AMD Accelerated Processing Unit

AMD Accelerated Processing Unit
Release date 2011
Codename Fusion
Desna
Ontario
Zacate
Llano
Hondo
Trinity
Weatherford
Richland
Kaveri
Kabini
Temash
Carrizo
IGP
Wrestler
WinterPark
BeaverCreek
Architecture AMD64
Models

Desktop E2 Series

Cores 2 to 4
Fabrication process and transistors

1,178M 32 nm (Llano)

  • 1,303M 32 nm (Trinity)
  • 1,3M 32 nm (Richland)
  • 2,41M 28 nm (Kaveri)
Rendering support
Direct3D Direct3D 11
OpenCL 1.2
OpenGL 4.1+

The AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, formerly known as Fusion, is a series of 64-bit microprocessors from AMD designed to act as a CPU and graphics accelerator (GPU) on a single chip.

AMD announced the first generation APUs, Llano for high-performance and Brazos for low-power devices in January 2011. The second-generation Trinity for high-performance and Brazos-2 for low-power devices were announced in June 2012. The third-generation Kaveri for high performance devices was launched in January 2014, while Kabini and Temash for low-power devices were announced in summer 2013.

The Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One eighth generation video game consoles both use semi-custom third-generation low-power APUs.

History

The AMD Fusion project started in 2006 with the aim of developing a system on a chip that combined a CPU with a GPU on a single die. AMD took a key step toward realising such a vision when it acquired the graphics chipset manufacturer ATI[1] in 2006. The project reportedly required three internal iterations of the Fusion concept to create a product deemed worthy of release.[1] Reasons contributing to the delay of the project include the technical difficulties of combining a CPU and GPU on the same die at a 45 nm process, and conflicting views on what the role of the CPU and GPU should be within the project.[2]

The first generation desktop and laptop APU, codenamed Llano, was announced on January 4, 2011 at the 2011 CES show in Las Vegas and released shortly after.[3][4] It featured K10 CPU cores and a Radeon HD 6000-series GPU on the same die on the FM1 socket. An APU for low-power devices was announced as the Brazos platform, based on the Bobcat microarchitecture and a Radeon HD 6000-series GPU on the same die.

At a conference in January 2012, corporate fellow Phil Rogers announced that AMD would re-brand the Fusion platform as the Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA), stating that "it's only fitting that the name of this evolving architecture and platform be representative of the entire, technical community that is leading the way in this very important area of technology and programming development."[5] However, it was later revealed that AMD had been the subject of a trademark infringement lawsuit by the Swiss company Arctic, who used the name "Fusion" for a line of power supplies.[6]

The second generation desktop and laptop APU, codenamed Trinity was announced at AMD's Financial Analyst Day 2010[7][8] and released in October 2012.[9] It featured Piledriver CPU cores and Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU cores on the FM2 socket.[10] AMD released a new APU based on the Piledriver microarchitecture on March 12, 2013 for Laptops/Mobile and on June 4, 2013 for desktops under the codename Richland.[11] The second generation APU for low-power devices, Brazos 2.0, used exactly the same APU chip, but ran at higher clock speed and rebranded the GPU as Radeon HD7000 series and used a new IO controller chip.

Semi-custom chips were introduced in the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 video games consoles.[12][13]

A third generation of the technology was released on 14 January 2014, featuring greater integration between the CPU and GPU. The desktop and laptop variant is codenamed Kaveri, based on Steamroller architecture, while the low-power variants, codenamed Kabini and Temash, are based on Jaguar architecture.[14]

Features

AMD Heterogeneous System Architecture

AMD is a founding member of the HSA Foundation and is consequently actively working on developing the Heterogeneous System Architecture in co-operation with the other members. The following hardware and software implementations are available in AMD's APU-branded products:

Type HSA Feature First Implemented Notes
Optimized Platform GPU Compute C++ Support 2012
Trinity APUs 		Support OpenCL C++ directions and Microsoft’s C++ AMP language extension. This eases programming of both CPU and GPU working together to process support parallel workloads.
HSA-aware MMU GPU can access the entire system memory through the translation services and page fault management of the HSA MMU.
Shared Power Management CPU and GPU now share the power budget. Priority goes to the processor most suited to the current tasks.
Architectural Integration Heterogeneous Memory Management: the CPU's MMU and the GPU's IOMMU share the same address space.[15][16] 2014
PlayStation 4,
Kaveri APUs 		CPU and GPU now access the memory with the same address space. Pointers can now be freely passed between CPU and GPU, hence enabling zero-copy.
Fully coherent memory between CPU & GPU GPU can now access and cache data from coherent memory regions in the system memory, and also reference the data from CPU's cache. Cache coherency is maintained.
GPU uses pageable system memory via CPU pointers GPU can take advantage of the shared virtual memory between CPU and GPU, and pageable system memory can now be referenced directly by the GPU, instead of being copied or pinned before accessing.
System Integration GPU compute context switch 2015
Carrizo APU 		Compute tasks on GPU can be context switched, allowing a multi-tasking environment and also faster interpretation between applications, compute and graphics.
GPU graphics pre-emption Long-running graphics tasks can be pre-empted so processes have low latency access to the GPU.
Quality of Service[15] In addition to context switch and pre-emption, hardware resources can be either equalized or prioritized among multiple users and applications.

Feature overview

The entire AMD Accelerated Processing Unit lines and some of their features
Brand Brazos
(low power) 		Llano Trinity Richland Kabini & Temash
(low power) 		Kaveri Beema & Mullins
(low power) 		Carrizo Carrizo-L
(low power)
Released Jan 2011 Aug 2011 Oct 2012 2013 May 2013 Jan 2014 Q2 2014 2015 2015
Fab (nm) TSMC 40 nm GlobalFoundries 32 nm SOI 28 28 28 28 28
APU Socket FT1 FM1
FS1 		FM2
FS1+
FP2 		AM1
FT3 		FM2+
FP3 		FT3b TBA TBA
CPU cores Bobcat AMD 10h Piledriver Jaguar Steamroller Puma Excavator Puma+[17]
3D engine1 80:8:4 400:20:8 384:24:6 384:24:6 128:8:4 512:32:8 128:8:4 TBA TBA
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) Graphics Core Next (Mantle, HSA)
IOMMUv1 IOMMUv2 IOMMUv1[18] TBA TBA
Unified Video Decoder UVD 3 UVD 4 UVD 4.2 TBA TBA
Video Codec Engine N/A VCE 1.0 VCE 2.0 TBA TBA
TrueAudio N/A Yes[19] N/A[18] TBA TBA
Max. № of displays2 2 2–3 2–4 2 2–4 2 TBA TBA
Direct Rendering Manager/
Mesa 3D driver[20][21]		 Yes[21] WiP[22] WiP[23]

APU-branded platforms

AMD APUs have a unique architecture: they have AMD CPU modules, cache, and a discrete-class graphics processor all on the same die, using the same bus. This architecture allows for the use of graphics accelerators, such as OpenCL, with the integrated graphics processor.[25] The goal is to create a "fully integrated" APU, which, according to AMD will eventually feature 'heterogeneous cores' capable of processing both CPU and GPU work automatically, depending on the workload requirement.[26]

K10 architecture (2011): Llano

Main article: AMD 10h

The first generation APU, released in June 2011, was used in both desktops and laptops. It was based on the K10 architecture and built on a 32 nm process featuring two to four CPU cores on a TDP of 65-100 W, and integrated graphics based on the Radeon HD6000 Series with support for DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2 and OpenCL 1.2. In performance comparisons against the similarly priced Intel Core i3-2105, the Llano APU was criticised for its poor CPU performance[29] and praised for its better GPU performance.[30][31] AMD was later criticised for abandoning Socket FM1 after one generation.[32]

Bobcat architecture (2011): Ontario, Zacate, Desna, Hondo

The AMD Brazos platform was introduced on January 4, 2011 targeting the subnotebook, netbook and low power small form factor markets.[3] It features the 9-watt AMD C-Series APU (codename: Ontario) for netbooks and low power devices as well as the 18-watt AMD E-Series APU (codename: Zacate) for mainstream and value notebooks, all-in-ones and small form factor desktops. Both APUs feature one or two Bobcat x86 cores and a Radeon Evergreen Series GPU with full DirectX11, DirectCompute and OpenCL support including UVD3 video acceleration for HD video including 1080p.[3]

AMD expanded the Brazos platform on June 5, 2011 with the announcement of the 5.9-watt AMD Z-Series APU (codename: Desna) designed for the Tablet market.[33] The Desna APU is based on the 9-watt Ontario APU, energy savings were achieved by lowering the CPU, GPU and north bridge voltages, reducing the idle clocks of the CPU and GPU as well as introducing a hardware thermal control mode.[33] A bidirectional turbo core mode was also introduced.

AMD announced the Brazos-T platform on October 9, 2012. It comprises the 4.5-watt AMD Z-Series APU (codename: Hondo) and the A55T Fusion Controller Hub (FCH), designed for the tablet computer market.[34][35] The Hondo APU is a redesign of the Desna APU. AMD lowered energy use by optimizing the APU and FCH for tablet computers.[36][37]

The Deccan platform including Krishna and Wichita APUs were cancelled in 2011. AMD originally planned to release them in the second half 2012.[38]

Piledriver architecture (2012): Trinity and Richland

Trinity The first iteration of the second generation platform, released in October 2012, brought improvements to CPU and GPU performance to both desktops and laptops. The platform features 2 to 4 Piledriver CPU cores built on a 32 nm process with a TDP between 65 W and 100 W, and a GPU based on the Radeon HD7000 Series with support for DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2, and OpenCL 1.2. The Trinity APU was praised for the improvements to CPU performance compared to the Llano APU.[41]

Richland

The release of this second iteration of this generation was 12 March 2013 for mobile parts and 5 June 2013 for desktop parts.

Jaguar architecture (2013): Kabini and Temash

In January 2013 the Jaguar-based Kabini and Temash APUs were unveiled as the successors of the Bobcat-based Ontario, Zacate and Hondo APUs.[45][46][47] The Kabini APU is aimed at the low-power, subnotebook, netbook, ultra-thin and small form factor markets, the Temash APU is aimed at the tablet, ultra-low power and small form factor markets.[47] The two to four Jaguar cores of the Kabini and Temash APUs feature numerous architectural improvements regarding power requirement and performance, such as support for newer x86-instructions, a higher IPC count, a CC6 power state mode and clock gating.[48][49][50] Kabini and Temash are AMD's first, and also the first ever quad-core x86 based SoCs.[51] The integrated Fusion Controller Hubs (FCH) for Kabini and Temash are codenamed "Yangtze" and "Salton" respectively.[52] The Yangtze FCH features support for two USB 3.0 ports, two SATA 6 Gbit/s ports, as well as the xHCI 1.0 and SD/SDIO 3.0 protocols for SD-card support.[52] Both chips feature DirectX 11.1-compliant GCN-based graphics as well as numerous Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) improvements.[45][46] They were fabricated at a 28 nm process in an FT3 BGA package by TSMC, and were released on May 23, 2013.[48][53][54]

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were revealed to both be powered by 8-core semi-custom Jaguar-derived APUs.

ARM server architecture (2014): Seattle

A Cortex-A57-based 64-bit server solution SoC will be launched in the second half of 2014 and codenamed "Seattle".[55] The first AMD ARM chip has no GPU and is then not an APU, but later will be. Seattle will feature 8 or 16 core variants, with an expected clockspeed over 2 GHz, and will reportedly deliver up to four times the performance of current Opteron X processors.[56] These ARM processors will incorporate SeaMicro freedom fabric on die, offering up to 10 Gbit/s bandwidth, for server usage; additionally, each ARM processor will support up to 64 GB DRAM.[57]

Steamroller architecture (2014): Kaveri

The third generation of the platform, codenamed Kaveri, was partly released on January 14, 2014.[60] Kaveri contains up to four Steamroller CPU cores clocked to 3.7 GHz with a turbo mode of 4 GHz, up to a 512-core Graphics Core Next GPU, two decode units per module instead of one (which allows each core to decode four instructions per cycle instead of two), AMD TrueAudio,[61] Mantle API,[62] an on-chip ARM Cortex-A5 MPCore,[63] and will release with a new socket, FM2+.[64] Ian Cutress and Rahul Garg of Anandtech asserted that Kaveri represented the unified system-on-a-chip realisation of AMD's acquisition of ATI. The performance of the 45W A8-7600 Kaveri APU was found to be similar to that of the 100W Richland part, leading to the claim that AMD made significant improvements in on-die graphics performance per watt;[58] however, CPU performance was found to lag behind similarly-specified Intel processors, a lag that was unlikely to be resolved in the Bulldozer family APUs.[58] The A8-7600 component was delayed from a Q1 launch to an H1 launch because the Steamroller architecture components are alleged to not scale well at higher clock speeds.[65]

AMD announced the release of the Kaveri APU for the mobile market on June 4, 2014 at Computex 2014,[59] shortly after the accidental announcement on the AMD website on May 26, 2014.[66] The announcement included components targeted at the standard voltage, low-voltage, and ultra-low voltage segments of the market. In early-access performance testing of a Kaveri prototype laptop, AnandTech found that the 35W FX-7600P was competitive with the similarly-priced 17W Intel i7-4500U in synthetic CPU-focused benchmarks, and was significantly better than previous integrated GPU systems on GPU-focused benchmarks.[67] Tom's Hardware reported the performance of the Kaveri FX-7600P against the 35W Intel i7-4702MQ, finding that the i7-4702MQ was significantly better than the FX-7600P in synthetic CPU-focused benchmarks, whereas the FX-7600P was significantly better than the i7-4702MQ's Intel HD 4600 iGPU in the four games that could be tested in the time available to the team.[59]

Puma architecture (2014): Beema and Mullins

Excavator architecture (2015): Carrizo (laptop and mobile processors)

Steamroller architecture (Summer (March-June) 2015): Godavari (desktop Kaveri refresh)

Excavator architecture (2016) Bristol Ridge (desktop Carrizo)

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The rise and fall of AMD: A company on the ropes". 23 April 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  2. ↑ William Van Winkle (13 August 2012). "AMD Fusion: How It Started, Where It’s Going, And What It Means". Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 AMD (4 January 2011). "AMD Fusion APU Era Begins". Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Stokes, Jon (February 8, 2010). "AMD reveals Fusion CPU+GPU, to challege Intel in laptops". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
  5. ↑ "AMD ditches Fusion branding". Bit-tech. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "AMD targeted by Arctic over Fusion brand". Bit-tech. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  7. ↑ Cyril Kowaliski (9 November 2010). "AMD begins shipping Brazos, announces Bulldozer-based APUs". The Tech Report. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Rick Bergman (9 November 2010). "AMD 2010 Financial Analyst Day" (PDF). Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "AMD reveals its 2012-2013 roadmap, promises 28 nm chips across the board by 2013". Engadget. 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  10. ↑ Building an AMD 'Trinity' desktop PC
  11. ↑ AMD launches "Richland" A-Series APUs: slight speed bump, better power management
  12. ↑ Taylor, John (2013-02-21). "AMD and The Sony PS4. Allow Me To Elaborate.". Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  13. ↑ "XBox One Revealed". Wired. 2013-05-21. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  14. ↑ Darren Murph. "AMD announces Temash, Kabini, Richland, and Kaveri APUs at CES 2013 (video)". Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 "The programmer's guide to the APU galaxy" (PDF).
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 "AMD Outlines HSA Roadmap: Unified Memory for CPU/GPU in 2013, HSA GPUs in 2014".
  17. ↑ "AMD Mobile “Carrizo” Family of APUs Designed to Deliver Significant Leap in Performance, Energy Efficiency in 2015" (Press release). 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Thomas De Maesschalck (2013-11-14). "AMD teases Mullins and Beema tablet/convertibles APU". Retrieved 2015-02-24.
  19. ↑ "A technical look at AMD’s Kaveri architecture". Semi Accurate. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  20. ↑ Airlie, David (2009-11-26). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33". Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Radeon feature matrix". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2015-02-13.
  22. ↑ "AMDKFD Driver Does More Prepping For Carrizo / VI APUs". 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2015-01-13.
  23. ↑ "AMDKFD Driver Does More Prepping For Carrizo / VI APUs". 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2015-01-13.
  24. ↑ "How do I connect three or More Monitors to an AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series Graphics Card?". AMD. Retrieved 2014-12-08.
  25. ↑ 2011.pdf
  26. ↑ AnandTech - AMD Outlines HSA Roadmap: Unified Memory for CPU/GPU in 2013, HSA GPUs in 2014
  27. ↑ "AMD Llano core". Cpu-world.com. 2014-03-17. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 "AMD Fusion Architecture and Llano".
  29. ↑ Anand Lal Shimpi (30 June 2011). "The AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano on the Desktop". Anandtech, Inc. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  30. ↑ Conclusion : AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano Rocks Entry-Level Desktops
  31. ↑ AnandTech | The AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano on the Desktop
  32. ↑ AnandTech | AMD A10-5800K & A8-5600K Review: Trinity on the Desktop, Part 1
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Nita, Sorin (1 June 2011). "AMD Releases More Details Regarding the Desna Tablet APU". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  34. ↑ AMD (9 October 2013). "New AMD Z-Series APU for Tablets Enables Immersive Experience for Upcoming Microsoft Windows 8 Platforms". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  35. ↑ Shvets, Anthony (10 October 2012). "AMD announces Z-60 APU for tablets".
  36. ↑ Hruska, Joel (9 October 2012). "AMD's Hondo Z-Series APU To Challenge Intel's Atom In Windows 8 Tablet Market". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  37. ↑ Shilov, Anton (9 October 2012). "AMD Introduces Its First Accelerated Processing Unit for Media Tablets". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  38. ↑ Demerjian, Charlie. "Exclusive: AMD kills Wichita and Krishna". SemiAccurate. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  39. ↑ "CPU + GPU = APU: East Meets West". Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  40. ↑ "AMD’s 2nd Generation APU, Codenamed "Trinity," Will Enable Superior Multimedia Experience for Our "Connected" Generation".
  41. ↑ AnandTech | The AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano on the Desktop
  42. ↑ AMD Officially Announces Third Generation Richland A-Series Mobile APUs - 50% Faster GPU Than Intel Core i7 Mobile
  43. ↑ New Details Revealed on AMD's Upcoming Richland Chips
  44. ↑ "AMD A10-Series A10-6700T — AD670TYHA44HL / AD670TYHHLBOX". Cpu-world.com. Retrieved 2013-11-10.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 SKYMTL (9 January 2013). "Richland, Kaveri, Kabini & Temash; AMD’s 2013 APU Lineup Examined". Hardwarecanucks. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 Halfacree, Gareth (January 8, 2013). "AMD unveils new APUs, SoCs and Radeon HD 8000 Series". Bit-Tech. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Lal Shimpi, Anand (2 February 2012). "AMD's 2012 - 2013 Client CPU/GPU/APU Roadmap Revealed". AnandTech. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Shilov, Anton (2 January 2013). "AMD to Officially Roll-Out "Kabini" and "Temash" Low-Power APUs This Quarter". X-bit labs. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  49. ↑ Shilov, Anton (24 July 2013). "AMD's New Low-Power Micro-Architecture to Support AVX, BMI Other New Instructions". X-bit labs. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  50. ↑ Paul, Donald (21 October 2012). "Leaked details of the future some Kabini APU AMD". Technewspedia. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  51. ↑ Paine, Steve Chippy (9 January 2013). "AMD Shares SoC Line-Up for 2013. Kabini is for Ultrathins". Ultrabooknews. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Abazovic, Fuad (24 January 2013). "Kabini chipset is Yangtze". Fudzilla. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  53. ↑ Hruska, Paul (14 January 2013). "AMD quietly confirms 28 nm Kabini, Temash chips are being built at TSMC". Extremetech. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  54. ↑ "AMDs sparsame Mobilprozessoren Kabini und Temash legen los". 23 May 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  55. ↑ "AMD Server Roadmap 2013". AMD. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  56. ↑ "AMD details first ARM-based server chip: up to 16 helpings of Cortex-A57 clocked at 2 GHz". engadget. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  57. ↑ "AMD bets ARM, server chip experience means market gains". zdnet. 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 58.2 58.3 58.4 "AMD Kaveri Review: A8-7600 and A10-7850K Tested". Anandtech. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 59.2 59.3 "AMD FX-7600P Kaveri Review: FX Rides Again...In A Mobile APU?". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  60. ↑ "AnandTech Portal | AMD Kaveri APU Launch Details: Desktop, January 14th". Anandtech.com. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  61. ↑ ChrisFiebelkorn on Dec 3, 2013. "AMD A10 Kaveri APU Details Leaked". HotHardware. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  62. ↑ Dave_HH on Nov 14, 2013. "How AMD's Mantle Will Redefine Gaming, AMD Hardware Not Required". HotHardware. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  63. ↑ AMD and ARM Fusion redefine beyond x86
  64. ↑ AMD’s Next-Gen “Kaveri” APUs Will Require New Mainboards - X-bit labs
  65. ↑ "Perils of a paper launch: AMD’s A8-7600 pushed back to late 2014". Extreme Tech. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  66. ↑ "AMD Publishes Mobile Kaveri Specifications". Anandtech. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  67. ↑ "AMD Launches Mobile Kaveri APUs". AnandTech. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 68.2 http://www.extremetech.com/computing/178752-amds-next-gen-carrizo-apu-features-leaked-shows-greater-focus-on-power-efficiency
  69. ↑ http://techreport.com/news/26183/report-amd-next-gen-carrizo-apu-supports-ddr4-integrates-chipset

External links

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