AMD Launches Carrizo: The Laptop Leap of Efficiency and Architecture Updates
by Ian Cutress on June 2, 2015 9:00 PM ESTThe Platform
From a design perspective, Carrizo is the biggest departure to AMD’s APU line since the introduction of Bulldozer cores. While the underlying principle of two INT pipes and a shared FP pipe between dual schedulers is still present, the fundamental design behind the cores, the caches and the libraries have all changed. Part of this was covered at ISSCC, which we will also revisit here.
On a high level, Carrizo will be made at the 28nm node using a similar silicon tapered metal stack more akin to a GPU design rather than a CPU design. The new FP4 package will be used, but this will be shared with Carrizo-L, the new but currently unreleased lower-powered ‘Cat’ core based platform that will play in similar markets for lower cost systems. The two FP4 models are designed to be almost plug-and-play, simplifying designs for OEMs. All Carrizo APUs currently have four Excavator cores, more commonly referred to as a dual module design, and as a result the overall design will have 2MB of L2 cache.
Each Carrizo APU will feature AMD’s Graphics Core Next 1.2 architecture, listed above as 3rd Gen GCN, with up to 512 streaming processors in the top end design. Memory will still be dual channel, but at DDR3-2133. As noted in the previous slides where AMD tested on DDR3-1600, probing the memory power draw and seeing what OEMs decide to use an important aspect we wish to test. In terms of compute, AMD states that Carrizo is designed to meet the full HSA 1.0 specification as was released earlier this year. Barring any significant deviations in the specification, AMD expects Carrizo to be certified when the final version is ratified.
Carrizo integrates the southbridge/IO hub into the silicon design of the die itself, rather than a separate on package design. This brings the southbridge down from 40nm+ to 28nm, saving power and reducing long distance wires between the processor and the IO hub. This also allows the CPU to control the voltage and frequency of the southbridge more than before, offering further potential power saving improvements. Carrizo will also support three displays, allowing for potentially interesting combinations when it comes to more office oriented products and docks. TrueAudio is also present, although the number of titles that support it is few and the quality of both audio codecs and laptop speakers leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully we will see the TrueAudio DSP opened up in an SDK at some point, allowing more than just specific developers to work with it.
External graphics is supported by a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, and the system relies on three main rails for voltage across the SoC which allows for separate voltage binning of each of the parts. AMD’s Secure Processor, with cryptography acceleration, secure boot and BitLocker support are all in the mix.
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D. Lister - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Calling an unlaunched product "bad" would be just as imprudent as calling it "good", but then what do I know, fortune-telling could be just another one of your super powers, along with mind-reading.Gigaplex - Thursday, June 4, 2015 - link
Why would they use an Intel chip to fake a bar graph? Just put fake numbers directly into a spread sheet, job done.Dirty_Punk - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Unfortunatelly, time to market, as always for AMD, will be probably 6 month or more... at that time there will be something better from intel. It seems a lot like Asus from this point of view, grat product and very bad supply chain.AMD has 3 problems ritght now:
1- with 28nm is difficult to compete against 14nm of intel
2- very slow from project design to mass production
3- no support from OEM and major system builders (HP & co.), as it seems always that Intel works to force system builder to forget about AMD like years ago...
jabber - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Yep this time next year when you walk into a PC store you'll still see 25 Intel laptops and one cheap nasty AMD laptop on the shelves. OEMs don't care about AMD anymore. From what I see from customers is, that they only buy AMD if they are the cheapest machine in the shop. And then its a E1 chip and the customer really regrets it.haukionkannel - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
That problem 1 is the worst! AMD APUs are ok, but 28nm vs Intel 14nm is just a huge deal. When considering power and efficiency and how much they can put on the chip.jimjamjamie - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
HP is actually pretty good for offering a good selection of AMD-powered laptops, usually the cheaper models. Better than most other OEMs though.bloodypulp - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
The only decent laptops HP makes are the Elitebooks. And you will pay through the nose for them when you can get better quality from other brands for less. HP should just stop making PCs, period.UtilityMax - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
HP has several models with AMD chips. It's one of them few laptop makers that allows you to configure an Envy laptop with say a 1080p screen, SSD, a A10 CPU, plus discrete graphics.jabber - Thursday, June 4, 2015 - link
And I bet they sell about 8 of those AMD based machines a year.watzupken - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Point 2 is probably their killer to be honest. Point 1 is definitely puts AMD in a disadvantage, but considering that Intel don't seem to be interested in pushing performance since its Sandy Bridge days, it's giving AMD a chance to catch up in terms of performance.To be honest, I think I have to take my hat off AMD's efforts. At 28nm, they are forced to be as creative as they can to squeeze performance out, while keeping power requirements in check.