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Piledriver (microarchitecture)
CPU microarchitecture

AMD Piledriver Family 15h is a microarchitecture developed by AMD as the second-generation successor to Bulldozer. It targets desktop, mobile and server markets. It is used for the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (formerly Fusion), AMD FX, and the Opteron line of processors.

The changes over Bulldozer are incremental. Piledriver uses the same "module" design. Its main improvements are to branch prediction and FPU/integer scheduling, along with a switch to hard-edge flip-flops to improve power consumption. This resulted in clock speed gains of 8–10% and a performance increase of around 15% with similar power characteristics. FX-9590 is around 40% faster than Bulldozer-based FX-8150, mostly because of higher clock speed.

Products based on Piledriver were first released on 15 May 2012 with the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), code-named Trinity, series of mobile products. APUs aimed at desktops followed in early October 2012 with Piledriver-based FX-series CPUs released later in the month. Opteron server processors based upon Piledriver were announced in early December 2012.

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Design

Piledriver includes improvements over the original Bulldozer microarchitecture:67

Features

CPUs

APUs

APU features table

Processors

Main articles: List of AMD FX processors, List of AMD processors with 3D graphics, and Opteron

Desktop

ModelCPUGPUTDP(W)DDR3MemoryTurboCore3.0Socket
[Modules/FPUs]Cores/threadsFreq. (GHz)CacheModelConfigFreq.(MHz)
BaseTurboL2L3
FX-9590[4]84.75.04× 2MB8MB—2201866YesAM3+
FX-93704.44.7
FX-83704.04.3125
FX-8370E3.395
FX-83504.04.2125
FX-83203.54.0
FX-8320E3.295
FX-83103.44.395
FX-83003.34.295
FX-6350[3]63.94.23× 2MB125
FX-63003.54.195
FX-4350[2]44.24.32× 2MB125
FX-43204.04.24MB95
FX-43003.84.0
A10-6800K4.14.4—HD 8670D384:24:88441002133FM2
A10-67003.74.3651866
A10-5800K3.84.2HD 7660D800100
A10-57003.44.076065
A8-6600K3.94.2HD 8570D256:16:8844100
A8-65003.54.180065
A8-5600K3.63.9HD 7560D760100
A8-55003.23.765
A6-6400K[1]23.94.11MBHD 8470D192:12:4800
A6-5400K3.63.8HD 7540D760
A4-53003.43.6HD 7480D128:8:47231600
A4-40003.03.21333

The K suffix denotes an unlocked A-series processor. All FX-series processors are unlocked unless otherwise specified.

Mobile

ModelCPUGPUTDP

(W)

DDR3

Memory

Socket
[Modules/FPUs]

Cores/threads

Freq.(GHz)L2

Cache

(MB)

ModelConfigFreq.(GHz)
BaseTurboBaseTurbo
A10-5750M[2]42.53.52×

2MB

HD 8650G384:24:8533720351866FS1r2
A10-4600M2.33.2HD 7660G496685
A8-5550M2.13.1HD 8550G256:16:8554720
A8-4500M1.92.8HD 7640G496685
A6-5350M[1]22.93.51HD 8450G192:12:45337201600
A6-4400M2.73.2HD 7520G496685
A4-5150M3.3HD 8350G128:8:4514720
A4-4300M2.53.0HD 7420G480655
A10-5757M[2]42.53.52×

2MB

HD 8650G384:24:8533720351600FP2(BGA)
A10-5745M2.12.9HD 8610G626251333
A10-4655M2.02.8HD 7620G360496
A8-5557M2.13.1HD 8550G515720351600
A8-5545M1.72.7HD 8510G450554191333
A8-4555M1.62.4HD 7600G320424
A6-5357M[1]22.93.51HD 8450G192:12:4533720351600
A6-5345M2.22.8HD 8410G450600171333
A6-4455M2.12.6HD 7500G256:16:8327424
A4-5145M2.0HD 8310G192:12:4424544
A4-4355M1.92.4HD 7400G327424

Server

Some Opteron 32 nm processors.

History

Komodo platform

Leaked roadmaps showed Piledriver CPUs featuring up to ten cores as part of the Komodo platform. Komodo was to launch in 2012 on the FM2 socket, but this never happened. AMD kept the AM3+ socket for the FX series and put the Piledriver-based APUs on FM2.12

FX-series, Athlon and Opteron

In 201013 AMD revealed that the 2nd generation was scheduled for 2012; AMD referred to this generation as Enhanced Bulldozer. This later generation of Bulldozer core was codenamed Piledriver.

  • Vishera FX-series CPU – Desktop Performance market (Volan platform):14 This FX-series aimed at 95–220 W TDP features 4, 6 and 8 Piledriver core CPU models; with Turbo Core 3.0 while using the existing Socket AM3+ format and 900 series motherboard chipsets of the 1st generation FX-series Zambezi processor. The 2nd generation FX-series was released on 23 October 2012 with the FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 CPU models. The FX-8350 featured slightly improved power consumption and was found to be approximately 15% more powerful than the fastest Bulldozer CPU. The 2nd generation FX-series was praised for its affordability. The FX 8320 was recognized as a price/performance winner, often matching Intel's i7 2600 at half the cost.1516 The Vishera CPUs competed well when compared to similarly priced Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs in multi-core-aware applications and somewhat underperform in overall efficiency and in tasks where most CPU cores were not fully utilized such as single-threaded applications and a number of games.1718

On June 11, 2013, AMD announced two additional FX-series eight Piledriver core CPUs, the FX-9590 and FX-9370, running at a maximum turbo speed of 5.0 GHz and 4.7 GHz respectively, making AMD the first company to ever release a 5 GHz CPU commercially.19 AMD specify that the 9xxx series processors require "robust liquid cooling" due to their high Thermal Design Power (TDP)20

  • Trinity & Richland Athlon series CPU – Desktop Budget market: Socket FM2 Athlon X4 730, 740, 750K and 760k CPU models feature the four Piledriver core Trinity microarchitecture but lack on-chip integrated graphics. Athlon X2 340 is dual core model.212223 Socket FM2 Richland based Athlon X4 760K and Athlon X2 370K CPUs, both with no GPU and four and dual cores respectively were expected.2425

For the server market, three versions were stated to be under development:26

  • Web serving, Web hosting, and Microserver platform (1 CPU) market: Opteron 3200-series (Zurich; 4 or 8 cores) was to be replaced by Delhi (4 or 8 cores) using the Socket AM3+ format from the Desktop FX-series line. The memory controller was to support dual-channel DDR3 memory configuration.
  • Cost/energy efficient server (1 to 2 CPUs) market: Opteron 4200-series (Valencia; 6 or 8 cores) was to be replaced by Seoul (6 or 8 cores). Seoul would continue to use the Socket C32 format. The memory controller would support dual-channel DDR3 memory configuration.
  • Enterprise/mainstream server (2 to 4 CPUs) market: Opteron 6200-series (Interlagos; 4, 8, 12, and 16 cores) was to be replaced by Abu Dhabi (4, 8, 12, and 16 cores)). Abu Dhabi will continue to use the Socket G34. The memory controller would support quad-channel DDR3 memory configuration.

APU lines

  • Trinity A-series APU – Desktop Budget and Mainstream market (Virgo platform):27 The Stars-based Llano Socket FM1 APU line replacements are the 2 and 4 Piledriver core Socket FM2 Trinity Fusion APUs. The A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, A6-5400K and A4-5300 APU models were released on 2 October 2012.28 Trinity processor model numbers ending with the letter "K" denote processors with an unlocked CPU multiplier. The Trinity APU line was praised for its superior integrated graphics performance but underperformed comparable Intel CPU models in most computationally intensive tasks.29
  • Trinity A-series APU – Notebook Mainstream and Performance market (Comal platform):30 Notebook computers featuring Trinity APUs shipped as early as June 2012.31 The mobile Trinity series features four APUs: A10-4600M, A8-4500M, A6-4400M and A4-4300M. In March 2013, AMD announced two more mobile models: A8-4557M and A10-4657M.32

In January 2013, AMD officially introduced a new series of APUs codenamed Richland.33 The series features six new APUs in total. The fastest model, the A10-6800K, featured two Piledriver modules operating at 4.1 GHz and 4.4 GHz in turbo mode and an integrated HD 8670D GPU with 384 stream processors operating at 844 MHz.3435 Only the A10-6800K has official DDR3-2133 memory support.36 The A10-6800K offered approximately 5% performance improvements in performance applications and 3D games over its A10-5800K Trinity based predecessor, largely due to Richland's higher clock speeds and higher overclocking potential than Trinity. On March 12, 2013, AMD officially introduced four Richland mobile APUs.37 On June 4, 2013, AMD officially announced six Richland desktop APUs.3839

Performance

In January 2012, Microsoft released two hotfixes (2646060 and 2645594) for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that significantly improved the performance of Clustered Multi-Thread based AMD CPUs by improving thread scheduling.4041

Windows 8 supports CMT-based CPUs out of the box by addressing each core as logical cores and modules as physical cores.

See also

References

  1. Hruska, Joel. "AMD's FX-8350 analyzed: Does Piledriver deliver where Bulldozer fell short?". ExtremeTech. Retrieved 23 March 2013. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/138394-amds-fx-8350-analyzed-does-piledriver-deliver-where-bulldozer-fell-short ↩

  2. "AMD launches widely anticipated "Trinity" APU". Press release. AMD. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2014. https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/second-generation-amd-a-series-2012may15.aspx ↩

  3. "New AMD A-Series Processors Bring Faster Speeds, High Core Count and AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics to Do-It-Yourself PC Enthusiasts and Gamers". AMD. Retrieved 22 March 2013. https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/press-release-2012oct2.aspx ↩

  4. "New AMD FX Line-Up Brings Faster Speeds and Higher Performance Core over Previous Generation to PC Enthusiasts and Gamers". AMD. Retrieved 22 March 2013. https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/new-amd-fx-line-2012oct23.aspx ↩

  5. "New AMD Opteron 4300 and 3300 Series Processors Deliver Ideal Performance, Power and Price for Cloud Applications". Press release. AMD. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2014. https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/new-amd-opteron-2012dec04.aspx ↩

  6. Hruska, Joel. "AMD detonates Trinity: Behold Bulldozer's second coming". ExtremeTech. Retrieved 22 March 2013. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/129363-amd-detonates-trinity-behold-bulldozers-second-coming ↩

  7. Walton, Jarred. "The AMD Trinity Review (A10-4600M): A New Hope". AnandTech. Retrieved 22 March 2013. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope ↩

  8. "The AMD Trinity Review (A10-4600M): A New Hope". http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope ↩

  9. Constantin Murariu (30 April 2012). "AMD Trinity Architectural Preview - Part II". Softpedia. Retrieved 6 January 2014. http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Trinity-Architectural-Preview-Part-II-267131.shtml ↩

  10. Charlie Demerjian (2012-05-25). "Trinity is more than the sum of its parts". SemiAccurate. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.semiaccurate.com/2012/05/25/trinity-is-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts/ ↩

  11. Gareth Halfacree (21 February 2012). "AMD packs Cyclos clock tech into Piledriver". Retrieved 21 September 2013. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/02/21/amd-packs-cyclos-piledriver/1 ↩

  12. "AMD's 10 core Piledriver chips revealed | Tech, Tech News". PC Gamer. 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/26/amds-10-core-piledriver-chips-revealed/ ↩

  13. AMD financial analyst day 2010 press kit, Blogs.amd.com, retrieved 2012-01-23 http://blogs.amd.com/press/2010/11/09/amd-financial-analyst-day-2010-press-kit/ ↩

  14. AMD Cancels Next-Gen Komodo Processor, Corona Platform in Favour of New Chips, X-bit labs, 2012-01-19, archived from the original on 2012-01-12, retrieved 2012-01-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20120112153622/http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20110906193303_AMD_Cancels_Next_Gen_Komodo_Processor_Corona_Platform_in_Favour_of_New_Chips.html ↩

  15. "PassMark – Intel Core i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz – Price performance comparison". cpubenchmark.net. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2600+%40+3.40GHz ↩

  16. "PassMark - AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core - Price performance comparison". cpubenchmark.net. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8320+Eight-Core ↩

  17. Ilya Gavrichenkov (22 October 2012). "AMD FX-8350 Processor Review: Tuned-Up Bulldozer". Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140107103501/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8350.html ↩

  18. "AMD FX-8350 – "Piledriver" for AMD Socket AM3+". 23 October 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2013. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/FX-8350_Piledriver_Review/ ↩

  19. Sharif Sakr (11 June 2013). "AMD wins race to 5GHz CPU clock speed, in which it was the sole participant". Retrieved 21 September 2013. https://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/amd-5gz-fx-chips/ ↩

  20. "AMD FX Processors". Retrieved 10 February 2018. https://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/processors/desktop/fx# ↩

  21. "AMD Athlon X4 750K - AD750KWOA44HJ / AD750KWOHJBOX". cpu-world.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-Athlon%20II%20X4%20750K.html ↩

  22. "AMD Athlon X2 340 - AD340XOKA23HJ / AD340XOKHJBOX". Cpu-world.com. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-Athlon%20X2%20340%20-%20AD340XOKA23HJ.html ↩

  23. Sebastian Pop (4 October 2012). "AMD Lists Athlon II X4 700-Series Trinity Processors". softpedia. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Lists-Athlon-II-X4-700-Series-Trinity-Processors-296834.shtml ↩

  24. "AMD Athlon X2 370K - AD370KOKA23HL / AD370KOKHLBOX". Cpu-world.com. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-Athlon%20X2%20370K%20-%20AD370KOKA23HL%20-%20AD370KOKHLBOX.html ↩

  25. "AMD Athlon X4 760K - AD760KWOA44HL / AD760KWOHLBOX". Cpu-world.com. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-Athlon%20X4%20760K%20-%20AD760KWOA44HL%20-%20AD760KWOHLBOX.html ↩

  26. Su, Lisa (2012-02-02). "Consumerization, Cloud, Convergence" (PDF). AMD 2012 Financial Analyst Day. Sunnyvale, California: Advanced Micro Devices. p. 25. Retrieved 2012-02-04. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MTI1MTM5fENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0z&t=1 ↩

  27. "AMD Trinity core". cpu-world.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.cpu-world.com/Cores/Trinity.html ↩

  28. "AMD Newsroom". amd.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. https://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/press-release-2012oct2.aspx ↩

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  30. "AMD Trinity core". cpu-world.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.cpu-world.com/Cores/Trinity.html ↩

  31. Chris Angelini. "AMD Trinity On The Desktop: A10, A8, And A6 Get Benchmarked!". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-5800k-a8-5600k-a6-5400k,3224.html ↩

  32. Fudzilla staff. "AMD lists two new Trinity based mobile APUs". fudzilla.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30811-amd-lists-two-new-trinity-based-mobile-apus ↩

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  35. Peter Scott. "More Richland details leak, six parts confirmed". fudzilla.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30264-more-richland-details-leak-six-parts-confirmed ↩

  36. Fuad Abazovic. "Top Richland 28nm APU is A10 6800K". fudzilla.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/29933-top-richland-28nm-apu-is-a10-6800k ↩

  37. "AMD intros 35W Richland mobile APUs". techreport.com. Retrieved 11 March 2015. http://techreport.com/news/24482/amd-intros-35w-richland-mobile-apus ↩

  38. "AMD A-SERIES APUs: Made for Combat. Ready for War". Sites.amd.com. 2013-10-06. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://sites.amd.com/us/promo/products/Pages/invincible.aspx ↩

  39. "Specifications of upcoming AMD Richland APUs". Cpu-world.com. Retrieved 2013-10-23. http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2013/2013012601_Specifications_of_upcoming_Richland_APUs.html ↩

  40. An update is available for computers that have an AMD FX, AMD Opteron 4200, AMD Opteron 6200, or AMD Bulldozer series processor installed and that are running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, support.microsoft.com, January 2012, retrieved 2014-02-11 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2645594/en ↩

  41. An update that selectively disables the Core Parking feature in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 is available, support.microsoft.com, January 2012, retrieved 2014-02-11 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060/en ↩