AMD Explains 7000M Series Strategy: Both New and Old Cores Work Together

AMD has officially launched several low-end models of Radeon HD 7000M series, but all are based on 40nm old technology and the old North Island architecture. Several new high-end models of 28nm new technology and South Island's new architecture will be introduced in the second quarter. During the CES 2012 exhibition, AMD also explained and clarified some of its next notebook graphics strategy.

Radeon HD 7600M/7500M/7400M/7300M are VLIW5 architecture, we are used to call it "vest", but AMD said it is a bit harsh, "reuse" or "recycle" may be a more appropriate vocabulary.

In fact, regardless of AMD or NVIDIA, the vest card is not just simply renamed. We all know that with the passage of time, semiconductor processes will become more and more mature, whether it is manufacturing line or chip design, so the late 40nm GPU can often provide better performance, power performance, or even join Some new features, but they are not so refreshing.

At least for manufacturers, this approach can make better use of more mature processes, and secondly, it can be easily solved if there are inventory problems. Specifically to the low-end graphics card market, because AMD is vigorously promoting the APU with good graphics performance, it is obviously unrealistic and uneconomical to develop a new core separately.

AMD did not confirm whether the Radeon HD 7600M/7500M/7400M/7300M series used a new stepping core and did not specify very strict performance parameters. In particular, the frequency was only given a general range, and more was given to notebook manufacturers for customization. . The following is the official specification table given by AMD, and the game performance of Radeon HD 7690M/7590M models.

Radeon HD 7700M/7800M/7900M has not yet been announced is a real new product, will use 28nm technology and GCN architecture, no accident will be Radeon HD 7800 Pitcairn, Radeon HD 7700 Cape Verde two desktop core derivatives, Radeon HD 7900 Tahiti will not be in the notebook.

Technologies such as DX11.1, PCI-E 3.0, VCE (Video Compression Engine), Core Zero-Power, Eyefinity 2.0, etc. will all appear in notebooks.

At the time of publication, AMD just said that in the second quarter and did not give a more precise statement, it is estimated that it should be in April-May.

AMD also set up several laptop prototypes based on Radeon HD 7000M series graphics cards at the show. The bottom two are X7200 from Taiwan's blue sky. The processors are all desktop models, so they are more proof-concept platforms.

The graphics card used on the left side of the prototype is the Radeon HD 7690M mentioned above and runs a demo DEMO developed by AMD. The right side is replaced with a high-end model of the new architecture, it is estimated Radeon HD 7900M series, and it is composed of two pieces of crossfire, running the game is not yet released "Hypnotized Warriors 2".

Finally mention Trinity APU. Some speculation may also use the GCN's new architecture graphics core, but if you think about it, you will find it impossible. The core of the GCN architecture is TSMC 28nm, while Trinity APU will use GlobalFoundries 32nm. AMD is busy improving its bulldozer architecture. It is obviously too difficult to change the architecture and technology of the graphics core at the same time. It is impossible to release it in the first half of the year.

In fact, AMD once again confirmed that the graphics core of Trinity APU will come from Radeon HD 6900 series VLIW4 transitional architecture, performance is stronger than Llano APU. Want to see GCN in the APU, at least next year's next generation.