AMD Kaveri APU Delayed To 1H 2014?

[Over_Lord]

AMD's next generation Kaveri APUs might be delayed until early 1H 2014. The Steamroller architecture based APU is officially slated for Q4 2013, but a new report says that Kaveri based APUs are yet to achieve the mass production levels required for a full-scale launch. Of course, AMD could still launch the APUs in limited supply, with the supply eventually improving over the months, but that doesn't ever go well with consumers.

"AMD originally expected to start supplying its Heterogeneous System Architecture (HAS) Kaveri APUs in the second half of 2013, but according to the company's latest plans, the CPU maker will only provide two A10 and one A8 APU pilot production samples to its clients in December 2013, indicating that Kaveri APU-based PC products may have difficulties showing up in the retail channel before April 2014, the sources said."


If AMD is indeed facing manufacturing issues (Kaveri is based on the 28nm bulk process), then they should do a full-scale launch when ready, instead of doing yet another half-baked product.

Kaveri will bring in major changes in the memory field by introducing HUMA, a memory architecture which will allow for unified sharing of RAM between the CPU and GPU, much like the APU implementation in Sony's PlayStation 4.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[WhiteLotus]

Yup read April 2014 just a few days ago.rather annoyed but I guess it can't be helped.

 

[Over_Lord]

I'm really annoyed. 2014, 28nm... sigh
Hope reports of Broadwell being delayed turn out to be true

 

[repman244]

28nm... sigh

What's wrong with 28nm? It's not all about that single number you know, there is much more to it and it can't be directly compared to other manufacturers process.

 

[Big_Vulture]

2014

AMD 28nm
Vs.
Intel 14nm

What is going on with AMD?

 

[Roph]

2014

AMD 28nm
Vs.
Intel 14nm

What is going on with AMD?

Intel is worth 84 billion, AMD is worth 4. Intel owns its own fabs and can afford to spend billions researching and updating them.

AMD is at the mercy of chip foundries like TSMC and Global Foundries (which used to be AMD's fab business).

When you consider the sizes of each company, it's amazing that AMD can stay somewhat competitive.

 

[MadMan007]

I'm trying to read into this rumor rather than just the basic 'delayed' message. Perhaps the delay is just on doing a full-range launch, and they'll just be launching A10 and A8 branded chips first then lower-end chips later. The lower-end chips don't bring in as much revenue, and if they're die-harvested from the high-end chips AMD might want to build up a stockpile for the lower-end chips. I think that would be OK.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

I'm trying to read into this rumor rather than just the basic 'delayed' message. Perhaps the delay is just on doing a full-range launch, and they'll just be launching A10 and A8 branded chips first then lower-end chips later. The lower-end chips don't bring in as much revenue, and if they're die-harvested from the high-end chips AMD might want to build up a stockpile for the lower-end chips. I think that would be OK.

You got that backwards. Lower-end chips for cheap laptops, small devices, etc. is exactly where AMD makes most of its money. There is a reason laptops with APUs always come out first. This is why there is a delay as a limited supply will not be enough for their major vendor partners like Dell, HP, Acer, etc. And they have the be satisfied (for laptops and then desktops) first before AMD will worry about the hand full of APUs they sell to us as a CiB.

 

[eidairaman1]

probably not to interfere with the sales of Richland, since those just came out this year

 

[cdawall]

Poor AMD stock this isn't going to help :/

 

[sparkyar]

the delay and "manufacturing issues" have something to do with the fabs building the nextgen console chips and not having "space" for "AMD´s own" chips?

sorry for my english

 

[cheesy999]

the delay and "manufacturing issues" have something to do with the fabs building the nextgen console chips and not having "space" for "AMD´s own" chips?

sorry for my english

The next gen consoles are using AMD's own chips

 

[Jorge]

Ya gotta love the ignorant pen names some hacks use... and the lack of technical facts but lots of attitude inked. If some hacks were as good at managing a company as they are at giving meritless advice, they'd be gamefully employed.

Kaveri will in fact ship in Q4 and engineering samples have already been tested by key industry players. AMD has said for some time that the earliest Kaveri would START shipping is Q4 of '13 and in fact some product will ship in Q4 and the rest starting in H1 of '14 as always planned.

All roadmaps from AMD/Intel are subject to changes based on many factors. No one got too excited when Ivy Bridge was delayed for 3 months nor with Haswell being delayed 2+ months.

BTW, for those not in the tech loop... 14nm vs. 28 nm results in minute differences in actual CPU performance. Reduced die shrink below 32nm only shows tangible gains in power consumption. Every die shrink has diminishing gains, thus 14nm gets you a very tiny power reduction over 28nm and virtually no CPU performance gain, as we have seen with Ivy Bridge and Haswell die shrinks at 22nm.

 

[sparkyar]

The next gen consoles are using AMD's own chips

nextgen consoles use custom AMD chips, and since AMD is fabless... what I was asking about is if the fabs (global foundries or whatever) are using his manufacturing capacity to build the nextgen console chips instead of building kaveri or other AMD chips. Im not a native english speaker, I dont know if I make myself clear.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

nextgen consoles use custom AMD chips, and since AMD is fabless... what I was asking about is if the fabs (global foundries or whatever) are using his manufacturing capacity to build the nextgen console chips instead of building kaveri or other AMD chips. Im not a native english speaker, I dont know if I make myself clear.

Well no. Those chips are still on the same 32 nm fab so GloFou can pump those out now. A manufacturing change to a new fab like 28 nm will require reconfiguring machines, programming, testing yields, etc. It is a lot of work. So no I don't thing the consoles will cause AMD any problems they would not welcome at this point. If AMD has an announcement to say, "Kavari will be delayed because of PS4 and Xbone...." They will say it with a huge smile on their face.

 

[hardpro]

Wrong.

Well no. Those chips are still on the same 32 nm fab so GloFou can pump those out now. A manufacturing change to a new fab like 28 nm will require reconfiguring machines, programming, testing yields, etc. It is a lot of work. So no I don't thing the consoles will cause AMD any problems they would not welcome at this point. If AMD has an announcement to say, "Kavari will be delayed because of PS4 and Xbone...." They will say it with a huge smile on their face.

Jaguar is an 28nm APU.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Jaguar is an 28nm APU.

And of course, in addition to AMD's SoC's (Kabini, Temash, consoles), TSMC's capacity is going to put to the test with Apple's A8 and a raft of ARMv8 (Cortex A53 etc.) designs also being fabbed there- in addition to the much smaller discrete GPU production.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ya gotta love the ignorant pen names some hacks use... and the lack of technical facts but lots of attitude inked. If some hacks were as good at managing a company as they are at giving meritless advice, they'd be gamefully employed.

Kaveri will in fact ship in Q4 and engineering samples have already been tested by key industry players. AMD has said for some time that the earliest Kaveri would START shipping is Q4 of '13 and in fact some product will ship in Q4 and the rest starting in H1 of '14 as always planned.

All roadmaps from AMD/Intel are subject to changes based on many factors. No one got too excited when Ivy Bridge was delayed for 3 months nor with Haswell being delayed 2+ months.

BTW, for those not in the tech loop... 14nm vs. 28 nm results in minute differences in actual CPU performance. Reduced die shrink below 32nm only shows tangible gains in power consumption. Every die shrink has diminishing gains, thus 14nm gets you a very tiny power reduction over 28nm and virtually no CPU performance gain, as we have seen with Ivy Bridge and Haswell die shrinks at 22nm.

You would be "gamefully" employed if you used "gainfully" instead. Learn how to write in English please, not "Engrish". Another note, AMD has been several die size processes behind Intel. Intel I honestly think is sandbagging now due to no competition, however I think this gives AMD a chance to refine newer processes beyond 32nm and 28nm to bring out a better product than what Intel has to offer.

 

[tokyoduong]

You would be "gamefully" employed if you used "gainfully" instead. Learn how to write in English please, not "Engrish". Another note, AMD has been several die size processes behind Intel. Intel I honestly think is sandbagging now due to no competition, however I think this gives AMD a chance to refine newer processes beyond 32nm and 28nm to bring out a better product than what Intel has to offer.

So you lose an argument and pick on a spelling/grammar?

AMD is 1-2 nodes behind but that's not just AMD, that the entire industry. So the reality is that the industry is not behind intel but rather intel is a step ahead of everyone. The industry as a whole is the norm and intel is the exception.

Intel is not sandbagging intentionally. It's just corporate complacency when they're on top. The executives are just enjoying profits but they did not stop developing tech. In fact, it's a wise business decision to hold the tech and patent it. They should only use it to keep themselves one step ahead of the competition to maximize revenue and minimize expense. This strategy gives them a lot of headroom when they hit a crunch. Intel can literally stop R&D for 2 years and still be at least on par with the industry in the server/pc market. That is a good buffer to have when the industry or economy goes to the toilet and you need to lay off 1/4 of your employees to keep yourself in the black.

On the other hand, intel just admitted that they are too slow in the transition to the mobile space. This just proves the fact that they are more overconfident than intentionally sandbagging.

 

[Frick]

Ya gotta love the ignorant pen names some hacks use... and the lack of technical facts but lots of attitude inked. If some hacks were as good at managing a company as they are at giving meritless advice, they'd be gamefully employed.

Kaveri will in fact ship in Q4 and engineering samples have already been tested by key industry players. AMD has said for some time that the earliest Kaveri would START shipping is Q4 of '13 and in fact some product will ship in Q4 and the rest starting in H1 of '14 as always planned.

All roadmaps from AMD/Intel are subject to changes based on many factors. No one got too excited when Ivy Bridge was delayed for 3 months nor with Haswell being delayed 2+ months.

BTW, for those not in the tech loop... 14nm vs. 28 nm results in minute differences in actual CPU performance. Reduced die shrink below 32nm only shows tangible gains in power consumption. Every die shrink has diminishing gains, thus 14nm gets you a very tiny power reduction over 28nm and virtually no CPU performance gain, as we have seen with Ivy Bridge and Haswell die shrinks at 22nm.

What kind of shipping are we talking here? Mass shipping of that particular product or do we have to wait 4 months until there is an actual stock? And Intel wasn't in the same spot as AMD when those were delayed, so it wasn't a big deal. AMD has MUCH MUCH more to loose, and you know this.

 

[NeoXF]

2014

AMD 28nm
Vs.
Intel 14nm

What is going on with AMD?

Intel won't have 14nm fully ready for 2014 production. That's the whole reason Broadwell has been delayed/canceled after all... well that and possibly the lack of more sturdy competition.


God damn it, if this is true, I won't hide, I'm kind of pissed...