10/30/2013 07:43:00 PM
dannzfay
The other day, we picked up on a report about the next generation of accelerated processing units from Advanced Micro Devices, but we didn't go into too much detail about what chips, exactly, would come out and when.
The folks at VR-Zone China decided to jump the gun on some information about the next generation of accelerated processing units. We already knew that availability was scheduled for 2014, and that the first sample shipments would happen on December 5, 2013. That was it though. Anything about the chips themselves was left to speculation. Only the use of GCN was confirmed. GCN (Graphics Core Next) is the technology at the base of the Radeon graphics core that will be paired with the “Steamroller” CPU architecture. According to the schedule published by the Chinese, AMD will launch two A10 branded processors and one A8 chip. Both of them will rely on the A88X chipset, meaning that they will fit into FM2+ sockets, although the architecture improvements will make it unlikely for current-generation FM2+ motherboards to support them as well.
All three APUs will use SteamrollerB cores with enhanced Turbo Core support, as well as configurable TDP (thermal design power). More importantly, the Heterogeneous System Architecture (AMD HSA) will be included, enabling both the GPU and CPU to share the main memory. Furthermore, the A10 and A8 chips will boast PCI Express 3.0 support, dedicated PCI-Express SSD interface, integrated Audio co-processor, and AMD Start Now 3.0 (fast boot technology). AMD will hold the APU13 event from November 11 to November 13, 2013, so we'll learn more then. CES 2014, in January, is also bound to be a time of revelations. Until then, we'll have to settle for vague hints and the occasional benchmark or presentation slide. As is usual for the course for the IT industry really.
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| AMD Kaveri launch plan detailed Image credits to AMD |
