Excavator (microarchitecture)

Excavator added hardware support for new instructions such as AVX2, BMI2 and RDRAND.{{cite web |url=https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/207229-207229 |title=AMDs Carrizo architecture detailed and explored |publisher=Extremetech.com |date=June 2, 2015 |access-date=March 3, 2019}}

Excavator is designed using High Density (aka "Thin") Libraries normally used for GPUs to reduce electric energy consumption and die size, delivering a 30 percent increase in efficient energy use.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Steamroller-High_Density_Libraries-hot-chips-cpu-gpu,17218.html|title=AMD Explains Advantages of High Density (Thin) Libraries|first=Doug|last=Crowthers|date=August 28, 2012|website=Tom's Hardware}} Excavator can process up to 15% more instructions per clock compared to AMD's previous core Steamroller.{{Cite web|url=https://wccftech.com/amd-carrizo-apu-architecture-hot-chips/|title=AMD Details Carrizo APUs Energy Efficient Design at Hot Chips 2015 - 28nm Bulk High Density Design With 3.1 Billion Transistors, 250mm2 Die|first=Hassan|last=Mujtaba|date=August 26, 2015}}

AMD's Fusion Controller Hub has been discontinued since the release of the Carrizo series of CPUs as it has been integrated into the same die as the rest of the CPU.{{cite web | url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/8995/amd-at-isscc-2015-carrizo-and-excavator-details | title=AMD at ISSCC 2015: Carrizo and Excavator Details }}

{{AMD APU features}}

{{Main|List of AMD processors with 3D graphics}}

There are three APU lines announced or released:

1. Budget and mainstream markets (desktop and mobile): Carrizo APU
2. * The Carrizo mobile APUs were launched in 2015 based on Excavator x86 cores and featuring Heterogeneous System Architecture for integrated task sharing between CPUs and GPUs, which allows a GPU to perform compute functions, which is claimed provide greater performance increases than shrinking the feature size alone.
3. *Carrizo desktop APUs were launched in 2018. The mainstream product (A8-7680) has 4 Excavator cores and a GPU based on GCN1.2 architecture. Also, an entry-level APU (A6-7480) with 2 Excavator cores is also launched.
4. Budget and mainstream markets (desktop and mobile): Bristol Ridge, and Stoney Ridge (for entry level notebooks), APUs{{cite news|last1=Cutress|first1=Ian|title=AMD Announces 7th Generation APU|url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/10362/amd-7th-generation-apu-bristol-ridge-stoney-ridge-for-notebooks|access-date=1 June 2016|publisher=Anandtech.com|date=1 June 2016}}
5. * Bristol Ridge APUs utilize socket AM4 and DDR4 RAM
6. * Bristol Ridge APUs have up to 4 Excavator CPU cores and up to 8 3rd generation GCN GPU cores
7. * Up to a 20% CPU performance increase over Carrizo
8. * TDP of 15W to 65W, 15–35W for mobile
9. Enterprise and server markets: Toronto APU
10. * The Toronto APU for server and enterprise markets featured four x86 Excavator CPU core modules and Volcanic Islands integrated GPU core.
11. * The Excavator cores has a greater advantage with IPC than Steamroller. The improvement is 4–15%.
12. * Support for HSA/hUMA, DDR3/DDR4, PCIe 3.0, GCN 1.2
13. * The Toronto APU was available in BGA and SoC variants. The SoC variant had the southbridge on the same die as the APU to save space and power and to optimize workloads.
14. * A complete system with a Toronto APU would have a maximum power usage of 70 W.

There are no CPUs built on Steamroller (3rd gen Bulldozer) or Excavator (4th gen Bulldozer) architectures on high-end desktop platforms.

Excavator CPU for Desktop announced on February 2, 2016, named Athlon X4 845.{{cite web |url=http://techreport.com/news/29669/amd-puts-excavator-on-the-desktop-with-the-athlon-x4-845 |title=AMD puts Excavator on the desktop with the Athlon X4 845 |author=Jeff Kampman |date=2 February 2016}} In 2017, three more desktop CPUs (Athlon X4 9x0) were launched. They come in Socket AM4, with a TDP of 65W. In fact, they are APUs with their graphics cores disabled.

{{Main|List of AMD Opteron microprocessors}}

The AMD Opteron roadmaps for 2015 show the Excavator-based Toronto APU and Toronto CPU intended for 1 Processor (1P) cluster applications:

• For 1P Web and Enterprise Services Clusters:
• Toronto CPU – quad-core x86 Excavator architecture
• plans for Cambridge CPU – 64-bit AArch64 core
• For 1P Compute and Media Clusters:
• Toronto APU – quad-core x86 Excavator architecture
• For 2P/4P Servers:
• Warsaw CPU – 12/16 core x86 Piledriver (2nd gen Bulldozer) (Opteron 6338P and 6370P)
• no plans for Steamroller (3rd gen Bulldozer) or Excavator (4th gen Bulldozer) architectures on high-end multi-processor platforms

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{{AMD processors}}

{{AMD processor roadmap}}

Category:AMD x86 microprocessors

Category:AMD microarchitectures

Category:X86 microarchitectures