14 DAY TRIAL // Even though the Southern Islands collection of graphics processing units has only now begun to trickle out, the rumor mill is already producing murmurs about the series set to follow it.
Rumors have the habit of occasionally being born in the most unlikely places, real and virtual alike.
All it takes is for the appropriate person to drop by and say or write a couple of words.
This time, former AMD ASIC designer Alexander Shternshain kicked off talk about the collection of GPUs that would follow Southern Islands.
For those that need a reminder, Southern Islands is the codename of the Radeon HD 7000 line of graphics processing units.
Based on Alexander Shternshain's Likedin profile, the line after it will be called Sea Islands.
It is quite early for bits and pieces of info concerning these units, especially knowing they probably won't make their debut this year.
There may be a distant possibility of a chip release in late 2012, but 2013 seems more likely.
At the very least, what the series is named after is not as vague as was the case with Northern and Southern Islands.
The Sea Islands moniker refers to the chain of islands on the Atlantic coast of the United States.
TSMC's 28nm process should mature by the time AMD's chips are ready to embark on their quest. The card branding may or may not be Radeon HD 8000.
For those who want to learn more about AMD's former MTS Design Engineer, Alexander Shternshain worked on Evergreen (HD 5000), Northern Islands (HD 6000) and Southern Islands GPU (HD 7000, only now rolling out), plus the Fusion Ontario, Llano and mysterious Krishna APUs.
He left the company as part of the new CEO's company restructuring and optimization plan (clearly, the many didn't only axe the PR and marketing sections).