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Although many people are currently away on vacation, aside from tech journalists obviously, AMD engineers are apparently hard at work in their labs testing next-generation APUs. The distributed computing platform [email protected] recently posted a listing for a contributor with all the markings of a Zen 5 APU, which the company calls its mobile CPUs with integrated graphics. This is pretty clearly a mobile part with next-generation technology, as it boasts 12 cores and 24 threads, four more cores and eight more threads than its current offerings. This shows testing is well underway for the company’s upcoming architecture and hints at a possible hybrid design.
The listing for the mysterious APU is online and labeled “AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000994-03_N.” The only juicy details we can glean from this submission is that it’s listed as “Stepping 0,” meaning it’s the first iteration of said silicon. It’s also listed as offering 24 threads, so we can deduct it has 12 cores, more than the company’s flagship “Phoenix” APU, which has eight cores and 16 threads. Though the addition of four cores is undoubtedly interesting, it’s the configuration of those 12 cores that is raising eyebrows.
Credit: [email protected]
It’s possible that with this 12-core design, AMD could be aiming to offer eight standard Zen 5 cores and four Zen 5c cores. It could theoretically also go with a 6+6 configuration, or 4+8 even. AMD unveiled its first high-density, low-power “c” cores in its data-center-oriented Bergamo chip this week. It has made clear that it will use hybrid designs on its portfolio of processors going forward. Back in May, its CTO Mark Papermaster stated that in the future, “You’ll see high-performance cores mixed with power-efficient cores mixed with acceleration.” AMD was granted a patent for its hybrid designs in 2021, so it looks like it might be moving ahead with it for consumer devices when Zen 5 arrives.
According to Hothardware, AMD’s big.LITTLE design differs quite drastically from Intel’s, which uses two types of chips. On the other hand, AMD’s “c” chips will offer the same instructions per clock (IPC) as its regular Zen 4/5 chips but run at lower clocks, designed for higher density and low-power operation. AMD will be naming this line of mobile chips Strix Point, and they will reportedly also include RDNA 3+ graphics, so they will be quite potent in ultra-thin laptops and handheld gaming devices.
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