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 ESTThe Two Main Chipsets: B350 and A320
Despite all the crazy potential that might come from playing with PCIe, if a user wants more than a couple of SATA ports or x1 slots, the chipset is there to provide. For the Bristol Ridge OEM launch, there are two main chipsets with a further three aimed more at embedded platforms. We’ll focus more on the first two.
It’s worth noting that AMD has specifically listed that the B350 chipset is not the premium chipset for AM4. We know that Zen will be a part of the AM4 socket and ecosystem, and it would seem that there is at least one specific chipset for the high-end desktop market set to come later. Feel free to speculate.
The B350 and A320 chipsets are mostly identical, using the PCIe 3.0 x4 from the CPU and offering a variety of SATA, USB and PCIe 2.0 connectivity. The PCIe 2.0 lanes, six on the B350 chipset and four on the A320 chipset, support x1, x2 and x4 modes for an array of different controllers. Perhaps the interesting thing here is the support of USB 3.1 at 10 Gbps, which is provided as native support from the chipset.
The main provider of USB 3.1 controllers in the market currently, ASMedia, has been floated around as a partner with AMD in designing these chipsets. We asked AMD if ASMedia was involved, and to what extent, in the development or IP of the hardware. We were told that while the IP is with AMD, ASMedia were bought on as a partner in some fashion (most likely as a design firm or a consultant) to help produce the hardware. We were informed that the chipsets are manufactured at TSMC using a 55nm process, which is a much cheaper process than 28nm or 16nm.
An additional aside, the chipset USB 3.1 ports do not support reversible Type-C natively. We have been informed that a re-driver chip is required to support the revisable connectivity, which is a minor additional IC required by the OEMs.
Aside from the native USB 3.1 output, AMD’s chipset offerings are far behind Intel’s current implementation, affording up to 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes from their chipset despite the same uplink equivalent. This is partly because Intel’s chipset has steadily grown and looks more like a PCIe switch itself. AMD is claiming that the external B350 chipset, compared to the older AM3 platforms, comes down from 19.6W TDP to 5.8W TDP.
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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?