Beginning of January, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA/USA) detailed its forthcoming roll-out plan for its next generation of high-performance computing and graphics products during an event in Las Vegas just prior to the opening of CES 2018. Alongside announcing the first desktop Ryzen processors with built-in Radeon Vega Graphics, the vendor also detailed the full line up of Ryzen mobile APUs and provided a first look at the performance of its upcoming 12-nm 2nd generation Ryzen desktop CPU expected to launch in upcoming April. In graphics, the vendor announced the expansion of its Vega family with Radeon Vega Mobile and that its first 7-nm product is planned to be built for machine learning applications.
AMD CTO and SVP Mark Papermaster shared updates on AMD’s process technology roadmaps for both x86 processors and graphics architectures.
x86 Processors: The Zen core, currently shipping in Ryzen desktop and mobile processors, is in production at both 14 nm and 12 nm, with 12 nm samples now shipping.
The Zen 2 design is complete and will improve on the design in multiple dimensions. AMD is on track to deliver performance and performance-per-watt improvements through 2020.
Graphics Processors: The first 7-nm product, a Radeon Vega based GPU is built specifically for machine learning applications. A production-level machine learning software environment with AMD’s MIOpen libraries supporting common machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow and Caffe on the ROCm Open Ecosystem platform is presented. The open heterogeneous software environment, which is making it easier to programme using AMD GPUs for high performance compute and deep learning environments is also showcased at CES in Las Vegas.