Items tagged with 7nm
While Intel has been having problems with mass production of its 10nm product lines, other tech giants like AMD and Samsung are well along in their 7nm endeavors. AMD is currently sampling 7nm EPYC processors, and we're learning today that Samsung has now started mass production of chips using its 7nm LPP EUV process. LPP and EUV stand for Low Power Plus and extreme ultraviolet lithography technology, respectively. Samsung's 7nm LPP EUV process won't just be used for its own processors (a la the Exynos 9820), but also wide range of customers that rely on its fabs. Samsung says that...
Read more...
AMD is well along in development on its 7nm Zen 2 architecture that will be hitting the market in 2019. 12nm Zen+ Pinnacle Ridge architecture provided roughly a low single-digit uplift in instructions per clock (IPC) compared to 14nm Summit Ridge, but AMD has more ambitious goals for Zen 2. Back in July, it was rumored that Zen 2 would offer an IPC lift (at the same clock rates) of 10 to 15 percent compared to Zen+. Now, according to a tweet from Bits and Chips, it looks as though early performance numbers are hitting right in the middle of that performance range,...
Read more...
AMD is well on its way to delivering CPU and GPU products built on a 7-nanometer FinFET manufacturing process. The question is, when? We could see an unveiling of new 7nm chips in just a few months at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, an annual event for companies to showcase new and future products. There are several reports suggesting AMD will in fact unveil 7nm CPUs and GPUs at CES, all of which are based on AMD announcing that its president and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will give a keynote during the event. The announcement also talks about high-performance 7nm chips playing an...
Read more...
Watch out, Qualcomm; Huawei is knocking at your door. The Chinese tech giant has just announced its next-generation SoC that will power its upcoming flagship smartphone family in late 2018 and beyond. The Kirin 980 is the successor to the Kirin 970 and is the very first commercial 7nm chip that is being manufactured by TSMC. Due to the process shrink from 10nm to 7nm, Huawei is boasting unparalleled levels of performance and efficiency. The Kirin 980 crams in 6.9 billion transistors in a 1cm2die and promises a 20 percent improvement in power efficiency. Considering that we all crave the best...
Read more...
AMD made two big announcements after the closing bell today that affects its hardware business. There is some executive shuffling on the personnel side, and some changes with regards to 7nm production. On the personnel side, Jim Anderson, who served as AMD's General Manager and Senior Vice President of Global Computing and Graphics Sales, is leaving the company effective September 4th. Anderson decided to leave his post to take a position as President and CEO of Lattice Semiconductor. This is quite the move up the corporate latter for Anderson, who will also serve on the company's board of directors....
Read more...
In the CPU space, AMD is firing on all cylinders currently, having reasserted itself into the performance sector with its mainstream Ryzen processors and high-end desktop (HEDT) Threadripper chips. Both are now in their second generation. So, what's next? AMD is transitioning to a 7 nanometer manufacturing process, for both a new generation of CPUs and GPUs. We have known this for a long time, of course, but what is interesting about this shift is that it is taking place while Intel is still trying to get its 10nm chips out the door, in volume. Cannon Lake has seen numerous delays, though according...
Read more...
There is a core war taking place between AMD and Intel, with both companies designing CPUs with increasing numbers of physical cores and threads to throw at compute workloads. This is happening in the mainstream space as well, not just in the enthusiast and server sectors. AMD currently has the lead in that regard, and may aim to keep it with Zen 2, which is rumored to include 16-core CPU options. Before we dive into the rumored Zen 2 details, let's talk a moment about the naming scheme. Zen is the name of the underlying architecture in AMD's Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs. In the mainstream market,...
Read more...
Things are looking up for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) after the company posted a decline in revenue for its quarter ending in June. TSMC is now predicting significant increases in revenue moving through the third and fourth quarters of 2018. The gain in revenue is, according to industry sources, thanks to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 11 Series GPU and Apple's A12 SoC. Apple is rolling out three new iPhones in September, according to rumors, that will all use the A12 SoC that TSMC builds on its 7nm process technology. NVIDIA is also tapping TSMC for its GeForce GTX 11 GPU tech...
Read more...
Everyone wants some of what TSMC is cooking with its new 7nm process that will be used for chips from multiple companies. TSMC's 7nm production lines will be used by NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Sony, and Apple. To meet the crushing demand for the parts, TSMC is reportedly accelerating its production schedule. Sources are claiming that many of TSMC's fabless customers are skipping the 10nm process tech more readily available and moving directly to 7nm chips. So far in addition to the companies previously mentioned HiSilicon, MediaTek, and Xilinx have all confirmed they will be joining in on the TSMC...
Read more...
AMD last week teased a press photo of a 7-nanometer Vega product, the Radeon Instinct, aimed at machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads. The company didn't get into detailed specs or performance, both of which are of interest, considering that 7nm Vega GPUs could potentially end up in consumer graphics cards at some point. But in the absence of official data, some benchmarks of the new card have popped up in Futuremark's 3DMark 11 database. Before getting to the benchmarks, one thing to keep in mind is that it's likely an engineering sample and not necessarily the final design that...
Read more...
Hot off the heels of launching a new generation of Ryzen processors built on a refined 12-nanometer FinFET manufacturing process (Zen+), AMD is now looking ahead to next year, which is when it will roll out Zen 2. It won't be a paper launch, either—during a recent earnings call with investors, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su confirmed that AMD is already sampling its 7nm Zen 2 processors and is gearing up for a volume launch in 2019. "We have a 7nm GPU based on Vega that we'll sample later this year. We have a 7nm server CPU that we'll sample later this year. And then, obviously, we have a number of...
Read more...
AMD's current generation Vega graphics architecture – which powers its Radeon RX Vega family of graphics cards -- is based on a 14nm manufacturing process, but the chip company is already moving along with next generation process technology. During the company's conference call with analysts following its Q1 2018 earnings report (which it knocked out of the park, by the way), AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su made some comments regarding its upcoming 7nm GPUs. "I'm also happy to report that our next-generation 7-nanometer Radeon Instinct product, optimized for machine learning workloads, is running...
Read more...
We are just a few days away from the comsumer launch of AMD’s next generation Vega graphics architecture, which will underpin the Radeon RX Vega family. However, there is already talk about what’s coming after Vega; and that is Navi. Up until this point, not much has been said about Navi architecture, other than vague descriptions citing “scalability” and “next generation memory”. Other than that, we’ve been told that Navi will be built on a 7nm FinFET process when it launches next year. Today, however, a new report is suggesting that Navi will be the first GPU from AMD with circuity that is dedicated...
Read more...
The word from South Korea is that Samsung plans to invest $6.98 billion (8 trillion South Korean Won) into extending its high-tech semiconductor production lines. Specifically, Samsung is looking to remain on the cutting edge by making supplemental investments into its 10-nanometer production lines while building out new facilities capable of producing 7nm semiconductors.Samsung has some empty space located in Hwasung-si that it plans to fill with equipment than can fabricate 10nm chips. It has already ordered the necessary machinery from major domestic and foreign partners. The investments will...
Read more...
