AMD CPUs, SoC Rumors and Speculations Temp. thread 2

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This is the new AMD CPUs and SoC discussions temp. thread. Here, we'll be discussing the latest rumors, leaks, speculations, news, reviews of the Latest AMD CPUs (and APUs) and SoCs - mostly Carrizo, Zen and onwards. AMD's upcoming ARM-based CPUs and SoCs (Seattle, K12 onwards) are also included.


Users are strongly encouraged to use "spoiler" Tags for big walls of text and nested quotes.

Please Do Not directly post an image in the thread. Post the link to the source/article or the link to the image. Or use an image hosting service (Imgur or Photobucket) to upload the image and then post the link to it.



Non-amd stuff should go to it's appropriate thread. amd gpu-only stuff should do to it's appropriate thread. The major ones are linked below.

AMD FX-series Piledriver CPUs Megathread: Links and FAQ
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2464608/amd-series-piledriver-architecture-cpus-megathread.html

Intel's Future Chips: News, Rumours & Reviews
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1581001/intel-future-chips-news-rumours-reviews.html

Nvidia GeForce GTX 900 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2402171/nvidia-gtx-900-series-megathread-links-faq.html

AMD Radeon R9 300 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2421407/amd-radeon-3xx-series-megathread-links-faq.html

MegaThread Directory - GPUs: Reviews, Links, Resources & More!
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2549044/megathread-directory-gpus-reviews-links-resources.html

 
I'll start with a few links:

AMD Carrizo Launched, Packs Efficiency And Innovation Into Mainstream Notebooks
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-carrizo-apu-6th-gen-processor,29230.html
First AMD Carrizo Notebooks Coming From Multiple OEMs, With Asterisks
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-carrizo-notebooks-coming-sort-of,29309.html
AMD Releases Five Carrizo (-L) Mobile APUs, Cuts Price On Desktop Kaveri
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-five-new-carrizo-available,29064.html
First Look: AMD's Carrizo APU Notebook Design
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-carrizo-carrizo-l-notebook-apu,28345.html
AMD's Carrizo APU With Excavator Cores Significantly Improves Efficiency
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-carrizo-apu-excavator-processors-cpu,28608.html
AMD Debuts Its First HSA-Compliant Chips With Carrizo And Carizzo-L
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-carrizo-and-carrizo-l,28104.html
Report: AMD Carrizo APUs To Get Stacked On-Die Memory
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-hsa-carrizo-stacked-dram,27246.html

AMD CEO Lisa Su Interview: Confident In Next Graphics Launch, Zen's Success Is Key
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ceo-lisa-su-interview,29327.html

AMD Launches Carrizo: The Laptop Leap of Efficiency and Architecture Updates
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9319/amd-launches-carrizo-the-laptop-leap-of-efficiency-and-architecture-updates
AMD’s Carrizo not on the Desktop? Depends What You Define as Desktop
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8871/amds-carrizo-not-on-the-desktop-depends-what-you-define-as-desktop

AMD goes into detail about Carrizo
https://semiaccurate.com/2015/06/03/amd-goes-detail-carrizo/
AMD outs a few Carrizzo circuitry details
https://semiaccurate.com/2015/02/23/amd-outs-carrizzo-circuitry-details/

mostly the same things, but different takes.

Don't Call It 'Godavari;' AMD Updates Kaveri APUs With DX12, FreeSync And VSR Support
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-kaveri-apu-update-not-godavari,29196.html

AMD’s 2016-2017 x86 Roadmap: Zen Is In, Skybridge Is Out
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9231/amds-20162017-x86-roadmap-zen-is-in
AMD’s K12 ARM CPU Now In 2017
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9232/amds-k12-arm-cpu-now-in-2017
AMD’s 2016-2017 Datacenter Roadmap: x86, ARM, and GPGPU
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9234/amds-20162017-datacenter-roadmap-x86-arm-and-gpgpu
AMD Financial Analyst Day 2015 Round-Up
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9239/amd-financial-analyst-day-2015-roundup

AMD Announces K12 Core: Custom 64-bit ARM Design in 2016
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7990/amd-announces-k12-core-custom-64bit-arm-design-in-2016
older article on K12 reveal.

AMD "KERNCZ" Chipset Support Is Being Worked On For Linux
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-KERNCZ-Linux-Support
 


That reeks of FUD. It does not make any sense for MS to buy AMD.

Unless they're going for the "it's such a stupid idea that it's brilliant" kind of thing.

Cheers!
 

Cazalan

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Probably FUD but Microsoft has money to burn and it's the vertically integrated companies making the most buck right now.

 


My point stems from the mental image of Satya Nadella trying to explain to the Board of Directors how it makes perfect sense for a Software company (that his core business is making software and not hardware) to acquire a competitor of Chipzilla and with such a low presence in the market.

No matter how you slice it, MS benefits more staying away from acquiring AMD, but still buy their APUs and collaborate.

If you take a look at Nokia and how MS managed that buyout (which wasn't the entire company IIRC), they did not integrate to their verticals any of the technologies they bought. Just a shield from lawsuits. Or at least, I don't remember anything they integrated.

Cheers!
 

Cazalan

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There was that rumor of spinning off the gaming division at Microsoft. That spinoff could buy AMD without a direct conflict of interest.

Of course it would pretty much mean the end of AMD as we know it, but ah well. It's been a long time since a few extra bucks for a CPU kept me up at night. ;)
 


She said, however, that AMD plans to stay away from developing for the personal computer market because of its volatility. Instead, the company is looking to play where AMD’s strengths intersect with growing demand while trying to engender investor confidence with a steady release of new products that highlight progress for the long term.

Enough said.
 

8350rocks

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I do not think I can possibly stress how massively that helps GloFo out in the long run. IBM was the only company with ramped production for 22nm FD-SOI, and they were one of the leading research entities for 10nm-14nm FDSOI solutions...especially UTBB.

The experience of the engineers alone was worth it...now with the massive number of patents they hold, and the partnership with samsung, plus the wealth of knowledge coming from the IBM acquisition. GloFo could be well positioned moving forward.

Makes you wonder if AMD had held onto their fabs...what might have been...
 

for starters, amd woulda been able to move to generalized processes sooner without getting temporarily fab-blocked at steamroller.
extra revenue from 3rd party chip designers.
more vertical integration facilitating the semicustom arm and ARM. (geddit?)
at least having an option for custom process for semi custom as well as pc chips.
we'll never find out now...sigh...
 

Cazalan

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They would still be producing 45nm products because no one would give them more money to sink into a fab.

Just about every company with the exception of Intel/Samsung have had to discontinue their own fabs. Entrenched companies with 20-50x the profits like Texas Instruments and IBM had to offload their fabs.

Even if AMD and NVidia merged they wouldn't have the revenue to support their own fab. That time has just ended.
 

8350rocks

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Assuming they somehow did not overpay for ATI...avoid the BD blunder...and manage to overcome intel's subsidies, treachery, and other BS...as well as managing to fight nvidia out of the professional/consumer sector...hit mobile accurately, and early enough to be a player, and when Jerry left they avoid hiring that buffoon that ran them into the ground for 9-ish years...

Perhaps they would have come out of this well enough to be relevant...of course...when you look back at the list of mistakes, blunders, and forces at work against them...perhaps it is a bit impressive they made it this far...?
 

Cazalan

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That's why the fab sale isn't on the list of mistakes if 200B dollar companies had to do it. Even Apple with their massive stockpile won't touch fabs.

I agree it is very impressive they're still around. Much bigger companies fell even harder/faster (Sun Microsystems) before being assimilated.

And in spite of R&D cuts they are still first to market with HBM.
They did a 180 on the cooling front with Fury X.

It seems we are headed for another IQ war as this video shows. Nvidia clearly providing less detail with identical settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBijzEQ6x6g
 


Can you elaborate on 'wholesale CPU' design? Apple have been developing custom CPU cores for a while, they are as much a CPU designer as AMD unless I'm really not understanding something?
 

Cazalan

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To an extent that's true, but you could also argue their massive purchases over the years have heavily funded both Samsung and TSMC's R&D budgets for those fabs.

In some ways that has been good for us consumers, and in other ways it has helped their competition. Particularly Samsung.
 


Short of signing exclusivity contracts (again not illegal elsewhere or can you buy Pepsi at McDonalds?) AMD kicked themselves in the butt. They sold their last FAB in the US just after they launched the Athlon 64 lineup which strained supplies and made it so that they had issues supplying OEMs and Vendor Channels, there are articles talking about this.

Then they didn't have an answer to Core 2 and tried to ride on the Athlon 64 x2 lineup until the launch of K10. Shortly before they over paid for ATI and had to incur those losses.

Then comes the launch of K10 (Phenom) which was not only a massive failure on the desktop market but a failure in their once touted server market.

Phenom II helped but it was too late as Core 2 sped ahead and then came the first Core i series removing the "IMC in K10.5 is superior" debate.

Then came Bulldozer which flopped hard as well and now AMD has almost nothing in the server market.

Honestly blaming Intel for everything doesn't work. Intel did not force them to use the 65nm SOI that had horrible leakage nor did they force AMD to release a flawed uArch (Barcelona/Bulldozer). Intel did not force AMD to purchase and over pay for ATI. Intel did not force AMD to sell their state side FAB and rely only on one FAB in Dresden, Germany for their highly sought after Athlon 64 line up.

Considering their issues with supply I doubt the exclusivity contracts even affected their profits at all. If you are running low on supply how would you even be able to supply those OEMs. If they kept their other FAB they might have been better off and able to secure more contracts with bigger OEMs that would have given them more profits to float on when Core 2 launched.

So lets just get over that and focus on the current state and future as it is AMD who is making the choices that have massively affected them and will effect them. We hope for the best but I still don't see leadership that I can say is making the proper choices. Maybe in another year we will see something different.
 
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