In the past six months, there have been frequent rumors that AMD plans to launch an APU that combines Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores (same architecture, lower frequency), just like Intel’s P+E hybrid. Architecture, it seems to be close to release.
Hardware tipster HXL (@9550pro) has now released mold screenshots of AMD Phoenix 2, showing the processor design of the new generation Zen 4 core + Zen 4c core, which obviously uses a 2+4 core 12-thread design.
From the picture we can see that this chip uses a large L3 cache (located in the middle on the left, green structure), two high-performance Zen 4 cores (below the L3 cache), four smaller Zen 4c cores (three one above the L3, one to the right of the Zen 4 core), and a large built-in GPU (on the right).
In addition, there are multiple DDR5/LPDDR5 PHY interfaces on the top of the die, and there are physical interfaces such as PCIe and USB on the bottom and left and right sides of the APU.
These cores are significantly smaller than similar products, suggesting AMD is positioning the Phoenix 2 as a low-cost APU aimed at budget laptops.
While we don’t yet know exactly what AMD cut out of Phoenix to make it so small and cheap, AMD is likely to reveal these new models in the near future, and may also include them in the Ryzen 8000 series launching in 2024 product lineup, we will be able to get a clearer picture of this product then.
AMD officially released the 7040U series of processors in May this year, including four models including the R3 7440U, covering 4-core to 8-core models. Among them, the R5 7640U and R5 7540U use the 6C12T design.
AMD later confirmed to xda-developers that the company does have a six-core APU and that it will be used in the 7440U. Although AMD did not confirm the underlying design, other details are perfectly consistent with the revelations. Unlike the previously announced eight-core R3 7440U, it is almost certainly the Phoenix2 processor.
In addition, up master @金 Pig Upgrade Pack also previously released real shots of the appearance of Phoenix2. According to various leakers, this Phoenix 2 chip will feature two Zen 4 cores and four Zen 4c cores, for a total of 6 cores and 12 threads.
AMD said that it is not just a Phoenix product that switches from 8 cores to 6 cores, but also has adjustments in CPU, GPU and even AI.
Initial rumors suggested that Phoenix 2 would be present in the Ryzen 3 7440U and Ryzen 5 7540U, and AMD said the Ryzen 5 7540U is not a similar design, at least “just the 7440U for now.”
In addition, it was previously reported that “Phoenix 2” will use 2 full-blooded Zen4 cores and 4 low-power Zen4C cores for processing background tasks. The RDNA 3 GPU has been reduced from six WGP (12 CU) to two (4 CU), and the TDP has dropped from “35W+” to a maximum of 28W.
It was reported in March this year that information about the Phoenix “hybrid structure” processor appeared in AMD’s official documents at the time. This processor corresponds to the Phoenix 2 mobile APU, uses TSMC N4 process, has a power consumption of 15-28W, and is used for Products such as thin and light laptops or game consoles.
According to AMD’s official PPT, various indicators of AMD Zen 4c and Zen 4 are basically the same. The difference is that the Zen 4 core has 4MB L3 cache per core, while Zen 4c has 2MB.
AMD data shows that Zen 4c has the exact same IPC (performance at a given frequency) as Zen 4 because its front end, execution stages, load/store components and internal cache hierarchy are exactly the same.
