AMD today unveiled its 7th generation A-series desktop APUs. Unlike its predecessors, the new chips are full-fledged SoCs, built in the new socket AM4 package, on which the company plans to launch its "Zen" processors. The 7th gen A-series APUs are based on the "Bristol Ridge" silicon, and are the first fully-integrated SoCs (systems-on-chip) from the company in the performance-desktop segment, in that the APU completely integrates the functionality of a motherboard chipset, including its FCH or southbridge.

This level of integration includes PCI-Express root-complex, USB 3.0, and storage interfaces such as SATA 6 Gb/s emerging directly from the AM4 socket. Some AM4 motherboards could still include a sort of "chipset," which expands connectivity options, such as USB 3.1 ports, additional SATA ports, and a few more downstream PCI-Express lanes. The amount of downstream connectivity and features decide the grade of the chipset. AMD is initially launching two chipsets, the A320 for the entry-level segment, and the B350 for mainstream desktops. The company plans to launch an even more feature-rich chipset at a later date (probably alongside ZEN "Summit Ridge" CPUs).

AMD today announced new additions to its 2016 Desktop processor family, offering increasingly powerful processor options available for anyone seeking outstanding gameplay and power efficiency for their desktop PC. Setting a new APU Standard, the new AMD A10-7890K is the fastest AMD desktop APU released to date, with 1.0 TFLOPS of theoretical compute performance. This new processor has been paired with the top-of-the-line AMD Wraith Cooler to deliver a high-performance combination, enabling best-in-class online gaming, while offering near silent operation for a premium experience.

Gamers will be able to enjoy playing the most popular online and eSports games right out of the box on high settings with the new AMD A10-7890K APU, which is capable of providing smooth frame rates in some of the most popular online games like League of Legends, DOTA2, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. AMD APUs combine the power of AMD processors with the performance of discrete Radeon R7 class graphics in one convenient SoC, and support DirectX 12, OpenGL, Vulkan, and FreeSync in addition to Microsoft Xbox One game streaming on Windows 10.

AMD today launched new thermal solutions, including the flagship AMD Wraith Cooler, as well as the new AMD A10-7860K and new AMD Athlon X4 845 desktop processors. Designed for the consumer who cares about how their desktop PC runs, sounds, and looks, AMD now offers new thermal solutions that generate less than one-tenth the noise of their predecessors -- running at a near-silent 39 decibels, about as quiet as a library.

The new AMD Wraith Cooler combines near-silent operation with unique styling via a sleek fan shroud and LED illumination. Providing superb cooling, the new design delivers 34 percent more airflow and 24 percent more surface area for heat dissipation than its predecessor.

AMD is planning to expand its socket FM2+ chip lineup with three new parts, the A10-7890K and A8-7690K APUs, and the Athlon X4 880K CPU. The three parts surfaced on the compatibility list of socket FM2+ motherboards by BIOSTAR. The architecture mentioned is "Kaveri," but the silicon could very well be "Godavari," (Kaveri refresh).

The refreshed lineup will be led by the A10-7890K, which features CPU clock speeds of 4.10 GHz out of the box, with an unknown TurboCore frequency (the current series leader A10-7870K offers 3.90 GHz with 4.10 GHz TurboCore). The A8-7690K offers CPU clocks of 3.70 GHz, and an unknown TurboCore frequency. There's no word on the iGPU clock speeds of the two chips. The third and most intriguing part is the Athlon X4 880K, with 4.00 GHz CPU clocks. The Athlon X4 FM2+ series lack integrated graphics, and make for good buys for people planning to build machines with discrete GPUs, on the FM2+ platform. All three chips offer unlocked base-clock multipliers, enabling CPU overclocking.

Tipsters pointed us to a peculiar sounding new processor by AMD in the wild, and being distributed by certain OEMs, such as HP. Called AMD FX-670K, the chip is being sold by HP, pre-installed on its Pavilion 500-266ea desktops. Some digging around on specifications available point us to a chip that's essentially "Richland" APU with its integrated GPU disabled. So while it will run on socket FM2 motherboards, you'll have to use graphics cards. "Richland" integrates a dual-module / quad-core CPU component based on AMD's "Piledriver" micro-architecture. The FX-670K features CPU clock speeds of up to 3.70 GHz. So why did AMD choose the FX branding and not Athlon X4, like it usually does with iGPU-devoid APUs? Perhaps the "K" brand extension holds the answer. The FX-670K features an unlocked base-clock multiplier. The HP Pavilion 500-266ea features a socket FM2 motherboard based on the AMD A75 chipset, and discrete AMD Radeon R7 240 graphics. It's priced at CA $650.

AMD unveiled the first batch of Athlon X4 CPUs in the socket FM2 package, based on its latest Richland silicon. These chips stop short of being labeled APUs, for they lack integrated graphics. You need a discrete graphics card. Unlike its previous generation "Trinity" silicon-based Athlon X4 CPUs, AMD unveiled a few parts with high clock speeds, some even with unlocked base-clock multipliers, targeting consumers who want to build socket FM2-based gaming PCs, but don't intend to use the integrated graphics.

At the top of the stack is the Athlon X4 760K Black Edition (AD760KWOHLBOX). This chip offers 3.80 GHz of clock speed, and 4.10 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency. Despite its lack of the graphics core, its TDP is rated on par with the A10-6800K, at 100W. In its consumer-friendly PIB (processor-in-box) package, the X4-760K Black Edition is priced around US $135. A variant of this exact chip, which lacks unlocked BClk multiplier, is named just Athlon X4 760K (the "K" here can be misleading), and is priced around $100. AMD has other quad-core and dual-core Athlon parts based on the "Richland" silicon planned for later.

According to an OCWorkbench report, AMD will officially launch its second generation A-series desktop APUs on the very first day of Q4 2012, October 1. The launch will include a contingent of socket FM2 motherboards from various manufacturers, based on AMD A55, A75, and A85X chipsets. Among the A-series socket FM2 models launched on October 1, are A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, Athlon X4 750K/740, A6-5400K and A4-5300. Built on the 32 nm HKMG process by Globalfoundries, AMD A-series "Trinity" APUs combine up to four x86-64 CPU cores based on the "Piledriver" micro-architecture, with a Radeon HD 7000 series GPU core, with up to 384 stream processors based on the VLIW4 architecture.

Along with its first triple-core APU, the A6-3500, AMD released the first Athlon branded processor in the socket FM1 package. The Athlon X4 631, as it's called, is a quad-core processor. Notice I said processor and not APU, because this chip lacks the integrated graphics core. Or at least it's there on the silicon and permanently disabled. The processor still has integrated dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, and more importantly, the integrated PCI-Express 2.0 root complex.

The Athlon X4 631 has its four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.60 GHz, lacking TurboCore. There is 4 MB of total cache, arranged as 1 MB dedicated L2 cache per core. The processor has a rated TDP of 100W, above the 95W TDP of the socket AM3 Athlon X4 chips, but given that the northbridge is completely fused with the processor, the 5W TDP jump is fair. The chip is compatible with all socket FM1 motherboards based on the AMD A55 and A75 chipsets. It is priced at US $79 a piece in 1000-unit tray quantities.

With the AMD K8 architecture, AMD had made it very simple for CPUs and motherboards to get along. Memory support being purely subjective to the memory controller on the CPU, the only thing the motherboard chipset was left to do was to connect the rest of the system to the CPU using the HyperTransport interface. With the introduction of the DDR2 supportive AM2 socket that was mostly pin-compatible with socket 939, motherboard vendors took to cost-cutting using older s939 and s754-"supportive" chipsets such as the NVIDIA nForce 3. ASRock is one of them. The company used the nForce 3 in the AM2NF3-VSTA motherboard.

Having bought that motherboard in its time, might just pay off now, with the company including it in its latest socket AM3 CPU compatibility list. The motherboard might go on to support the latest Phenom II X4, X3 series; Athlon X4, X3 series, and other processors in AMD's 45nm desktop CPU lineup. That will also add to the reputation of the NVIDIA nForce 3 chipset being the only platform core-logic to span across three generations of CPU sockets: socket 754, socket 939, and socket AM2. And supporting AMD processors from three generations of sockets: AM2, AM2+ and AM3. This is what AMD originally conceived when designing its socket model. Unfortunately, vested commercial interests and "sandbagging" have plagued many a motherboard manufacturer who continue to discriminate CPU support within the AM2/3 socket series, to create new product lines, and to keep their sales up.

AMD, on the brink of making a start with its first desktop CPUs made on the 45nm manufacturing process, seems to have updated time-frames in which it will introduce new CPUs and manage inventories of currently available CPUs. Data compiled by DigiTimes from sources in the motherboard manufacturing industry points towards the following in 2009:

• The introduction of four new SKUs in the months of April, that include Athlon X4 (Propus core) 615 and 605, Athlon X3 (Rana core) 420 and 410, followed by Athlon X2 (Regor core) 240 and 235 in June
• Last orders for Phenom X4 9850 and 9950 (140W) to be taken in March, Phenom X4 9750, 9850 (95W) and 9950 (125W) will be in June, before which Phenom II X4 920 and 940 in May (in most likelihood replaced by models 925 and 945)
• Phase-out of Phenom X3 8450 and 8550 started, that of Phenom X3 8650 in March followed by Phenom X3 8850 and 8750 in June
• Last order notice for Athlon X2 4450e to be issued in March

A lot has been said about the launch schedules of AMD's upcoming 45nm desktop processors over the last fortnight. While the company itself slated its 45nm desktop CPU range to kick-off on January 8 2009, skeptics think otherwise saying it could take longer for AMD to have sufficiently stocked up inventories in retail channels.

HKEPC compiled a list of tentative order availability. time-frames for the 45nm CPUs sourced from PC manufacturers, which shows that the company launches Phenom II X4 940 on Jan. 8, while most of the product launches are concentrated in the months of February and April, 2009. Starting those months, channel vendors will be able to place bulk orders for those processors, to stock up inventories. Also pictured is the die-shot of AMD Deneb, and a picture showing the differences between the AM3 and AM2+ pin-grids (AM3 on the leftHS, AM2+ on rightHS).

AMD would be releasing its 45nm silicon-based desktop CPUs, built on the Deneb, Propus, Heka, Rana and Regor cores, to bring out quad-core, triple-core and eventually dual-core processors. AMD has discarded the 5-digit number scheme that was earlier reported, and in its place, adopted a three-digit scheme. The quad-core Deneb chips get a 9xx model number and 8xx number depending on the clock-speeds and cache size, Propus-based chips get the Athlon X4 branding.

Heka-based chips get Phenom II X3 7xx branding, with Rana getting Athlon X3 4xx. Regor dual-core trails with Athlon X2 2xx. It is important to note that AMD seems to have made a critical change to the Deneb core, releasing 2 models based on cache-arrangements. The first kind features a total of 8 MB cache (4x 512K L2 + 6M L3) and one with 6 MB total cache. To learn more about the other cores, please refer to our older article getting into details (here).