14 DAY TRIAL // A preliminary version of the Catalyst 11.7 driver has confirmed the code names of AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 7000 family of GPUs, also known as Southern Islands, which will be comprised of at least four different graphics cores.
These code names were spotted for the first time in a changelog accompanying the HWiNFO32 v3.73 tool, but the Catalyst driver includes additional details about the GPUs and their positioning on the market.
According to 3D Center, AMD's high-end desktop graphics core will be known as Tahiti and is available in two slightly different versions, one dubbed Tahiti XT while the other is known as Tahiti Pro.
Just as it's the case with the current Cayman GPU, Tahiti will also be used to spawn an enthusiast graphics card that uses two such cores in a CrossFireX configuration, which will go by the code name of New Zealand.
The third GPU to be named by the Catalyst driver is called Thames, and this is a somewhat old acquaintance of ours as it has already been spotted in a previous slide that detailed AMD's mobile Southern Islands solutions.
Thames will be available in three configurations, Thames LE, Thames Pro and Thames XT/GL, and will almost certainly also be used to power AMD's mobile graphics solutions.
Finally, the fourth GPU to make its appearance is called Lombok. Information is pretty scarce at this time, but Lombok will be available in four versions (Lombok Pro, Lombok XT, Lombok AIO and Lombok XL GL) and should target the performance desktop space.
No other details regarding AMD's HD 7000 GPUs are available, but the Southern Islands architecture is basically a die shrink of the current Cayman core found inside the Radeon HD 6970.
However, this will be tweaked for the 28nm manufacturing process and the smaller production node will allow AMD to install more streaming units inside the Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs.
The Sunnyvale-based company hasn't revealed any information regarding the release date of the Radeon HD 7000 family of graphics cards, but the Catalyst 11.7 driver is expected to arrive by the end of July.
Furthermore, Dell Germany has already listed on its website a notebook that makes use of a Radeon HD 7450M GPU, while some recent rumors suggest that the first Southern Islands graphics cards will arrive in September of this year.