AMD's 2012 lines: Komodo, Trinity, and, Krishna/Wichita

[mAJORD]

Yep.Actually that list of uarch changes BD-PD is more significant than previous info.. could be looking at >5% avg IPC boost out of those, I'm guessing with those apps that suffered most with BD uarch getting a good boost.

especially given the current IPC is off target quite a bit (target was to hold IPC steady with K10, reality is it averages ~15% lower )

[itsmydamnation]

well it looks like the chef architect of bulldozer has died, RIP

[loophole]

Originally Posted by itsmydamnation

well it looks like the chef architect of bulldozer has died, RIP

Mike Butler died? ...

[loophole]

Mike Butler died? ...

Nope, Mike is fine:
AMD's Chuck Moore has passed away

[loophole]

Browsing the Open Compute Project I came across their AMD Motherboard RoadRunner (Specifications), and under section 5.3, "CPU and Memory" we see:

Abu-Dhabi is based on the Piledriver core will be available Q2 2012 and offers drop-in compatible part with 200 MHz performance uplift.

which in and of itself isn't anything we couldn't have guessed from what leaks we knew, but it's nice to see it written in an official document.

I thought this was interesting (from section 5 "Motherboard Features", under "Processor":

• Abu Dhabi (“Orochi”-Rev C) support is mandatory
• ...
• Abu Dhabi: 4/8/12/16 cores codenamed “Piledriver” (MCM)

So it sounds like Piledriver is thought of as Orochi revision C, with revision A never making it to market (the leaks being that it was more akin to a man with a shovel than a bulldozer) and revision B being what we have now with Interlagos/Zambezi. If all of the improvements and advancements that we saw in the slides leaked last week come to being then that's pretty good for a Rev-B to Rev-C change...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the document should be accurate - all three authors are from AMD, and two are:
Bob Ogrey: Cloud Technical Evangelist Fellow Server Platform Architecture
Eugene Chung: Manager Systems Design Engineering at Advanced Micro Devices

In any case, the document is an interesting read. The system configuration aimed for Storage looks nice

[stmok]

AMD readies Trinity APU in May and preparing more CPUs for later
=> http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120...0507PD227.html

Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 8 May 2012]

AMD is set to launch its latest A series APUs codenamed Trinity in May and will initially only release models for notebooks with models for desktops to wait until August, while the company's 40nm tablet PC processors codenamed Hondo is set to launch in the fourth quarter to timely fit in with the release of Windows 8, according to sources from notebook players.

The Trinity processors adopt a Piledriver structure and will have a 25% improvement in overall performance and 50% in graphics performance comparing to the existing Llano processors, noted the sources.

The sources pointed out that the Trinity processors' prices will be lower than the same-level Ivy Bridge processors from Intel, providing notebook players a different and cheaper solution for choices; however, since ultrabook's pricing still has not yet met a satisfactory level, the two CPU makers are unlikely to see transition between previous and new platforms to take off until the third quarter.

AMD is set to launch its desktop Trinity processors including A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, while will also releasing A6 (Weatherford) and A4 (Richland) series processors. All these processors are manufactured by Globalfoundries, adopting a 32nm process.

In June, AMD will release low-power consumption, entry-level Brazos 2.0 - the new C and E series processors including 18W E2-1800 (1.7GHz) and E1-1200 (1.4GHz). In the third quarter, AMD will release new FX series processors including FX-8350, FX-6300 and FX-4320.

After Bulldozer, AMD will release Steamroller structure in 2013 and Excavator in 2015 and for notebook processors, the company will launch Kaveri processors to replace Trinity and Kabini APUs to replace Brazos 2.0.

[richan3185]

Hopefully they can hit their release scheudles and maintain momentum.

[bobbth]

Originally Posted by richan3185

Hopefully they can hit their release scheudles and maintain momentum.

I'm quite surprised that they are aiming to push piledriver out so early, I was expecting a November-janurary release. I really hope they aren't compromising too much development to release it so early, not that we're expecting much but some tweaks to wring out more performance per clock would be nice (and are needed).

[Apokalipse]

Originally Posted by bobbth

I'm quite surprised that they are aiming to push piledriver out so early, I was expecting a November-janurary release. I really hope they aren't compromising too much development to release it so early, not that we're expecting much but some tweaks to wring out more performance per clock would be nice (and are needed).

It'll be much easier for AMD to release Trinity than it was for BD.
BD was a completely new architecture on a new process node. Trinity is a tweaked BD on the same process node.

I would hope BD -> Trinity is analogous to Windows Vista -> Windows 7 (Vista being written basically from scratch and having a lot of bugs, and Windows 7 being a fixed and properly done Vista.)

[zero_velocity]

On piledriver.... did I read correctly in here somewhere that it will be coming out in 8, 12 and 16 core variants?

[duckling]

Originally Posted by bobbth

I'm quite surprised that they are aiming to push piledriver out so early, I was expecting a November-janurary release. I really hope they aren't compromising too much development to release it so early, not that we're expecting much but some tweaks to wring out more performance per clock would be nice (and are needed).

Most of the revisions to bulldozer that make up 'piledriver' where in the pipeline well before BD eventually went on sale last year. The problems where known from the first few batches of eng. samples and any information gleaned from those dies would have gone straight into the new Trinity.

Given how aggressively AMD is pushing APU's this really is no surprise.

Originally Posted by zero_velocity

On piledriver.... did I read correctly in here somewhere that it will be coming out in 8, 12 and 16 core variants?

The ten core Piledrive or Vishera was canned shortly after AMD named a new CEO.

The 16 core version could possible be referring to two 8 core dies in a single package (didn't AMD do that with magny cores? two six core dies in a single package for a 12 core single socket?)

[AMD-G]

AMD Interlagos server CPUs are already 16 cores based on 2 x 6 core in a single socket.

[gregpolk]

Might want to do your math again on that one amdg

[stmok]

Originally Posted by bobbth

I'm quite surprised that they are aiming to push piledriver out so early, I was expecting a November-janurary release. I really hope they aren't compromising too much development to release it so early, not that we're expecting much but some tweaks to wring out more performance per clock would be nice (and are needed).

At AMD Fusion Developer Summit 2011, a couple of hours after announcing Llano APU to the world; they demonstrated Trinity APU in working silicon and running on a notebook reference platform.
=> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJePRtcKLHs

...So they have been working on Trinity for quite a while.


It shouldn't be too surprising as they're focusing on releasing a new APU every year. The annoying part is likely to be that they keep changing processor sockets during the early years of their APU-era.

[duckling]

Originally Posted by gregpolk

Might want to do your math again on that one amdg

Was probably referring to two die, 16 thread, interlagos parts.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opteron <-- they are listed here at the bottom.