Snowy Owl has 16 cores and 32 threads, all based on 14nm FinFET Zen transistors. The processor supports up to 32MB of shared L3 cache. We also mentioned a processor cluster codenamed Zeppelin. This seems to be the key to the Zen architecture as more Zeppelin clusters are creating more core Opterons.

Each Zeppelin has eight Zen cores and each Zen core has 512KB dedicated L2 cache memory. Four Zen cores share 8MB of L3 memory making the total L3 cache size  16MB.  Zeppelin (ZP) comes with PCIe Gen 3, SATA 3, 10GbE, sever controller Hub, AMD secure processor as well as the DDR4 Memory controller. AMD is using a super-fast coherent interconnect to create more than one Zeppelin core.

One Zeppelin cluster would make an 8 core, 16 thread CPU with 4MB L2 and 16MB L3 cache and in our case product codenamed Snowy owl has 16 cores, 32 threads 8MB of L2 (512KB x 16) and 32MB L3 (4x8MB).

The Snowy Owl with 16 cores uses a SP4 Multi Chip Module (MCM) BGA socket, while the Naples uses MCM based SP3. These two are not pin compatible but 16 and 8 core Zen based Opterons will fit in the same socket.

Snowy Owl has four independent memory channels and up to 64 lanes of PCIe Gen3. When it comes to storage, it supports up to 16 SATA or NVME storage channels and 8x10GbE for some super-fast networking solutions.

As you see, there will be plenty of Zen based Opteron possibilities and most of them will start showing up by mid-2017.  The TDP Range for Snowy Owl is sub 100W and capable of sinking the TDP down to 35W. Yes, we do mean that there may well be a quad core Zen Opteron too.

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Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge sound a little like locations in a Somerset version of Game of Thrones, but they both feature AMD’s Excavator x86 processor cores and Radeon R7 graphics, which AMD sees powering e-sports gaming on laptops.

Bristol Ridge is the more powerful of the two coming in 35W and 15W versions of AMD FX, A12 and A10 processors, offering up to 3.7GHz of processing power. The former two processors are paired with up to eight Graphics Core Next (GCN) cores in the R7 to provide a decent pool of graphics processing power.

Stoney Bridge offers less in the way of processor power, topping out at 3.5GHz, and versions include 15W A9, A6 and E2 processor configurations coupled with lower powered graphics accelerators.

AMD claimed that the new APUs offer a 50 per cent hike in performance over the previous generation Carrizo APUs. However, this rise is over APUs from the early part of Carrizo’s lifecycle, so performance gains over the most recent Carrizo APUs are likely to be 10 to 20 per cent.

AMD also said that its silicon is faster than rival chips from Intel, including the i3-6100U found in several ultraportable laptops.

Many of these tests are subjective and depend on how a hardware manufacture configures and sets up the APUs in a laptop or tablet, but AMD does have its graphics tech to draw on, such as the GCN architecture, which could give it the edge over Intel’s chips when it comes to pushing pixels.

The APUs will be aimed primarily at slim laptops that need low-power consumption chips, much like Intel’s Skylake line.

Bristol Ridge is currently available to end users only in the form of HP’s latest Envy laptop. But now that AMD has debuted the full range of the seventh-generation APUs we can expect to see them in other ultraportable machines before too long.

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Nvidia claims it was forced to wind down its cellular mobile broadband chipset business, including its Icera unit just four years after buying it, because of Qualcomm’s anti-trust antics.

Qualcomm’s alleged tactics led to “unexplained delays in customer orders, reductions in demand volumes and contracts never being entered into, even after a customer or mobile network cooperating with a prospective customer has agreed or expressed a strong intention to purchase” Nvidia’s chipsets, the company moaned.

The claim for cash comes as European Union regulators step up antitrust investigations into Qualcomm sales tactics that officials said thwarted other designers of mobile-phone chip technology. This could result in fines or an EU order forcing a company to change its behaviour.

The EU thinks Qualcomm may have charged below-cost fees for chips used in mobile Internet modems known as dongles from 2009 to 2011 to thwart smaller competitor Icera. Regulators are separately probing what they say are exclusivity payments Qualcomm paid to a phone and tablet manufacturer for using its designs.

Qualcomm is “confident” it would prevail in both the EU investigation and the lawsuit.

Nvidia is seeking a declaration from the judge that Qualcomm’s conduct was an abuse of a dominant position, compensation, and an account of the profits it says Qualcomm gained from unlawful conduct, according to the court filings.

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Hexus spotted Yu Zheng, an R&D Manager at AMD Shanghai had listed the work on Project Greenland as a work experience highlight on his LinkedIn profile page. Greenland is described as “A leading chip of the first graphics IP v9.0 generation, it has full capacity of 4096 shader processor along with whole new SOC v15 architecture.”

The Graphics IP v9.0 designation is thought to signify a Vega GPU in the making. Zheng mentions this is an SOC, but then Hawaii and Fiji chips were described the same. Fiji is part of the graphics IP v8.0 family, as will be Polaris.

Vega following after Polaris, and designated as a ‘HMB2′ GPU by AMD, it looks like Vega based graphics cards will be the successors to the HBM equipped Fiji range such as the Radeon Fury and Nano. Fiju can manage 4096 stream processors,  but with an upgrade to HBM2, 14nm process and other optimisation it is estimated that a Greenland/Vega GPU based graphics cards will offer 20 to 30 per cent better performance.

So with Greenland/Vega sporting HBM2 memory Hexus thinks that Polaris packing graphics cards will therefore feature GDDR5/X memory.

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The new Mali GPU can push enough pixels on the local display it is more likely that it is interested in using the technology for streaming.

Many smartphones can record 4K video and this means that smartphones could be a home to high resolution content which can be streamed to a large, high resolution screen.

It looks like Mali DP650can juggle the device’s native resolution and the external display’s own resolution and the variable refresh rates. At least that is what ARM says it can do.

The GPU is naturally able to handle different resolutions but it is optimized for a “2.5K”, which means WQXGA (2560×1600) on tablets and WQHD (2560×1440) on smartphones, but also Full HD (1920×1080) for slightly lower end devices.

Mark Dickinson, general manager, media processing group, ARM said: “The Mali-DP650 display processor will enable mobile screens with multiple composition layers, for graphics and video, at Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) resolutions and beyond while maintaining excellent picture quality and extending battery life,”

“Smartphones and tablets are increasingly becoming content passports, allowing people to securely download content once and carry it to view on whichever screen is most suitable. The ability to stream the best quality content from a mobile device to any screen is an important capability ARM Mali display technology delivers.”

ARM did not say when the Mali-DP650 will be in the shops or which chips will be the first to incorporate its split-display mode feature.

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The new Mali-470 GPU has half the power consumption and two times the energy efficiency of the Mali-400, and is designed for next-generation wearables and IoT devices such as industrial control panels and healthcare monitors that rely on low-cost and low-power chips.

The Mali-470 supports OpenGL ES 2.0, used by Android and Android Wear, hinting that the GPU could also find its way into low-cost smartphones. If not, ARM promises that the chip will bring smartphone-quality visuals to wearable and IoT devices, supporting screen resolutions of up to 640×640 on single-core devices, and higher resolutions for multi-core configurations.

ARM envisions the new GPU paired with its efficient Cortex-A7 or A53 CPU designs for a low-power SoC.

“ARM scrutinises every milliwatt across the entire SoC to enable OEMs to optimize energy efficiency and open up new opportunities,” said Mark Dickinson, vice president and general manager of ARM’s multimedia processing group.

“Tuning efficiency is particularly relevant for devices requiring sophisticated graphics on a low power budget such as wearables, entry-level smartphones and IoT devices. The Mali-470 has been designed to meet this demand by enabling a highly capable user interface while being extremely energy efficient.”

ARM expects the first SoCs using the GPU be ready by the end of 2016, meaning that the chip will start showing up in devices the following year.

The launch of the Mali-470 GPU comes just hours after ARM announced plans to pick up the product portfolio and other business assets of Carbon Design Systems, a supplier of cycle-accurate virtual prototyping solutions.

The deal will see Carbon’s staff transfer to ARM, where the chip firm will make use of the Massachusetts-based outfit’s expertise in virtual prototypes. This will enable ARM to iron out any bugs and make improvements to chips before they move to foundries for production.

ARM also said that Carbon will help the firm enhance its capability in SoC architectural exploration, system analysis and software bring-up.

Courtesy-TheInq