AMD is working on several designs within its next generation of Instinct MI300 graphics accelerators, and it seems that at least one of them will adopt the APU format, which means that said solution will have CPU cores and GPU cores. This information has been filtered thanks to a slide where we can read some of its most important keys.
The first clue is that that APU would use a CPU with cores Zen 4a new generation architecture that, if all goes according to plan, will be presented at the end of this year, and will give life to the new EPYC Genoa, which will be configured with up to 96 cores and 192 threads. The jump in terms of multi-threaded performance is going to be big, and the same will happen with single-threaded performance, since Zen 4 promises a notable increase in IPC and working frequencies.
On the GPU side, this new AMD Instinct MI300 APU will use the CDNA3 architecture, which means that it will almost certainly be based on in a modular design, and will be accompanied by HBM (high bandwidth) memory. In theory, it will be compatible with the SH5 socket, and the first units will start arriving in the laboratory in the third quarter of this year, which means that its launch will almost certainly go to 2023.
There are still many things in the air about this possible high-performance APU, but there is no doubt that we are facing a very interesting solutionbecause it combines two next-generation, high-performance architectures in a single package, yet inside it is a perfectly orchestrated, interconnected set of chips.
On the configuration of cores and computing units we still do not have concrete and reliable information, so right now we can only wait. On the other hand, AMD could play with the settings and offer different optionsthat is, APUs with a greater number of CPU cores and computing units, and also with a smaller number of both, to cover the specific needs of each type of client, and without difficulty thanks to its modular design.
