Softpedia >News >Technology & Gadgets >CPU
Softpedia Homepage   

AMD Delays New Desktop APUs Until 2016, FM2+ Will Have Time to Grow Old

The lack of affordable DDR4 memory is one of the factors behind the delay

Jul 25, 2014 09:22 GMT  ·  By
AMD delays new architecture until 2016, meaning Carrizo might be a lone wanderer
   AMD delays new architecture until 2016, meaning Carrizo might be a lone wanderer
Even as Intel continues to cause differing degrees of disappointment among its fans for the repeated CPU delays and roadmap changes, Advanced Micro Devices is going the other way and setting a far off release date in advance.

Which is to say, the company has chosen not to even bother trying to release a new desktop Accelerated Processing Unit (APU for short) this year, or even next year for that matter.

Instead, it has decided not to update the Socket FM2+ desktop processor range until 2016. That means that Intel's Haswell, Broadwell and even Skylake will have the market all to themselves.

Although, to be fair, AMD has made a conscious effort to stop its products from being seen solely in comparison to Intel's. This seeming disregard for its rival's roadmap shows that it was totally serious about that.

Not that AMD doesn't have any chips set for the near- and mid-term. There might be early mobile releases of the “Carrizo,” the chip for ultrathin notebooks and tablets, but they are still stuck with DDR3.

However, the chips set to follow the FM2+ have a problem in the DDR4 support. Not that the support is a problem (if anything, it is an asset), but AMD doesn't expect this type of memory to become available before 2016. In fact, it was one of the main reasons why it decided not to upgrade the FM2+ desktop socket until then (or so reports say).

So, while the Excavator-based chips will be proceeding as previously planned (both in APU and CPU these aren't APUs, so they don't really count for the matter at hand. Also, they will use DDR3, not DDR4.

The only thing that Advanced Micro Devices might do to at least fill in the time gap, while not contradicting itself about the (alleged) roadmap, is release a desktop APU or two based on the Excavator CPU architecture in 2015.

If that happens, the supported RAM will be DDR3, and the integrated GPU will be a 28nm, not 20nm. What branding (not AMD Carrizo) will be used on them is now up in the air though.

Either way, whatever socket Advanced Micro Devices is preparing as a replacement for FM2+ will not be showing up any time soon. All in all, not such a big shock. Between TSMC's 20nm yield problems (which prevented AMD and NVIDIA from advancing to their next GPU architectures) and the slew progress in affordable DDR4 production, there wasn't much room for anything other than a roadmap revision.

Update July 25, 2014: Made a clearer note of the rumors revolving around AMD's alleged upcoming mobile chips. Carrizo is the mobile brand, based on Excavator cores and featuring a 28nm GPU.