Six months have passed since AMD presented its current graphics circuit architecture. Shortly after Evergreen appeared we presented information on the next generation architecture from AMD developed under Island code names. The new architecture was slated for H1 of 2011 and would be based on 28 nanometer technology. New rumors suggest that AMD is rescheduling, simply because TSMC and its 28nm cannot be trusted.
AMD doesn’t dare risking a new 40nm fiasco and after TSMC skipped the 32 nanometer node and even had the time to dump one 28nm technology for another AMD is said to be fed up with the situation. It will bring in an update of the Evergreen family, dubbed Southern Islands (SI).
The story mentioned the three code-names we covered earlier, Cozumel, Ibiza and Kauai. All three Southern islands. SI is said to be a hybrid of Northern Islands (NI) and Evergreen, with the uncore architecture from NI and joined it with the shader processors of Evergreen. How it will fan out on today’s 40 nanometer technology is hard to say, but using current 40nm technology it should be a relatively easy launch.
If the information is correct it provides a lot of information on the upcoming future of graphics cards. AMD is far from panicking from NVIDIA’s Fermi launch and TSMC is it’s only real concern at the moment. If TSMC can pull things together AMD may still be able to get its 28nm architecture out in H1 2011, which has been suggested by other sources.
SI would then launch late in Q4, but depending on how well the development of 28nm processes go we will have to wait until the first half of 2011 until we get to see anything from NI. Much can still happen but it looks like this is where we are at right now.
