AMD 7th Gen Bristol Ridge and AM4 Analysis: Up to A12-9800, B350/A320 Chipset, OEMs first, PIBs Later
by Ian Cutress on September 23, 2016 9:00 AM ESTMotherboards, Sockets, Pins and Things
As an OEM only launch, details about exact systems coming to market (and how they are designed) is providing slim pickings. With a normal retail launch, we have several motherboard manufacturers to dig our teeth into when asking questions, however our relationships with the major OEMs such as HP, Dell or Lenovo are quite different and typically more product focused and less engineering. We’ve not seen any real Bristol Ridge related announcements on OEM systems coming into the market, but some do exist. Reddit user starlightmica saw this HP Pavilion 510-p127c in Costco this week:
$600 gets an A12-9800, 16GB of DDR4, a 1TB mechanical drive, an additional R7 2GB graphics card, 802.11ac WiFi, a DVDRW drive, and a smattering of USB ports (but no USB 3.1, which is interesting).
We reached out to HP, as this system was listed online with the blurriest of motherboard images.
This is a ‘Willow’ motherboard, and we can see the AM4 socket in the middle. Contrary to previous platforms, it is worth noting that the socket mounting holes are significantly more ‘square’ than previous motherboard designs. However, when we discussed the images of the South Korean overclocker near the beginning of this article, it looked like he was using a standard AMD Wraith cooler, which might suggest that this square mounting hole situation might just be HP designing the motherboard.
The board clearly has six phases as part of the power delivery, plus an additional phase for the memory. I would assume that since the system has dual channel support, HP has developed the two memory slots as having dual channel capability, and the abundance of traces from the APU seems to suggest that as well.
To the right of the DRAM slots seems to be a PCIe x1 slot, which is where I assume the WiFi module is held. Below this slot are two of the system SATA ports, followed by what looks like a chipset with a big AMD logo on it and then the 24-pin power connector.
The motherboard has a full PCIe 3.0 x16 sized slot, although as we discussed before, this will be limited to PCIe 3.0 x8 due to the design of the processor. To the left of this is clearly a Realtek audio codec, and judging by the 2.1 support on the rear panel, this is most likely an ALC269 or some other low-end codec. It is hard to tell where the network controller is here without the high-resolution image, but just above and to the left of the speaker looks like a small IC which looks similar to Realtek’s low-end solutions. Typically Realtek offers a deal when audio+networking chips are used in the same system, so I suspect that is what is happening here. Above this are our USB ports, an HDMI output, and a VGA port which must be using a DP-to-VGA IC onboard.
We have closer up images of the socket, thanks to the Hungarian website hwsw:
This looks like the standard ZIF socket we’ve come to love/loathe from AMD (I doubt there’s a way that keeps everyone happy anyway), and others have counted 1331 holes which may/may not do things.
The rear of the CPU, also from hwsw, is what we would expect given the socket layout. It does mean that AMD is stuck at this level of connectivity, to anyone wishing for a quad-channel AMD platform suitable for consumers will have to wait until a future platform. It’s also worth noting that this looks like a similar size to when AMD CEO Lisa Su held up a Zen chip for the press back at the Zen announcements in August.
What Happens Now
Aside from spotting systems like the HP in Costco, no doubt a number of media outlets (us included) are trying to get hold of a number of the APUs for official reviews. As mentioned previously, that A12-9800 looks like an exciting all round part. We are working with AMD to secure the platform and the APUs for testing.
AMD has told us that Bristol Ridge APUs are designed to have price parity with the current Kaveri Refresh/Godavari models, however exact configurations of APUs and coolers, as well as a timeframe for the motherboard manufacturers to come out with their designs, is still to be decided.
I suspect that AMD will wait until closer to the Zen launch window to put Bristol Ridge on the shelves. Attacking the market with a new platform that goes from the high-end desktop through to all but the cheapest systems would mean a concerted effort to gain market share and recognition for catering to the performance needs of as many users as possible all at once. AMD has promised that Zen will trickle down the stack, however as we were told regarding their server and laptop plans later in 2017, that will mostly likely occur later in the year also.
If you’ve read through this piece, or merely skipped to the last page for the conclusions, here’s the take away from the Bristol Ridge for desktop launch:
- OEMs first, DIY builds later
- The A12 at 65W has better specifications than the best previous generation A10 at 95W
- Even at 65W, there is +30% frequency on the integrated graphics for the A12-9800
- The chipsets support USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) natively, but Type-C requires a small additional chip
- Bristol Ridge is more like an SoC, the chipset is entirely optional
- There are so many fun things you can do with PCIe and switches
- We expect the retail APUs to be price drop-ins for current APUs
- We’re trying to get these APUs for review. Stay tuned.
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ddriver - Saturday, September 24, 2016 - link
So you are a fascist who thinks some people are not entitled to opinions? I am not projecting anything, I am expressing my opinion. If you have a problem about it, that's your problem entirely. If my opinions threaten to shatter someone's fragile artificial worldview, that's their their problem entirely. Or maybe you are implying that people should only be allowed to express opinions that are coherent with the herd's baaing? Did you see me denying the right of opinions to dummies or anyone? Nah, because it is their right, even if it is mind-numbingly stupid and even if I don't like it.goatfajitas - Friday, September 23, 2016 - link
Different ballparks entirely dood. One runs alot of fun mobile toys, the other runs the entire business world including every computer and every system in every factory that makes all of those toys.ddriver - Friday, September 23, 2016 - link
That's not the problem, most people can't and quite frankly don't need to be powerusers - engineers, designers and such are a very small fraction of the population. The problem is the lack of choice - you don't even have the option to use an android or apple tablet for professional work. And the even bigger problem - that this becomes a trend.Year after year the entire industry is moving towards the "walled garden spyware milking station" model, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future owning an open general purpose computer becomes criminalized - because you know... only pirates, hackers, terrorists and pedophiles need it.
And last but not least, what is perhaps most worrying is people are getting increasingly dumb as technology gets more and more affordable. One would say "big whoop, I don't care about the dummies", however in the long run that's a huge problem, it affects the entire species, and thus every individual member of it. Call me old fashioned, but I think people should, if not get smarter, then at least not get dumber as technology becomes more available and widespread. Today software helps you finish your sentences, before you know it, software will be dictating your sentences. It is ok for machines to do the "legwork" for you - numerous small and repetitive tasks, but it is a very dangerous thing when machines begin doing the thinking for you and you forget how to do it... if you ever knew to begin with...
goatfajitas - Friday, September 23, 2016 - link
I don't disagree with most that... but I don't know if people are getting increasingly dumb... It used to be the dumber people didn't use computers much, and now everyone does. As computer/tablet/mobile usage went up the average computer user's IQ went down, but those dumbies always existed, its just that now they are online and have a voice.... Yadda yadda yadda, now we have Trump. LOLddriver - Friday, September 23, 2016 - link
They are being made dumber and it makes perfect sense. Longterm economic strategy 101 - with ample resources you breed a lot of workers to produce wealth, as resources begin to run out you automate menial labor and focus on services to take that wealth from the workers, and finally, using the wealth you produce a military complex to protect you from the workers as they become obsolete and infeasible both as workers and consumers. Being dumb will make it easy to march the general population straight into the void, unable to resist or survive without the system which no longer has need of them. Dumb is convenient - easy to exploit, easy to dispose of. More technology has allowed for more ways to dummify - more knowledge of the dummies, more control over the dummies, more distraction for the dummies from the issues at hand. Everything people do online passes through data mining algorithms, gets profiled, analyzed, and combed for anything anyone might find useful in any way. Including this very comment space.goatfajitas - Friday, September 23, 2016 - link
I agree, there are a heck of alot of dumb people out there... Just not sure they are getting even dumber. Lazier maybe, but the average person has always been mindbogglingly stupid.Just picture in your mind how stupid the average person is... Now think, half of everyone is stupider than that guy! - George Carlin (said long before the vast majority of people had any PC at all)
msroadkill612 - Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - link
Its sad to think almost 50% of people are below average.msroadkill612 - Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - link
Sadly, i concur. Its depressing.A way of looking at it via the "property is theft" philosophy is why, w/ all these new marvels, are even the fortunate employed (those serfs useful to the regime), feeling more on a treadmill over a shark tank than ever?
Our alleged protective regimes have focused more on how to meter mankinds recent gifts (and infrastructure, long paid for by our compatriot forbears), than disperse them free or at cost.
Most of the great "inventions" and their resultant fortunes were assigned to the best schemer in the group, not the true inventors. Some were unrelated predatory lawyers, & often they were major hinderances to wider adoption.
The last thing capitalism wants is to remove the necessity of serving the regime.
To all intents, it is illegal to live simply. You may not build your own shelter e.g. You must take a mortgage for a sale price bureaucrats very actively inflate.
Free wi-fi to the poor in some areas would cost a pittance to our allegedly caring commonwealths. Instead they hand out monopolistic licences at dodgy auctions, if that.
Michael Bay - Saturday, September 24, 2016 - link
You really have to be braindead or commited ethnic masochist to support anyone but Trump in this cycle.Valantar - Saturday, September 24, 2016 - link
"Commited ethnic masochist". Did you mean to say "not astoundingly racist"? Because those words you just strung together mean nothing at all.Also, braindead? Really? So anyone with a functioning brain would be unable to see the lying, gross inconsistency, thin-skinnedness and general stupidity that spews from the Trump campaign (and his own mouth)? Not to mention the racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, elitism, disdain for poor/middle class people, blatant disregard for the rule of law, due process and the courts, promotion of violence, and willingness to lie about anything and everything to win?