Graphics processors based on first-generation Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture, slotted inside the "Southern Islands" and "Sea Islands" families, and branded under Radeon HD 7000 and Radeon HD 8000 (OEM) series, don't fully support Microsoft DirectX 11.2 API. Exclusive with the upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system, the Direct3D component of DirectX 11.2 introduces a handful of revolutionary consumer 3D features, such as "D3D tiled resources," which is analogous to OpenGL mega-textures; HLSL shader linking, frame-buffer scaling, etc.

In an interview with German publication c't Magazin, AMD engineer Laylah Mah pointed out that a feedback routine Microsoft deployed in the final specification of DirectX 11.2 turned out different from the one AMD anticipated. Mah stressed that the incompatibility is not at the level of the hardware, but the driver. The GPUs inside next-generation consoles like Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 aren't fundamentally different from current AMD GPU micro-architecture, and at least one of the two, Xbox One, will leverage the latest DirectX.

It was high time AMD updated its tiny entry-thru-mid GPU silicons to the new 28 nm fab process, Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture, and make them truly Windows 8-ready with DirectX 11.1 support. What better way to do those by giving them as big a launchpad as Radeon HD 8000M series branding, and a gala launch at the 2013 International CES? AMD's next-generation mobile GPUs are codenamed "Solar System," breaking away from the desktop GPU family codename of "Sea Islands." Among its members are those named after our planetary neighbours, "Mars" and "Venus," to name a few. The recent leak of a ASUS Vivobook featuring HD 8550M may not be a re-brand, after all.

AMD's Radeon HD 8000 "Sea Islands" family of GPUs may arrive some time in Q2-2013, but they won't arrive without a specifications overhaul. While NVIDIA is counting on performance enhancements to come out of higher clock speeds on existing silicon, while maintaining current (or lower) power-draw, with its "Enhanced Kepler" family of GPUs that will include the "GK110" juggernaut, AMD is counting on physically bigger chips with more components. AMD could step up transistor counts of its chips by as much as 20 percent, on existing 28 nm process.

According to a report, the biggest chip from AMD's fold could pack 5.1 billion transistors, amounting to 2560 stream processors, and an updated raster processing engine, with 48 ROPs ("Tahiti" has 32). While the Radeon HD 8970 maxes out the chip's capabilities, the HD 8950 could feature 256 fewer stream processors, at 2304. It could also go light on the clock speeds. AMD's performance-segment chip, codenamed "Sun" could see a similar stream processor increase to 1792, with the Radeon HD 8870 maxing it out, and HD 8850 featuring 1536. It maintains the memory bus width and raster engine layout of its predecessor.

According to industry sources, AMD pushed launch of its next-generation Radeon HD 8000 "Sea Islands" family of GPUs to the second quarter of 2013 (April-June). The delay comes in the wake of the company going through reorganization within its ranks, in response to poor market performance in Q3-2012. The company originally planned to launch its GPUs before the end of 2012. NVIDIA plans to launch a refreshed lineup of Kepler GPUs in 2013.

A leaked company roadmap slide revealed that AMD's third-generation performance APU, codenamed "Kaveri," will be built on the 28 nm silicon fabrication process. The chips will be built by Global Foundries. Kaveri combines AMD's next-generation CPU architecture codenamed "Steamroller" with Graphics CoreNext GPU architecture.

In addition to Kaveri, AMD will introduce a major update to its low-power APU lineup with "Kabini." A true successor to "Brazos," Kabini features x86-64 cores built on the energy-optimized "Jaguar" architecture (which succeeds "Bobcat," on which Brazos APUs are built). It is also mentioned that Kabini will be a true system-on-chip (SoC), with integration of the FCH chipset into the APU silicon. Such an integration could increase die size and complexity, but could also minimize the board footprint of the platform, making it possible to use the SoC in thin tablets, and COMs.

According to AMD senior VP and CTO Mark Papermaster, the company will adopt the 28 nanometer bulk CMOS silicon fabrication process for its chips in 2013. The bulk process is used to manufacture high-volume and less-complex products, such as motherboard chipset, entry-level APUs, etc. The company already takes advantage of TSMC 28 nm High-Performance process for highly-complex chip designs, such as its Southern Islands GPU family, and will continue using it for its next-generation "Sea Islands" GPUs. In related news, DigiTimes learned through sources that AMD's Sea Islands GPUs have entered tape-out stage, and are on course for a late-2012 volume manufacturing, and early-2013 launch schedule.

Although it doesn't matter anymore, there are several bits of evidence supporting the theory that NVIDIA originally intended for its GK104-based performance graphics card to be named "GeForce GTX 670 Ti", before deciding to go with "GeForce GTX 680" towards the end. With the advent of 2012, we've had our industry sources refer to the part as "GTX 670 Ti". The very first picture of the GeForce GTX 680 disclosed to the public, early this month, revealed a slightly old qualification sample, which had one thing different from the card we have with us today: the model name "GTX 670 Ti" was etched onto the cooler shroud, our industry sources disclosed pictures of early samples having 6+8 pin power connectors.

Next up, while NVIDIA did re-christian GTX 670 Ti to GTX 680, it was rather sloppy at it. The first picture below shows the contents of the Boardshots (stylized) folder in NVIDIA's "special place" for the media. It contains all the assets NVIDIA allows the press, retailers, and other partners to use. Assets are distributed in various formats, the TIFF is a standard image-format used by print-media, for its high dot-pitch. Apart from a heavy payload, the TIFF image file allows tags, that can be read by Windows Explorer, these tags help people at the archives. The tags for images in TIFF format, of the GTX 680 distributed to its partners in the media and industry contain the tag "GTX 670 Ti".

An AMD presentation slide was scored by OBR-Hardware, the site did not vouch for the authenticity of the slide, but reveals a new GPU codename, "Tenerife". The slide rings many bells. First, we know from a recent report by VR-Zone, that a new family of GPUs succeeding "Southern Islands" is codenamed something along the lines of "Sea Islands". Second, the source speculates the stream processor count of Tenerife to be 2304, which falls in line the "actual" stream processor count of Tahiti, that was revealed by a leaked company document belonging to Sapphire, which created some controversy in early January, which AMD later went on to quash.

The slide mentions "Tenerife" as being based on "Enhanced Graphics CoreNext" architecture, probably a tweaked-up GCN, which will probably characterize "Sea Islands" family. Enhanced GCN is mentioned as having 20% higher performance over the current architecture. The next most interesting bit is the mention of a tentative launch, mentioned as Q3-2012, at the earliest. This falls in line with speculation of Radeon HD 8000 series making it to the market no later than this year. The question here is could "Tenerife" be the GPU AMD builds its "Radeon HD 8900" series on, or could AMD do a "Radeon HD X1900" by surprising the high-end segment with a new GPU in the current series? "Tenerife" is probably named after the biggest of the Canary Islands, Spanish offshore territory.