AMD recently revealed bits on its coming graphics architecture and after some digging we found information about what circuits will appear in 2010, and that includes Antilles sporting dual GPUs; to be known as Radeon HD 6970.
According to reliable sources, the Radeon HD 6000 family will consist of three different series; Antilles, Caymen and Barts. Where the last one will be the first one out.
Barts will replace AMD Juniper in the mid-range segment and most likely be named Radeon HD 6700 series. The launch is scheduled for October 2010. The code-name most likely comes from Saint-Barthélemy (Saint Barts), which is a Frech island in the Caribbean. On a side note, Saint Barts was a Swedish colony between 1784-1878, which can be seen on the island shield with its three crowns.
The West Indies have given names to several of AMD’s new circuits
Caymen will replace Cypress and take over in the performance segment from Radeon HD 5870, 5850 and 5830. Exactly what models that will launch is uncertain, but the cards are expected to reach stores in November 2010 in the form of the Radeon HD 6800 series. Catalyst 10.8 lists 14 different Cayman models (more on that later). The GL models are a bit illusive at the moment, but could very well just be the FireGL versions of AMD’s professional family. The Cayman Islands can also be found in the Caribbean, Weest Indies and have been named after the native tounge for alligator (caiman).
Antilles sports graphics circuits of the Caymen series, but as the successor to Hemlock it uses two of these with each card. This dual-GPU card looks to launch in two versions, like much Radeon HD 4850 X2 and 4870 X2. If there is any room for the entry level model of Antilles is hard to say, but in December 2010 we can expect the first Antilles models in stores. Antilles is named after the islands with the same name, a group of islands divided into two groups; Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles.
AMD to use dual graphics circuits with Radeon HD 6000 family
AMD Radeon HD 6970 will probably be the name of the top model of the series and should launch in December.
We still fairly little about the changes made to the architecture since Evergreen, but from what it looks like AMD has plcaed itself in top of NVIDIA Fermi, but also lowered energy consumption.
We hope to offer more details soon, not the least more on the mid-range and entry level cards that are slated to appear early next year.
