14 DAY TRIAL // Some manufacturers of motherboards have already added mentions of AMD's upcoming accelerated processing units (APUs) in the binary of their upcoming BIOS updates.
According to planet3dnow, the latest BIOS binary version PI 1.4 has references to the upcoming AMD “Stoney Ridge” (ST) and “Bristol Ridge” (BR) APUs, units that are bound to come next year. The AMD reference BIOS with the included binary mentions indicates that the company has already begun preparing the APUs to hit the markets pretty soon.
The “Bristol Ridge” and “Stoney Ridge” are the first AMD APUs that will use the much-awaited "Zen" AM4 form factor socket. In addition, the new AM4 sockets will use the so-called “Promontory” chipsets and in order to fit together with the general market drive, they will support DDR4 memory. Although the industry thought that it would take around 1.5 years before AM4 platforms replaces existing AM3+, FM2, FM2+ and AM1 platforms, it seems these will come around much quicker than previously thought.
Exciting platform, but no "Zen" "meat" in sight
The new chips will be built on the existing 28nm process technology, with the "Bristol Ridge" incorporating “Excavator” cores and Radeon graphics based on the GCN 1.2 architecture, and obviously a now-standard dual-channel DDR4 memory controller. The other APU, the “Stoney Ridge,” is expected to arrive with two “Excavator” cores, AMD Radeon graphics with up to 192 stream processors, and a single-channel DDR4 memory controller with basic I/O functions.
However, the new APUs aren't especially exciting since they use only the future AM4 "Zen" socket that should be only the support for the new upcoming accelerated processing units. What's really interesting is that when the "meat" of the upcoming "Zen" system, namely the "Zen" APUs themselves, will hit BIOS updates especially the "Raven Ridge" and a new generation of Radeon graphics adapters. Barely then we'll be able to feel a serious change in the tense atmosphere that is currently affecting AMD sales for so long now.