AMD: Southern Islands (7*** series) Speculation/ Rumour Thread

Dang, so Southern Islands tentatively rumored to be scheduled for Q2 2012? Well over a year away. Wonder what, if any, refresh we'll see from either company if that's the soonest GPUs on 28 nm might launch?

Interesting that they are hearing about so much OEM interest in Zacate and Ontario. That's potentially a good sign for AMD, especially if they are attempting to secure all of the new 40 nm capacity that TSMC is going to put online at Fab 12/14.

Regards,
SB

 

yep these small APU's will go nuts in emerging markets, i've been saying it since launch, based on the low power design of bobcat(trade IPC for low power) i dont even think AMD truely appreshates how big this market is and how much hey could make. hopefully AMD will launch some higher speed SKU's to go into mini itx desktops for this market(where power doesn't matter as much).

 

It should still be possible for AMD to make some highend 32nm gpu's on GF's SOI (just like llano already) if GF's bulk won't be ready until 2012 either. Highend only would mean less volume in case bulldozer/llano is taking up most/all of the available capacity.

 

OK I've an understanding issue here, ok it's still a rumor but does it imply no 28nm process for AMD till Q2 2012 or no 28nm process for anybody (including Nvidia) till Q2 2012?

If if the latter I hope AMD will still push something new in the mean time, I feel like they have room within the silicon budget allowed by the 40nm process to do beter.

 

I doubt that if AMD could only get 28nm chips by Q2 2012 that anybody else would get 28nm chips significantly earlier. Though I guess you could always gain a month or two with risk production.

 

Bulldozer is expected at the end of spring on 32nm . IS GF no good for gpus at this point ?

 

This is 32nm SOI. I don't know what exactly prevents GPUs from being built on SOI process (works for Llano, after all), if it's cost or something else, but I think that decision would have to be made quite early.
GF 28nm bulk was supposed to be ready Q4 2011 but I don't know if it's on track...

 

TSMC outputs 5,000 wafers on 28nm a month in 1Q11, says paper

This is interesting. So they ship 28nm already and AMD has to wait over a year?
So which info is correct?
I think Q2-2012 was a typo.

 

That seems to be 28LP, but X-bit labs also say AMD will start with 28nm graphics in Q2.

 

Now that's some difference in rumours. 2Q11 vs 2Q12

Let's split the difference and call it 4Q11.

 

It's definitely LP and they are building FPGAs for now

 

5K 28nm wafers per month? That's just completely silly: 1) 28HP/HPL isn't mature enough for that yet, 2) Xilinx doesn't use 28LP afaik, 3) Altera does have 28LP FPGAs and not just 28nm HP/HPL (High-K) ones iirc, they're not shipping in such volume yet.

So unless Qualcomm has a top secret 28LP shrink of an existing high volume 45/40nm device that they haven't announced (which would be very unusual for them), that number is complete fantasy.

As for AMD Southern Islands, I don't know but both NV and AMD will have 28nm chips before 2Q12 last I heard. Although given the capacity ramp, this year I'd expect something closer to RV740 than a full family launch on either side. We'll see.

 

I think it depends on how you define family. I think there is a distinct chance AMD could start launching a family this year, but the largest chip would need to be fairly small. IE ~Barts/RV770ish; enough to put them back on top in each segment; if production gets that far in time. It could come slightly later, but one would think that is what they would aim for if possible. I could imagine a tiered bottom-up launch (in-tune with ramp) capped by a more robust iteration of Cypress' 'core' attributes beating Fermi. We all know they've been sitting on some kind of design (larger than Cypress intended for 32nm SiON)) anxiously awaiting to put it into production ASAP. Combined with the mobile rumors from DH around New Years, that would all fit. When full production hits and the process is more proven (Q411/Q112?), they could tape out a larger chip to compete with nVIDIA's impending generation in the highest-end. That said, I think nVIDIA could very-possibly launch smallish chips this year as well, I just don't think they will be as aggressive.

Doesn't that seem like something AMD would do? For some reason, I imagine Mr. "Chief Product Planner" Killebrew doing cartwheels down the hall because of the initial halo. In turn, I could see AMD's newly-found marketing department thrilled by the later-half of that plan. Win-win.

 

Since desktop parts have historically preceded notebook parts, I think Q3 for desktop.

May be late Q2 to catch the back to school cycle?

 

I am curios whether Blackomb can even offer a 5870 -> 6970 - like performance improvement over the 6970.

The best I expect is switch to 4 VLIW slots on entire lineup, although this move in itself may not increase performance as we have already seen. However, this too is quite unlikely.

 

Blackcomb is the mobile Barts. And yes, it offers a nice improvement over HD58x0M - http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Mobile-GPU-Battle-Radeon-vs-GeForce-w-Eurocom/ & http://www.anandtech.com/show/4223/eurocom-racer-radeon-hd-6970m-rocks/8

 

Yes of course, I made at least two errors in my (lengthy ) post.

While I knew it was about mobile parts, I failed to reflect that in my writing. Furthermore, I was somehow thinking we are in 2010...

So my initial post was (tentatively) referring to the future desktop part for the "Enthusiast segment" versus the actual 6970 rather than Blackcomb versus (mobile)5870.

 

That's pretty impressive. For half the price of the mobile GTX 485 it goes head to head with it in performance while using less power and generating less heat.

Regards,
SB

 

You want some fun?
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/S...m&bn=893&tid=1877216&mid=1877216&tof=13&frt=2
One week old.
Good enough for a news: http://news.ati-forum.de/index.php/...chnische-daten-der-amd-radeon-hd-7990-bekannt (german)
Or http://hw-lab.com/specs-for-amd-radeon-hd-7990-disclosed.html (english)
[Rumor] Specs for AMD Radeon HD 7990 disclosed?