AMD adopts System-on-a-Chip strategy; bring your IP to HSA
AMD today held their financial analyst day, with some big announcements (other than they're going to focus on execution):
Read the full news release here.
Coverage from many sites on the ground shows there are new roadmaps being disclosed, with new codenames appearing.
The good news is APU's are getting GCN architecture, the bad news is not yet. Similarly, the APU's to follow Trinity will be based on the second generation of Bulldozer cores, codenamed Steamroller (Trinity uses first generaton, second revision cores codenamed Piledriver). Unfortunately, it appears no new FX steamroller products for a couple of years.
In GPU news, GCN's first revision will debut under the placeholder codename 'Sea Islands' which SemiAccurate reports is actually Canary Islands (and from what was whispered in our ear at the Tahiti tech day, seems to be true).
The big news is opening up of Heterogeneous System Architecture design to allow additional IP to be inserted into it. This means third parties can really go to town on putting a custom chip together, and should drive some really interesting new products. Firstly, the openness is for the Brazos design, so we won't see, say, a Bulldozer with NV GPU in it.
What we will see is lots of appliance and embedded designs, probably the majority of which consumers don't put their hands on directly. Instead it'll be consumed as part of the final product of the product - think digital signage, prosumer storage appliances, set top/dvr boxes, network appliances etc. This is huge, a giant market for AMD to get their technology in and power the world around us.
New processors for tablets are coming, codename 'Hondo', which along with the BGA version of Trinity will allow AMD partners to build Windows, Linux or Android x86 platform competitors to OS X & ARM iOS/Android devices now available in those spaces. How about an ARM CPU core with AMD Radeon GPU? Put the IP in, pull out the x86. Is that Tegra over there shaking in it's boots?
AMD is adopting an SoC-centric roadmap designed to speed time-to-market, drive sustained execution, and enable the development of more tailored customer solutions. SoC design methodology is advantageous because it is a modular approach to processor design, leveraging best practice tools and microprocessor design flows with the ability to easily re-use IP and design blocks across a range of products.
"AMD's strategy capitalizes on the convergence of technologies and devices that will define the next era of the industry," said Rory Read, president and CEO, AMD. "The trends around consumerization, the Cloud and convergence will only grow stronger in the coming years. AMD has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this key industry inflection point. We remain focused on continuing the work we began last year to re-position AMD. Our new strategy will help AMD embrace the shifts occurring in the industry, marrying market needs with innovative technologies and become a consistent growth engine."
Roadmap Updates Focus on Customer Needs Additionally, AMD today announced updates to its product roadmaps for AMD Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) products it plans to introduce in 2012 and 2013. The roadmap modifications address key customer priorities across form factors including ultrathin notebooks, tablets, all-in-ones, desktops and servers with a clear focus on low power, emerging markets and the Cloud.
AMD's updated product roadmap features second generation mainstream ("Trinity") and low-power ("Brazos 2.0") APUs for notebooks and desktops; "Hondo," an APU specifically designed for tablets; new CPU cores in 2012 and 2013 with "Piledriver" and its successor "Steamroller," as well as "Jaguar," which is the successor to AMD's popular "Bobcat" core. In 2012, AMD plans to introduce four new AMD Opteron(TM) processors. For a more in-depth look at AMD's updated product roadmap, please visit http://blogs.amd.com.
Read the full news release here.
Coverage from many sites on the ground shows there are new roadmaps being disclosed, with new codenames appearing.
The good news is APU's are getting GCN architecture, the bad news is not yet. Similarly, the APU's to follow Trinity will be based on the second generation of Bulldozer cores, codenamed Steamroller (Trinity uses first generaton, second revision cores codenamed Piledriver). Unfortunately, it appears no new FX steamroller products for a couple of years.
In GPU news, GCN's first revision will debut under the placeholder codename 'Sea Islands' which SemiAccurate reports is actually Canary Islands (and from what was whispered in our ear at the Tahiti tech day, seems to be true).
The big news is opening up of Heterogeneous System Architecture design to allow additional IP to be inserted into it. This means third parties can really go to town on putting a custom chip together, and should drive some really interesting new products. Firstly, the openness is for the Brazos design, so we won't see, say, a Bulldozer with NV GPU in it.
What we will see is lots of appliance and embedded designs, probably the majority of which consumers don't put their hands on directly. Instead it'll be consumed as part of the final product of the product - think digital signage, prosumer storage appliances, set top/dvr boxes, network appliances etc. This is huge, a giant market for AMD to get their technology in and power the world around us.
New processors for tablets are coming, codename 'Hondo', which along with the BGA version of Trinity will allow AMD partners to build Windows, Linux or Android x86 platform competitors to OS X & ARM iOS/Android devices now available in those spaces. How about an ARM CPU core with AMD Radeon GPU? Put the IP in, pull out the x86. Is that Tegra over there shaking in it's boots?
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