end graphics processors) or promise to enable stable revenue streams (e.g. SoCs for game consoles).

While the whole picture of the future AMD will be revealed only in the coming months, it is pretty obvious that the company will continue to invest in development of fundamental technologies, including high-performance x86 and ARM cores as well as Radeon graphics processing units. The question is whether AMD will have enough money to design competitive products.

AMD did not reveal when does it plan to hold its Financial Day next year, but it is likely that the company will host an event for financial community in January or February.

AMD did not formally confirm any changes in its 2015 roadmap (which remains confidential).

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: In general, Lisa Su will unlikely make radical changes at AMD. The new CEO will not cease development of desktop microprocessors, but will rather try to optimize the company’s product line further even despite possible market share losses. In general, the details about the plans are very important, but precise plans is something that AMD simply does not have at the moment.

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AMD and Asmedia sign chipset development outsourcing deal – report https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-and-asmedia-formally-sign-chipset-development-outsourcing-deal-report/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-and-asmedia-formally-sign-chipset-development-outsourcing-deal-report/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:33:45 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=223492 Advanced Micro Devices and Asmedia have reportedly signed a pact under which the latter will develop core-logic sets for the former. The move will help AMD to reduce its expenses and use internal engineering resources to develop leading-edge microprocessors and graphics processing units. Earlier this year AMD licensed SATA Express-related intellectual property from Asmedia. Then, …

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Advanced Micro Devices and Asmedia have reportedly signed a pact under which the latter will develop core-logic sets for the former. The move will help AMD to reduce its expenses and use internal engineering resources to develop leading-edge microprocessors and graphics processing units.

Earlier this year AMD licensed SATA Express-related intellectual property from Asmedia. Then, rumours about tighter collaboration between the two companies emerged. According to DigiTimes, which cites an Asmedia filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the chip designer had signed a contract with AMD. While no details were revealed, it was noted that the projects are related to next-generation chipset technology.

AMD and Asmedia did not comment on the news-story. The filing from Asmedia was also not available at the TSE’s web-site at press time.

amd_fusion_kaveri_steamroller_piledriver_excavator

Chipsets were a crucial part of PC platforms some five – ten years ago since they defined feature-set and performance of computers. However, in the recent years the most crucial PC components, such as memory controllers, graphics processing units, PCI Express controllers and other, migrated into central processing units; as a result, chipsets no longer play as vital role as they used to do. Nonetheless, there are a lot of input/output interfaces, such as Serial ATA, Ethernet, USB, additional PCI Express controllers and other that still remain inside the I/O controllers (which are also called FCH [fusion controller hub], PCH [platform controller hub] or south bridges). Asmedia is expected to develop next-generation I/O controllers for AMD platforms.

Recently AMD outlined its mobile microprocessor roadmap and revealed that all the new chips it plans to offer next year will be system-on-chips with integrated I/O functionality. As a result, next-gen chipsets for the company’s accelerated processing units will not have to support a lot of things, but only some basic interfaces, which cannot be integrated into APUs.

amd_mobility_carrizo_roadmap

It makes a lot of sense for AMD to outsource development of consumer-class core-logic to Asmedia, since this lowers its expenses and may also improve its relationship with Asustek Computer, one of the major shareholders of Asmedia. Nonetheless, when it comes to platforms for servers, AMD will have to keep chipset development in-house as server makers demand maximum stability and reliability on the platform level. As a result, AMD will have to keep its chipset development team, which means that its savings from chipset development may not be very high.

Keeping in mind that at present AMD is developing two all-new ARMv8 and x86 micro-architectures, several new GPUs as well as multiple microprocessors and APUs, it makes a lot of sense for AMD to outsource certain development to a third-party.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be extremely interesting to see what kind of I/O functionality AMD will integrate into its next-generation “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” chips and what will be supported by Asmedia-developed chipset. Keeping in mind that AMD licensed SATAe-related IP from Asmedia several months ago, it looks like storage controllers will be inside APUs.

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AMD: Chips for tablets are not our priority https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-chips-for-tablets-are-not-our-priority/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-chips-for-tablets-are-not-our-priority/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:43:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=223340 Although Advanced Micro Devices has developed several generations of chips for tablet PCs, it has not shipped a lot of them because makers of tablets were not too interested in making slates based on x86 processors and Microsoft Windows operating system. As a result, AMD now believes that chips for tablets are no longer a priority for …

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Although Advanced Micro Devices has developed several generations of chips for tablet PCs, it has not shipped a lot of them because makers of tablets were not too interested in making slates based on x86 processors and Microsoft Windows operating system. As a result, AMD now believes that chips for tablets are no longer a priority for the company.

The PC market is slowly rebounding, therefore, it makes a lot of sense for AMD to address it, according to Kevin Lensing, senior director for mobility solutions at AMD. Next year AMD will continue to offer code-named Mullins accelerated processing unit for tablets and will not release a new APU for this market segment. Instead, the company will try to sell more system-on-chips for notebooks.

“The tablet market is in a price battle and profit margins for chip makers are minuscule. We are evaluating [tablets] closely. It is not our priority,” said Mr. Lensing in an interview with PCWorld.

Tablet sales are slowing, with the market concentrated around Apple, Samsung and low-cost Chinese tablet makers. AMD’s arch-rival Intel is currently the largest supplier of chips for non-Apple tablets. However, Intel’s mobile chip division constantly loses money because it has to compete against small Chinese chip vendors who are used to extremely thin margins.

amd_mobility_carrizo_roadmap

But while AMD is concentrating resources on products in which it has the best chance to grow, including personal computers, it does not want to abandon the tablets completely.

“As the opportunities arise, we can nail it quickly,” said Mr. Lensing.

Moreover, keeping in mind that hybrid 2-in-1 systems are getting more and more popular, eventually AMD will have to offer chips for them.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that AMD cannot “buy” its way on the market of chips for tablets, like Intel, it makes a lot of sense for the company not to invest in this market segment and focus on PCs instead.

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AMD announces ‘Carrizo’, ‘Carrizo-L’ APUs for laptops, AiO desktops https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-announces-carrizo-carrizo-l-apus-for-laptops-all-in-one-desktops/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-announces-carrizo-carrizo-l-apus-for-laptops-all-in-one-desktops/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:33:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=222577 Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday formally announced its code-named “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” accelerated processing units (APUs) that integrate the company’s next-generation general-purpose and graphics processing units. The new chips will arrive in the first half of next year and will target similar-class devices, including notebooks, 2-in-1s, all-in-one desktops and some other. Although the “Carrizo” and …

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Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday formally announced its code-named “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” accelerated processing units (APUs) that integrate the company’s next-generation general-purpose and graphics processing units. The new chips will arrive in the first half of next year and will target similar-class devices, including notebooks, 2-in-1s, all-in-one desktops and some other.

Although the “Carrizo” and the “Carrizo-L” accelerated processing units carry essentially the same code-names, the chips are poles apart and are powered by very different technologies. The “Carrizo” APUs integrate up to four high-performance “Excavator” x86 cores, Radeon R7 graphics engine based on the GCN 1.2 architecture, a dual-channel DDR3/DDR4 memory controller as well as full HSA [heterogeneous system architecture] 1.0 implementation. By contrast, the “Carrizo-L” APUs feature up to four low-power Puma+ x86 cores, Radeon R-series graphics engine based on the GCN 1.0 architecture as well as a single-channel DDR3 memory controller.

amd_carrizo_apu_fusion
AMD A-series “Carrizo” APU

Both “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” APUs for mobile and all-in-one desktop PCs feature either on-package or integrated I/O controllers and use next-generation FP4 ball grid array (BGA) packaging. Since the chips are pin-to-pin compatible, PC makers will be able to use them inside similar systems, which saves a lot of time and effort for them. Both chips integrate ARM TrustZone security technology, which AMD calls secure processor core.

AMD will continue to offer code-named “Mullins” system-on-chips for tablets in 2015. Although it is expected that AMD will roll-out ARM-based SoCs for tablets next year, the company still has not officially confirmed such plans.

amd_mobility_carrizo_roadmap

“We continue to innovate and build upon our existing IP to deliver great products for our customers,” said John Byrne, senior vice president and general manager of computing and graphics business group at AMD. “AMD's commitment to graphics and compute performance, as expressed by our goal to improve APU energy efficiency 25x by 2020, combines with the latest industry standards and fresh innovation to drive the design of the 2015 AMD Mobile APU family. We are excited about the experiences these new APUs will bring and look forward to sharing more details in the first half of next year.”

amd_carrizo_apu_fusion_1 amd_carrizo_apu_fusion_system

AMD “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” chips will be made using 28nm fabrication process. The “Carrizo” APU will integrate 3.1 billion of transistors (an increase of 28 per cent compared to the “Kaveri” chip), but will maintain rather small die size of 244.62mm2 (“Kaveri” features die size of 245mm2).

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zX2IqBI7A']

On Thursday AMD only disclosed plans for “Carrizo” and “Carrizo-L” APUs for mobile and AiO platforms. It remains to be seen what the company plans to offer for desktops next year.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The key thing that AMD announced on Thursday is the fact that the “Carrizo” and the “Carrizo-L” APUs will use the same FP4 BGA package, will be pin-to-pin compatible and will address the same types of devices. It is surprising that AMD has not revealed any details regarding its “Carrizo” APUs for desktops, a move that could emphasize AMD’s priorities for 2015. It looks like AMD will try to focus on multimedia notebooks, not desktops, with its APUs next year.

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AMD rumoured to unveil next-gen ‘Carrizo-L’ APUs this December https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-rumoured-to-unveil-next-gen-carrizo-l-apus-this-december/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-rumoured-to-unveil-next-gen-carrizo-l-apus-this-december/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2014 22:35:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=215423 Advanced Micro Devices reportedly plans to release its next-generation code-named Carrizo-L accelerated processing units (APUs) already in December, according to a media report. If the information is correct, AMD’s competitive positions against Intel Corp. will get significantly better early in 2015. Traditionally AMD unveils new APUs early in calendar year and gradually increases their production …

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Advanced Micro Devices reportedly plans to release its next-generation code-named Carrizo-L accelerated processing units (APUs) already in December, according to a media report. If the information is correct, AMD’s competitive positions against Intel Corp. will get significantly better early in 2015.

Traditionally AMD unveils new APUs early in calendar year and gradually increases their production to address different segments of the market. With the code-named Carrizo family of APUs AMD wants to change its approach a bit. DigiTimes claims that AMD will release its Carrizo-L APUs for the entry-level notebook segment in December 2014, which will help the company to better compete against Intel’s new Celeron and Pentium microprocessors. Unfortunately, “fully-fledged” Carrizo APUs will only be launched next March.

AMD’s Carrizo APUs are based on the next-generation Excavator x86 micro-architecture and improved AMD Radeon graphics. The new chips will offer higher performance compared to existing offerings. Unfortunately, since Carrizo and Carrizo-L are expected to be produced using 28nm process technology, they will not be as energy-efficient as Intel’s code-named Broadwell microprocessors made using 14nm technology. Still, any new chip will improve AMD’s position on the market.

amd_carrizo_excavator_fusion_1

Carrizo-L APUs are projected to replace AMD's existing Beema and Mullins APUs for entry-level notebooks and tablets, according to the report. Keeping in mind that Carrizo-L is based on high-performance micro-architecture, they should provide a significant performance increase when compared to existing offerings.

It is not completely clear why AMD wants to release new entry-level APUs already in December, ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in early January. Traditionally all hardware designers roll-out their novelties at CES.

Given the fact that the information comes from unofficial sources, it is possible that AMD will begin revenue shipments of the Carrizo-L this December, but will formally introduce the new chips at the CES trade show in early 2015.

AMD did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: It is interesting that for some reason AMD decided not to proceed with APUs based on the Puma+ low-power/low-cost microarchitecture. Perhaps, in the light of the fact that Intel’s Broadwell chips offer both high-performance and very high energy efficiency, AMD simply has to use high-performance architecture for its low-power offerings to stay competitive.

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