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AMD Unveils Carrizo APU With Excavator Core Architecture
MojoKid writes: AMD just unveiled new details about their upcoming Carrizo APU architecture. The company is claiming the processor, which is still built on Global Foundries' 28nm 28SHP node like its predecessor, will nonetheless deliver big advances in both performance and efficiency. When it was first announced, AMD detailed support for next generation Radeon Graphics (DX12, Mantle, and Dual Graphics support), H.265 decoding, full HSA 1.0 support, and ARM Trustzone compatibility. But perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Carrizo is the fact that the APU and Southbridge are now incorporated into the same die; not just two separates dies built into and MCM package.
This not only improves performance, but also allows the Southbridge to take advantage of the 28SHP process rather than older, more power-hungry 45nm or 65nm process nodes. In addition, the Excavator cores used in Carrizo have switched from a High Performance Library (HPL) to a High Density Library (HDL) design. This allows for a reduction in the die area taken up by the processing cores (23 percent, according to AMD). This allows Carrizo to pack in 29 percent more transistors (3.1 billion versus 2.3 billion in Kaveri) in a die size that is only marginally larger (250mm2 for Carrizo versus 245mm2 for Kaveri). When all is said and done, AMD is claiming a 5 percent IPC boost for Carrizo and a 40 percent overall reduction in power usage.
This not only improves performance, but also allows the Southbridge to take advantage of the 28SHP process rather than older, more power-hungry 45nm or 65nm process nodes. In addition, the Excavator cores used in Carrizo have switched from a High Performance Library (HPL) to a High Density Library (HDL) design. This allows for a reduction in the die area taken up by the processing cores (23 percent, according to AMD). This allows Carrizo to pack in 29 percent more transistors (3.1 billion versus 2.3 billion in Kaveri) in a die size that is only marginally larger (250mm2 for Carrizo versus 245mm2 for Kaveri). When all is said and done, AMD is claiming a 5 percent IPC boost for Carrizo and a 40 percent overall reduction in power usage.
In real world server benches, the Opteron 6380, despite being a 16 core part that uses more power, *loses* all-around to a E5-2660 which is slower than the one you mentioned (and also a bit cheaper): http://www.anandtech.com/show/6508/the-new-opteron-6300-finally-tested/14 Not that it matters, because it's the only segment they're even remotely competitive in.
As for desktops, they're barely competitive with the old Core 2 arch... All of their current CPUs have a terrible IPC, and they kinda suck in the performance per dollar department too. Right now all they have is power hungry monsters that have lots of cores which will sit idle most of the time -- save for the 3 people who will reply to this and who will pretend everybody need 8 cores for everyday things, and that this makes them a good value somehow.
We don't need a ton of slow shitty cores. We need a better architecture with a higher IPC. A 5% increase is nowhere near enough. Most people are better off with an i3...
I'd take power reduction over IPC any day, I haven't needed more CPU performance in about 6 years, and it's looking like I still won't need any more performance for another 6 years.
And Intel would still be forcing the Itanium on us had AMD not come out with the Athlon and the x86_64 instruction set, stealing Inel's lunch for a few years until they caught up.
Sure, AMD dropped the ball and Intel stole the lead back from them years ago. But without the competition, Intel wouldn't have any incentive to have processors as good as they do now. The market needs companies like AMD to keep companies like Intel competitive.