New confirmed details on AMD’s 2014 APU lineup

Sources in Taipei shed light on AMD’s HSA APU efforts and reveal that Kaveri is delayed until 2014.

Industry sources in Taipei have provided VR-Zone with internal AMD documents that detail the company’s HSA APU efforts and show that Kaveri has a target launch date in 2014.

While we can’t post the original documents, we can say that they confirm rumours posted elsewhere naming Carizo as the successor to Kaveri, and that Kaveri would be delayed until 2014.

Here’s a breakdown of what we now know.

AMD will launch a new APU at its “essential” price point called “Beema”. It will have a Puma+ CPU core, a  “next generation” AMD Radeon GPU, connected standby,  integrated SOC FCH and full support of the HSA programming model. It will be produced for the FT3 BGA socket.

After “Beema” comes “Nolan” on the essential pricepoint. AMD hasn’t yet named the CPU core it will have, but it lists there being four of them. AMD hasn’t named the GPU it will have either, only stating it will be “next generation”. It will also have connected standby and fully support the HSA programming model. AMD is planning on having this chip on the FT4 BGA socket.

On the mainstream side of things, AMD will launch the “Carrizo” APU in 2015. It will be based on the “Excavator” CPU core and Bolton-D4 A88X chipset. AMD hasn’t named the GPU yet, only stating it will have an unnamed “next generation” GPU. AMD lists its TDP at 65W, but says it is “scoping” 45W. AMD also says that Carrizo will be scoping DDR4, meaning that they haven’t confirmed support but are planning on having it. It will also support third-generation PCI express, and, of course, the HSA programming model.

Kaveri in 2014

These documents also show that AMD’s upcoming Kaveri APU has been delayed. AMD first showed off Kaveri, its first APU to support its heterogeneous, unified memory architecture at Computex, and said it was scheduled for a “late 2013” release date.

According to this revised schedule we obtained, engineering samples of Kaveri won’t be ready until August, production candidate samples will go out in October and initial production will begin in December. The target launch into channel is now mid-February 2014.

More details are expected in the coming months.