AMD Launches Carrizo: The Laptop Leap of Efficiency and Architecture Updates
by Ian Cutress on June 2, 2015 9:00 PM ESTAMD Secure Processor
One of the final pieces in the puzzle is AMD’s Secure Processor, which they seemed to have called the PSP. The concept of the security processor has evolved over time, but the premise of a locked down area to perform sensitive work that is both hidden and cryptographically sealed appeals to a particular element of the population, particularly when it comes to business.
AMD’s PSP is based around a single 32-bit ARM Cortex-A5, with its own isolated ROM and SRAM but has access to system memory and resources. It contains logic to deal with the x86 POST process but also features a cryptographic co-processor.
ARM has been promoting TrustZone for a couple of years now, and AMD has been tinkering with their Secure Processor proposition for almost as long although relatively few explanations from AMD outside ‘it is there’ have come forward.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes a name can inspire change. Carrizo isn’t one of those names, and when hearing the words ‘AMD’s notebook processor’, those words have not instilled much hope in the past, much to AMD’s chagrin no doubt. Despite this, we come away from Carrizo with a significantly positive impression because this feels more than just another Bulldozer-based update.
If you can say in a sentence ‘more performance, less power and less die area’, it almost sounds like a holy trifecta of goals a processor designer can only hope to accomplish. Normally a processor engineer is all about performance, so it takes an adjustment in thinking to focus more so on power, but AMD is promising this with Carrizo. Part of this will be down to the effectiveness of the high density libraries (which according to the slides should also mean less power or more performance for less die area) but also the implementation of the higher bandwidth encoder, new video playback pathway and optimization of power through the frequency planes. Doubling the L1 data cache for no loss in latency will have definite impacts to IPC, as well as the better prefetch and branch prediction.
Technically, on paper, all the blocks in play look exciting and every little margin can help AMD build a better APU. It merely requires validation of the results we have been presented along with a killer device to go along with it, something which AMD has lacked in the past and reviewers have had trouble getting their hands on. We are in discussions with AMD to get the sufficient tools to test independently a number of the claims, and to see if AMD’s Carrizo has potential.
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renegade800x - Thursday, June 4, 2015 - link
Although viewable it's far from being "perfectly" fine. 15.6 should be FHD.albert89 - Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - link
You don't need a strong CPU since win8 because most laptops use atom, Celeron or Pentium processors. AMD APU's are the natural choice !mabsark - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
AMD should make Steam Box's. They already do APUs, chipsets (which are going on die) and memory. It would be pretty simple for AMD to partner with a motherboard maker. Imagine a Steam Box about the size of a router, with a nano-ITX motherboard, a 14 nm APU with HBM, wifi, a few USB ports and an HDMI port to connect to a TV.An AMD/Valve partnership could potentially revolutionise the console market, providing cheap yet powerful and efficient console-type PCs.
Refuge - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
HBM isn't coming to APU's anytime soon.Cryio - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - link
Probably the first APU after Carrizocoder111 - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
Aren't Steamboxes supposed to run Linux?AMD drivers for Linux are a bit weird. Catalyst is the official supported driver but it's buggy.
Open source drivers are quite good but they are slower than Catalyst and don't support latest OpenGL spec. There is no Mantle/Vulcan/HSA/Crossfire support with Open-Source drivers either. OpenCL is in alpha stage.
So AMD would need to man up and do the Linux drivers properly. They are working on it and making good progress but I doubt it is ready to be used at the moment as it is...
Besides, lots of games these days get developed with Nvidia's "help" to ensure they run well on Nvidia GPUs and run like crap on AMD GPUs. And if the games are built using Intel Compiler, they'll run like crap on AMD CPUs as well. All of these tactics are anticompetitive and should be illegal IMO but who said the world is fair...
And don't get me wrong, I love AMD, I use Linux + AMD dGPU + APU, but I don't think it's ready for the masses yet.
AS118 - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
I agree. I'm a double AMD Linux gamer and I've run into the exact same problems as you have, and I wish they'd be more serious about Linux. Sure they have Microsoft's support, but I feel that they should take Linux more seriously outside of the enterprise (where they do take Linux more seriously).yankeeDDL - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
I disagree.For casual gaming on laptops, 1366x768 is just fine. You'll need a lot more horsepower to drive a fullHD screen and battery life will suffer.
I won't say that there's no benefit gaming at fullHD vs 1366x768: obviously, the visuals are better, but if you want an "all rounder" laptop which does not weight one ton (like "real" gaming laptops) and that it is below $500, it's not bad at all.
BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
I personally would rather have a cheap 1366x768 panel. I don't care about color accuracy much, light bleed, panel responsiveness or much of anything else and haven't since we transitioned from passive to active matrix screens in the 486 to original Pentium era of notebook computers. In fact, I see higher resolutions as an unnecessary (because I have to scale things anyway to easily read text and interact with UI elements and because native resolution gaming on higher res screens demands more otherwise unnecessary GPU power) drain on battery life that invariably drives up the cost of the system to get otherwise identical performance. The drive for progressively smaller, higher pixel density displays is a pointless struggle to fill in comparable checkboxes between competitors to appease a consumer audience that has been swept up in the artificially fabricated frenzy over an irrelevant device specification.yankeeDDL - Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - link
I think it depends on the use, ultimately.For office work (i.e.: much reading/writing emails), a reasonably high resolution helps making the text sharp and easier on the eyes.
For home use (web browsing, watching videos, casual gaming) though, I find it a lot less relevant.
Personally, at home, I rather have a <$400 laptop always ready to be used for anything, to be moved around, even in the kitchen, than a $1000 laptop which I would need to treat with gloves for fears of damaging. Since Kaveri I also started recommending AMD again to my friends and family: much cheaper than Intel and with a decent GPU makes them a lot more versatile. Again, my opinion, based on my use. As they say: to each his own...