AMD is also looking to take a lead ahead of their arch-rival Intel in the low-power device market. They’re designing the APUs for light Chromebooks and other laptops in the USD 300 to USD 400 range.
Twitter user @xinoassasin leaked that the Phoenix 2, which operates at a lower power, has a die size of 133 sq mm. An exciting spot by @BusAlexey said that AMD’s Ryzen 3 7440U has the exact same die size. This is about 23% smaller than the usual 7840U or 7640U, proving that two variants of the Phoenix Series exist.
Phoenix2 top die is 7540U (2 high+4 low), but 7540U is dual sourced: some chips will be full Phoenix2 dies (2+4), some will be cut down Phoenix1 dies (since Zen4c is just a downclocked Zen4, it’s easy to bin it down from 8 high-clock cores to 2 high-clock + 4 low-clock cores)
— Бусыгин Алексей (@BusAlexey) June 29, 2023
An unofficial name of the “Little Phoenix” was mentioned a year before the release of the Phoenix series, i.e., in June last year. AMD is yet to confirm anything on this front.
The Little Phoenix will have two frequency planes based on different architectures. One plan is meant for high, and the other is meant for low. It must be kept in mind that not every 7540U will have two core types, unlike the Little Phoenix.
The Little Phoenix has Zen4 cores for the high-frequency plane and Zen4c for the low-frequency plane. The Zen4C, on a logical aspect, is a downclocked Zen4.
However, physically, the Zen4 and the Zen4C are very different, with different power characteristics. The Zen4c in the Little Phoenix will be more efficient than a stock-downclocked Zen4.
Early rumors on the Phoenix 2 or the Little Phoenix suggested it can have up to 8 RDNA 3 iGPU cores. The official specs for the 7540 or the 7440U processors, however, show up to 4 Computation Units for the integrated Radeon 740M graphics.
AMD is yet to comment or confirm anything on this front. The only possible proof confirming the rumors is the different die sizes for the 7640U and the 7440U.
The lack of laptops in the market with this die size makes it harder to confirm. It remains to be seen what AMD does with the smaller and more efficient Little Phoenix APUs.
About Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
AMD develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. AMD’s main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations, personal computers and embedded system applications.
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