Monday, May 23rd 2022

AMD Announces New Ultrathin Notebook Design Wins, New "Mendocino" Mobile Processor

by
btarunr
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AMD in its Computex 2022 presentation announced several design wins for its Ryzen 6000U line of high-performance processors for ultra-thin notebooks. With configurable TDPs of 15 W and 28 W, these processors feature an 8-core/16-thread "Zen 3" CPU, an iGPU with up to 12 RDNA2 compute units, and a modern I/O that combines DDR5 memory with PCI-Express Gen 4, to bring gaming to ultra-thin form-factors without the need for a discrete GPU. The iGPU meets DirectX 12 Ultimate feature requirements, and AMD leverages technologies such as FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), to further improve gaming performance.

Among the new design wins are the ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED, a 13-inch ultra-thin weighing only 1 kg, and capable of average 60 FPS in "Godfall," taking advantage of FSR. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro X is another notebook in this class capable of 1080p gaming, powered by the Ryzen 7 6800HS, with up to 122 FPS in CS:GO, up to 266 FPS in "League of Legends," up to 59 FPS in "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," up to 64 FPS in "Final Fantasy: XIV," and up to 46 FPS in "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided."
AMD also sees its Ryzen PRO notebook SoCs rising to the demand of the new-generation Hybrid Workforce that spends twice as much time collaborating remotely via Microsoft Teams, with a majority wanting the option of working remotely to stay; but a majority also being given notebooks by their companies that are over four years old. This creates opportunity for AMD to power the new crop of commercial notebooks with its Ryzen PRO 6000 mobile processors. AMD says that over 60 new commercial notebook designs are launching in 2022 powered by AMD Ryzen—notably the Lenovo ThinkPad Z, and the HP EliteBook 865 G9. Besides performance from the 8-core/16-thread "Zen 3" CPU, the AMD-powered EliteBook 865 G9 set records in battery-life in Mobilemark 18.
AMD is announcing a new class of processors for mainstream notebooks with high battery life, the Ryzen "Mendocino" mobile processors. The first of these will power mainstream notebooks launching in Q4-2022. These are interesting SoCs that combine a 4-core/8-thread CPU based on the older "Zen 2" microarchitecture, with an iGPU based on the latest RDNA2 graphics architecture, and the rest of its I/O and power-optimization features being carried over from the Ryzen 6000 series. "Mendocino" sounds familiar? Then you've been following the Tech Industry for a long time. Intel used the Mendocino codename around 1999, for their P6 architecture based Celerons (one generation before Netburst). While Intel Mendocino was built on a 250 nanometer process, AMD uses TSMC's N6 (6 nm) silicon fabrication process, 40x (!) smaller. The features in AMD Mendocino combine to give mainstream notebooks increased battery life in the region of 10 hours or more. Notebooks based on these chips will be priced in the $399 to $699 range.

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14 Comments on AMD Announces New Ultrathin Notebook Design Wins, New "Mendocino" Mobile Processor

#1
Wirko
With AMD's sometimes ingenious ability to reuse stuff, I'm wondering if the Mendocino chip is the same silicon as the new Zen 4 I/O die. If that's the case, they chose Zen 2 cores because they are smaller than Zen 3 (but optimised for power saving and still good enough for low end notebooks), so less silicon is wasted when they are not used.
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#3
Logoffon
I wonder if I can run two of these on a dual socket motherboard even though it's not officially supporte-

Whoops.
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#4
Valantar
WirkoWith AMD's sometimes ingenious ability to reuse stuff, I'm wondering if the Mendocino chip is the same silicon as the new Zen 4 I/O die. If that's the case, they chose Zen 2 cores because they are smaller than Zen 3 (but optimised for power saving and still good enough for low end notebooks), so less silicon is wasted when they are not used.
There is no way the IOD has four unused Zen2 CPU cores + their accompanying cache and everything else on board - nor would it make any type of sense to make a low-cost APU with 24 disabled PCIe 5.0 lanes on board. There's essentially zero feature overlap between those two products, so there's no reason they would share silicon. But you are right about that first sentence: this is most likely a 6nm refresh of the Steam Deck's Aerith/Van Gogh APU.

Edit: this might make for some very interesting low-cost Steam Deck competitors. Color me intrigued ...
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#5
Mawkzin
ValantarThere is no way the IOD has four unused Zen2 CPU cores + their accompanying cache and everything else on board - nor would it make any type of sense to make a low-cost APU with 24 disabled PCIe 5.0 lanes on board. There's essentially zero feature overlap between those two products, so there's no reason they would share silicon. But you are right about that first sentence: this is most likely a 6nm refresh of the Steam Deck's Aerith/Van Gogh APU.

Edit: this might make for some very interesting low-cost Steam Deck competitors. Color me intrigued ...
There's a leaked on roadmap from last year that showed Dragon Crest name for a sucessor of the Van Gogh with the same zen2/rdna2 configuration. I think it's the Mendocion.
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#6
defaultluser
ValantarThere is no way the IOD has four unused Zen2 CPU cores + their accompanying cache and everything else on board - nor would it make any type of sense to make a low-cost APU with 24 disabled PCIe 5.0 lanes on board. There's essentially zero feature overlap between those two products, so there's no reason they would share silicon. But you are right about that first sentence: this is most likely a 6nm refresh of the Steam Deck's Aerith/Van Gogh APU.

Edit: this might make for some very interesting low-cost Steam Deck competitors. Color me intrigued ...
This is a Steam Deck SoC. Most of the true handheld competitors are going t be running newer core than this!

The question is, after this year exclusive, when exactly should we see nee SoC out of valve? years Remember, this is Valve Time we're talking about!
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#7
Valantar
defaultluserThis is a Steam Deck SoC. Most of the true handheld competitors are going t be running newer core than this!

The question is, after this year exclusive, when exactly should we see nee SoC out of valve? years Remember, this is Valve Time we're talking about!
Aerith is 7nm, this is 6nm, so it's not quite the same - but as I said, it's in all likelihood a 6nm refresh of that same die. Porting a TSMC 7nm design to 6nm is supposed to be very easy, so that's likely what has happened here. And yes, competitors are running newer cores, but they're also charging 2x+ more than Valve. The SD showed that the iGPU is far more important than the CPU for these types of implementations, which is why the more area efficient Zen2 is a decent choice, even if it does have a lower performance ceiling. Hence why I said this might make for some interesting low-cost SD competitors: the existing ones are just too damn expensive. And except for the yet-to-be-released 6800U ones, the SD is even faster in the vast majority of games.

As for a new SoC out of Valve: considering the SD has barely been on the market a few months, I'd say at least a year. They most likely want to keep costs low (unlike their competitors, who aren't aiming for mass market adoption), so they're unlikely to adopt mainstream AMD APUs. But unless Valve already has a ton of Aerith chips stockpiled, there will likely be a minor revision of the SD with this chip instead - like the Switch refresh that improved battery life back in the day. Beyond that, hopefully we'll get a 2nd gen SD with 12-16 CUs at some point in the not-too-distant future, but launching a successor too early would be a bad idea - they're still months off from ironing out SD supply, after all. Give it time.
MawkzinThere's a leaked on roadmap from last year that showed Dragon Crest name for a sucessor of the Van Gogh with the same zen2/rdna2 configuration. I think it's the Mendocion.
Yeah, I saw that googling some roadmaps earlier, but that was also rumored as 7nm. Still sounds like the most likely explanation though.
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#9
RedBear
Are quad core Zen 3 and Zen 4 really expensive to make for the low end market? Otherwise I don't really quite understand why they would keep using an architecture that is going to be two generations old by the time of its release (on a new node).
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#10
trsttte
RedBearAre quad core Zen 3 and Zen 4 really expensive to make for the low end market? Otherwise I don't really quite understand why they would keep using an architecture that is going to be two generations old by the time of its release (on a new node).
It's not just about price, it's also time to port and integrate the designs and area efficiency. Zen3 and Zen4 for example have the unified L3 cache pool while Zen2 still had the divided L3 per CCX (which in this case would be easier to integrate since they're only going for a single CCX instead of 2 like on desktop).

They appear very short on details about the Mendocino, I'm still dreaming of a tablet form factor with something like what they propose (the surface for example is always the same Intel crap). But at least that last slide with the increasing number of design, good to see AMD having a bigger presence on the laptop market, it's about damn time
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#11
RedBear
trsttteIt's not just about price, it's also time to port and integrate the designs and area efficiency. Zen3 and Zen4 for example have the unified L3 cache pool while Zen2 still had the divided L3 per CCX (which in this case would be easier to integrate since they're only going for a single CCX instead of 2 like on desktop).

They appear very short on details about the Mendocino, I'm still dreaming of a tablet form factor with something like what they propose (the surface for example is always the same Intel crap). But at least that last slide with the increasing number of design, good to see AMD having a bigger presence on the laptop market, it's about damn time
Yeah, design-wise Zen 3 and Zen 4 don't look efficient to use for low end parts, it was confirmed when last month they didn't release the 5300G to the DIY market and instead started selling some questionable Renoir parts like the 4100, but going from what they mentioned in the presentation this Mendocino is aimed at "mainstream laptops" in the $400-$700 range, it's not specifically aimed at some niche markets like Van Gogh/Aerith, and I'm left questioning whether they really assume that they can fill the mainstream budget segment with Zen 2 parts for many more years or they just expect 4 cores parts to quietly disappear in the near future. Energy efficiency might make this Mendocino attractive for some, but many others use their laptops simply as easily movable PCs, not something that they usually carry around and use for several hours outside home/office during the day.
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#12
trsttte
RedBearYeah, design-wise Zen 3 and Zen 4 don't look efficient to use for low end parts, it was confirmed when last month they didn't release the 5300G to the DIY market and instead started selling some questionable Renoir parts like the 4100, but going from what they mentioned in the presentation this Mendocino is aimed at "mainstream laptops" in the $400-$700 range, it's not specifically aimed at some niche markets like Van Gogh/Aerith, and I'm left questioning whether they really assume that they can fill the mainstream budget segment with Zen 2 parts for many more years or they just expect 4 cores parts to quietly disappear in the near future. Energy efficiency might make this Mendocino attractive for some, but many others use their laptops simply as easily movable PCs, not something that they usually carry around and use for several hours outside home/office during the day.
Intel still sells a lot of pentiums/celerons and lower end pc's and chromebooks eat it all up. This would be a pretty nice improvement
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#13
Xajel
Being Zen2, I hope this "Mendocino" chips wont be branded as Ryzen 5000/6000. They should be Ryzen 4000 like previous zen2 APUs.

But, they already did it with "Lucienne" where they branded it as Ryzen 5500U, 5700U, 5300U. So maybe it will be like the 5000C series, but with odd numbering, ie 5325C, 5525C & 5725C. Unless they used a different letter than C.
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