CPUs

AMD is also working on a new 64-bit x86 Core
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AMD is also working on a new 64-bit x86 Core

Jim Keller joined Mark Papermaster on stage at AMD’s Core Innovation Update press conference and added a few more details to AMD’s K12 announcement. Keller stressed AMD’s expertise in building high frequency cores, as well as marrying the strengths of AMD’s big cores with those of its low power cores. The resulting K12 core is a 64-bit ARM design, but Jim Keller also revealed that his team is working on a corresponding 64-bit x86 core.

The x86 counterpart doesn’t have a publicly known name at this point, but it is a new design built from the ground up.

AMD Announces K12 Core: Custom 64-bit ARM Design in 2016
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AMD Announces K12 Core: Custom 64-bit ARM Design in 2016

In 2015 AMD will launch project SkyBridge, a pair of pin-compatible ARM and x86 based SoCs. Leveraging next generation Puma+ x86 cores or ARM’s Cortex A57 cores, these SoCs form the foundation of the next phase in AMD’s evolution where ARM and x86 are treated like equal class citizens. As I mentioned in today’s post however, both of these designs really aim at the lower end of the performance segment. To address a higher performance market, AMD is doing what many ARM partners have done and is leveraging an ARM architecture license to design their own microarchitecture. 

In 2016 AMD will release its first custom 64-bit ARMv8 CPU core, codenamed K12. Jim Keller is leading the team that is designing the K12, as well as a corresponding new 64-bit x86 design. AMD is pretty quiet about K12 details at this point given how far away it is. Given the timing I’m assuming we’re talking about a 14/16nm FinFET SoC. On the slide above we see that AMD is not only targeting servers and embedded markets, but also ultra low power client devices for its 64-bit ARM designs (presumably notebooks, chromebooks, tablets). AMD has shied away from playing in the phone market directly, but it could conceivably play in that space with its semi-custom business (offering just a CPU/GPU core with other IP). Update: AMD added that server, embedded and semi-custom markets are obvious targets for K12. 

There’s also this discussion of modularity, treating both ARM and x86 cores as IP modules rather than discrete designs. AMD continues to have a lot of expertise in SoC design, all it really needs is a focus on improving single threaded performance. I can only hope (assume?) that K12 won’t be Bulldozer-like and will hopefully prioritize single threaded performance. It’s important to point out that there hasn’t been a single reference to the Bulldozer family of CPU cores in any of these announcements either…

Update: Jim Keller added some details on K12. He referenced AMD’s knowledge of doing high frequency designs as well as “extending the range” that ARM is in. Keller also mentioned he told his team to take the best of the big and little cores that AMD presently makes in putting together this design. 

AMD Announces Project SkyBridge: Pin-Compatible ARM and x86 SoCs in 2015, Android Support
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AMD Announces Project SkyBridge: Pin-Compatible ARM and x86 SoCs in 2015, Android Support

This morning AMD decided to provide an update on its CPU core/SoC roadmap, particularly as it pertains to the ARM side of the business. AMD already committed to releasing a 28nm 8-core Cortex A57 based Opteron SoC this year. That particular SoC is aimed at the enterprise exclusively and doesn’t ship with an on-die GPU.

Next year, AMD will release a low-power 20nm Cortex A57 based SoC with integrated Graphics Core Next GPU. The big news? The 20nm ARM based SoC will be pin compatible with AMD’s next-generation low power x86 SoC (using Puma+ cores). The ARM SoC will also be AMD’s first official Android platform.

I don’t expect we’ll see standard socketed desktop boards that are compatible with both ARM and x86 SoCs, but a pin compatible design will have some benefits for embedded, BGA solutions. AMD expects to target embedded and client markets with these designs, not servers.

AMD’s motivation behind offering both ARM and x86 designs is pretty simple. The TAM (Total Addressable Market) for x86 is decreasing, while it’s increasing for ARM. AMD is no longer married to x86 exclusively and by offering OEMs pin compatible x86/ARM solutions it gets to play in both markets, as well as benefit if one increases at the expense of the other.

Note that we’re still talking about mobile phone/tablet class CPU cores here (Cortex A57/Puma+). AMD has yet to talk about what it wants to do at the high end, but I suspect there’s a strategy there as well.