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Photo of Intel CPU, AMD GPU, and HBM2 MCM published

by Mark Tyson on 10 November 2017, 11:01

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadnm4

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At the start of this week shockwaves were felt in the computer chip business in the wake of Intel’s announcement of a new 8th generation Core processor which would include custom GPU cores supplied by AMD, and on board HBM2 memory. The multi-chip module (MCM) processor would be unified by Intel’s EMIB, “a small intelligent bridge that allows heterogeneous silicon to quickly pass information in extremely close proximity”. Furthermore, a hardware / software framework would ensure the slim new SoC would operate efficiently. Various reports have the new Intel products codenamed as ‘Kaby Lake G’.

In its initial news burst Intel outlined the MCM design, its EMIB technology, and the benefits it would deliver, especially to thin and light laptops hoping to pack enough power to take on ‘premium experience’ content consumption and creation. The first laptop, 2-in-1, and mini-desktop systems packing the new Intel/AMD MCM collaborative designs will emerge in Q1 2018, hopefully as early as the CES 2018, we hope.

In its news release we got to see a render of the Kaby Lake G and a size comparison but no further pictorial detail, and AMD’s news release didn’t even include a single photo or chart. However, Bits And Chips on Twitter has obliged with a nice photo of one of the new SoCs in the flesh (via Guru3D).

Above you can see the sizeable (but with low Z height) processor that could be behind a lot of attractive, portable, and punchy laptops next year. It seems to be installed on some kind of desktop test machine, which is understandable at this stage of development. Looking from left to right you can see the (8th gen) Intel CPU, then a significant gap before the larger AMD Vega GPU, and then the HBM2 memory stack.

In replied to its initial Tweet, Bits And Chips suggested the GPU would likely perform on a par to the AMD Radeon R9 285. You will have to look back to 2014 to find HEXUS reviews of AiB products based upon the R9 285. Perhaps that statement comes from reading through TechPowerUp’s collection of purported Kaby Lake G benchmarks earlier this week, or is from some independent experience with the MCM, it’s hard to know.

UPDATE: it looks like the above picture is part of this larger view of an Intel NUC board.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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That NUC board looks awesome. I could use that for some interesting projects
;)
Definitely Vega? I heard the GPU was a Polaris variant?
Platinum
Definitely Vega? I heard the GPU was a Polaris variant?
Since when did Polaris support HBM2
qasdfdsaq
Since when did Polaris support HBM2

If you swapped the GDDR5 memory controller for an HBM one, no problem. The generational names are really only relevant to the shader features. You could quite happily make a GPU with Polaris shaders and HBM memory, or Vega shaders and GDDR5 memory. Of course, the currently available GPUs by those code names have other feature differences as well, so what Intel+RTG have come up with for this could easily be a hybrid between the feature sets of the GPUs we know as Polaris and Vega. Which code name you choose to give it will depend on which bits of the feature set you think are more important…
….. I thought the CPU and GPU share the HBM but from the photo I see DDR4 modules