AMD Sends Out Initial Linux Driver Support For "Renoir" APUs

[Jumbotron]

I'd take a 7nm AMD Renoir even with Vega graphics in a Chromebook or thin & light laptop like a Lenovo Yoga with Ubuntu any day of the week !

[finalzone]

Awaiting for the AMD Sensor Fusion HUB driver found on mobile Ryzen (Raven Ridge, Picasso and Renoir) and needed for accelerometer.

[Jumbotron]

Awaiting for the AMD Sensor Fusion HUB driver found on mobile Ryzen (Raven Ridge, Picasso and Renoir) and needed for accelerometer.

Alex Deucher of AMD responded on freedesktop.org that the AMD Sensor Fusion Hub driver should be ready for the Linux kernel sometime in August.
"The FCH team is working on a driver for it and should have something available by August." Alex https://lists.freedesktop.org/archiv...ay/034431.html

[arboy84]

I imagine that a lot of their graphics engineering resources are being devoted to XBox Next and PlayStation 5 development at this point. I would think that getting their game console semi-custom work finished is more important long term for AMD than one generation of low end APUs. If the next generation consoles are going to be released next year, then this would be the time AMD, MS, and Sony would be finalizing the products. Development kits will need to be released around a year ahead of time so that their launch partners can prepare to release their games on time.

Vega already under went a 7nm shrink. It might make more sense to put the engineering resources elsewhere, especially if going with Vega allows AMD to release earlier than later. Then once the full range of Navi and Vega products are released (or mostly finished design wise), AMD's full focus can turn toward Navi's and Vega's successor.

[Nuc!eoN]

Guys chill out, AMDs previous APU's actually had Polaris inside them, even though being marketed as Vega.

I guess NAVI will be used in the following APU generation.

[wizard69]

Maybe Renoir is much closer to release than we might think?

I can see this. The Zen 2 architecture seems to be very solid. If they focused heavily on modularity there might not be that much to change hardware wise. I’m still dreaming about an APU wit a fabric connected GPU module. This would be great for high and midrange desktops, maybe even a high end laptop. Vega is perfectly fine for the low end. On the other hand a chiplet based APU allows them significant flexibility.

[_Alex_]

Integrated graphics have to deal with severe DDR4 bwidth limitations so whether vega or navi the differences would be small. It's similar to how a 2200g slightly oc'ed would not have a serious performance deficit in FPS/gaming compared to a 2400g with +3 CUs.

The important thing is to have a 7nm CPU coupled with an IGP that plays well. Vega is good for us, linux users, because it's already working on the 2200/2400 variants. And it took a long time to get it work OK. If they used Navi I'm afraid we'd have very long delays in getting it to work in linux, so I'm glad it's vega and not navi Perf-wise it shouldn't make much of a difference anyway due to DDR4 bwidth issues.

[smitty3268]

Guys chill out, AMDs previous APU's actually had Polaris inside them, even though being marketed as Vega.

I guess NAVI will be used in the following APU generation.

Yeah, AMD APU's tend to be last-gen GPU cores matched with next-gen video support, so it wouldn't be that surprising to see a Vega based Renoir. Plus Vega is actually quite power-efficient at lower clockspeeds, and it would let the rdna team focus more on scaling it up for the higher end chips coming out.

[anth]

Perhaps it is similar to their recent CPUs, with a 7nm chiplet and a 14nm I/O module. If the I/O module included a GPU then the 7nm-only Navi wouldn't be an option.

Combining a small CPU and GPU on one piece of 7nm silicon seems like it should be doable. On the other hand though there may be a shortage of 7nm manufacturing capacity combined with available 14nm capacity and a bin of chiplets with only four working cores each which they might be OK with using in APUs but not in their other products.

[mumar1]

Perhaps it is similar to their recent CPUs, with a 7nm chiplet and a 14nm I/O module. If the I/O module included a GPU then the 7nm-only Navi wouldn't be an option.

Combining a small CPU and GPU on one piece of 7nm silicon seems like it should be doable. On the other hand though there may be a shortage of 7nm manufacturing capacity combined with available 14nm capacity and a bin of chiplets with only four working cores each which they might be OK with using in APUs but not in their other products.

Very good point, Renoir could be a kind of Ryzen 5 3600 and 7 3700 with a I/O-die located iGPU for OEMs to build office computers not requiring a discrete GPU, still stronger than Intels iGPU but not "high end" as not needed for a office PC.