Excavator (microarchitecture)

Excavator – Family 15h (4th-gen)
General information
LaunchedJune 2, 2015; 9 years ago (June 2, 2015)[1]
Common manufacturer
Architecture and classification
Technology node28 nm bulk silicon (GF28A)[2]
Instruction setAMD64 (x86-64)
Physical specifications
Sockets
Products, models, variants
Core names
  • Carrizo
  • Bristol Ridge
  • Stoney Ridge
History
PredecessorSteamroller – Family 15h (3rd-gen)
SuccessorZen
Support status
iGPU unsupported

AMD Excavator Family 15h is a microarchitecture developed by AMD to succeed Steamroller Family 15h for use in AMD APU processors and normal CPUs. On October 12, 2011, AMD revealed Excavator to be the code name for the fourth-generation Bulldozer-derived core.

The Excavator-based APU for mainstream applications is called Carrizo and was released in 2015.[3][4] The Carrizo APU is designed to be HSA 1.0 compliant.[5] An Excavator-based APU and CPU variant named Toronto for server and enterprise markets was also produced.[6]

Excavator was the final revision of the "Bulldozer" family, with two new microarchitectures replacing Excavator a year later.[7][8] Excavator was succeeded by the x86-64 Zen architecture in early 2017.[9][10]

Architecture

Excavator added hardware support for new instructions such as AVX2, BMI2 and RDRAND.[11] 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.[12] Excavator can process up to 15% more instructions per clock compared to AMD's previous core Steamroller.[13]

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.[14]

Features and ASICs

The following table shows features of AMD's processors with 3D graphics, including APUs (see also: List of AMD processors with 3D graphics).

[ VisualEditor ]
Platform High, standard and low power Low and ultra-low power
Codename Server Basic Toronto
Micro Kyoto
Desktop Performance Raphael Phoenix
Mainstream Llano Trinity Richland Kaveri Kaveri Refresh (Godavari) Carrizo Bristol Ridge Raven Ridge Picasso Renoir Cezanne
Entry
Basic Kabini Dalí
Mobile Performance Renoir Cezanne Rembrandt Dragon Range
Mainstream Llano Trinity Richland Kaveri Carrizo Bristol Ridge Raven Ridge Picasso Renoir
Lucienne 		Cezanne
Barceló 		Phoenix
Entry Dalí Mendocino
Basic Desna, Ontario, Zacate Kabini, Temash Beema, Mullins Carrizo-L Stoney Ridge Pollock
Embedded Trinity Bald Eagle Merlin Falcon,
Brown Falcon 		Great Horned Owl Grey Hawk Ontario, Zacate Kabini Steppe Eagle, Crowned Eagle,
LX-Family 		Prairie Falcon Banded Kestrel River Hawk
Released Aug 2011 Oct 2012 Jun 2013 Jan 2014 2015 Jun 2015 Jun 2016 Oct 2017 Jan 2019 Mar 2020 Jan 2021 Jan 2022 Sep 2022 Jan 2023 Jan 2011 May 2013 Apr 2014 May 2015 Feb 2016 Apr 2019 Jul 2020 Jun 2022 Nov 2022
CPU microarchitecture K10 Piledriver Steamroller Excavator "Excavator+"[15] Zen Zen+ Zen 2 Zen 3 Zen 3+ Zen 4 Bobcat Jaguar Puma Puma+[16] "Excavator+" Zen Zen+ "Zen 2+"
ISA x86-64 v1 x86-64 v2 x86-64 v3 x86-64 v4 x86-64 v1 x86-64 v2 x86-64 v3
Socket Desktop Performance — AM5 — —
Mainstream — AM4 — —
Entry FM1 FM2 FM2+ FM2+[a], AM4 AM4 —
Basic — — AM1 — FP5 —
Other FS1 FS1+, FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5 FP6 FP7 FL1 FP7
FP7r2
FP8 		? FT1 FT3 FT3b FP4 FP5 FT5 FP5 FT6
PCI Express version 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 2.0 3.0
CXL — —
Fab. (nm) GF 32SHP
(HKMG SOI) 		GF 28SHP
(HKMG bulk) 		GF 14LPP
(FinFET bulk) 		GF 12LP
(FinFET bulk) 		TSMC N7
(FinFET bulk) 		TSMC N6
(FinFET bulk) 		CCD: TSMC N5
(FinFET bulk)
cIOD: TSMC N6
(FinFET bulk) 		TSMC 4nm
(FinFET bulk) 		TSMC N40
(bulk) 		TSMC N28
(HKMG bulk) 		GF 28SHP
(HKMG bulk) 		GF 14LPP
(FinFET bulk) 		GF 12LP
(FinFET bulk) 		TSMC N6
(FinFET bulk)
Die area (mm2) 228 246 245 245 250 210[17] 156 180 210 CCD: (2x) 70
cIOD: 122 		178 75 (+ 28 FCH) 107 ? 125 149 ~100
Min TDP (W) 35 17 12 10 15 65 35 4.5 4 3.95 10 6 12 8
Max APU TDP (W) 100 95 65 45 170 54 18 25 6 54 15
Max stock APU base clock (GHz) 3 3.8 4.1 4.1 3.7 3.8 3.6 3.7 3.8 4.0 3.3 4.7 4.3 1.75 2.2 2 2.2 3.2 2.6 1.2 3.35 2.8
Max APUs per node[b] 1 1
Max core dies per CPU 1 2 1 1
Max CCX per core die 1 2 1 1
Max cores per CCX 4 8 2 4 2 4
Max CPU[c] cores per APU 4 8 16 8 2 4 2 4
Max threads per CPU core 1 2 1 2
Integer pipeline structure 3+3 2+2 4+2 4+2+1 1+3+3+1+2 1+1+1+1 2+2 4+2 4+2+1
i386, i486, i586, CMOV, NOPL, i686, PAE, NX bit, CMPXCHG16B, AMD-V, RVI, ABM, and 64-bit LAHF/SAHF Yes Yes
IOMMU[d] — v2 v1 v2
BMI1, AES-NI, CLMUL, and F16C Yes — Yes
MOVBE — Yes
AVIC, BMI2, RDRAND, and MWAITX/MONITORX — Yes
SME[e], TSME[e], ADX, SHA, RDSEED, SMAP, SMEP, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XRSTORS, CLFLUSHOPT, CLZERO, and PTE Coalescing — Yes — Yes
GMET, WBNOINVD, CLWB, QOS, PQE-BW, RDPID, RDPRU, and MCOMMIT — Yes — Yes
MPK, VAES — Yes —
SGX — —
FPUs per core 1 0.5 1 1 0.5 1
Pipes per FPU 2 2
FPU pipe width 128-bit 256-bit 80-bit 128-bit 256-bit
CPU instruction set SIMD level SSE4a[f] AVX AVX2 AVX-512 SSSE3 AVX AVX2
3DNow! 3DNow!+ — —
PREFETCH/PREFETCHW Yes Yes
GFNI — Yes —
AMX —
FMA4, LWP, TBM, and XOP — Yes — — Yes —
FMA3 Yes Yes
AMD XDNA — Yes —
L1 data cache per core (KiB) 64 16 32 32
L1 data cache associativity (ways) 2 4 8 8
L1 instruction caches per core 1 0.5 1 1 0.5 1
Max APU total L1 instruction cache (KiB) 256 128 192 256 512 256 64 128 96 128
L1 instruction cache associativity (ways) 2 3 4 8 2 3 4 8
L2 caches per core 1 0.5 1 1 0.5 1
Max APU total L2 cache (MiB) 4 2 4 16 1 2 1 2
L2 cache associativity (ways) 16 8 16 8
Max on--die L3 cache per CCX (MiB) — 4 16 32 — 4
Max 3D V-Cache per CCD (MiB) — 64 — —
Max total in-CCD L3 cache per APU (MiB) 4 8 16 64 4
Max. total 3D V-Cache per APU (MiB) — 64 — —
Max. board L3 cache per APU (MiB) — —
Max total L3 cache per APU (MiB) 4 8 16 128 4
APU L3 cache associativity (ways) 16 16
L3 cache scheme Victim Victim
Max. L4 cache — —
Max stock DRAM support DDR3-1866 DDR3-2133 DDR3-2133, DDR4-2400 DDR4-2400 DDR4-2933 DDR4-3200, LPDDR4-4266 DDR5-4800, LPDDR5-6400 DDR5-5200 DDR5-5600, LPDDR5x-7500 DDR3L-1333 DDR3L-1600 DDR3L-1866 DDR3-1866, DDR4-2400 DDR4-2400 DDR4-1600 DDR4-3200 LPDDR5-5500
Max DRAM channels per APU 2 1 2 1 2
Max stock DRAM bandwidth (GB/s) per APU 29.866 34.132 38.400 46.932 68.256 102.400 83.200 120.000 10.666 12.800 14.933 19.200 38.400 12.800 51.200 88.000
GPU microarchitecture TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) GCN 2nd gen GCN 3rd gen GCN 5th gen[18] RDNA 2 RDNA 3 TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) GCN 2nd gen GCN 3rd gen[18] GCN 5th gen RDNA 2
GPU instruction set TeraScale instruction set GCN instruction set RDNA instruction set TeraScale instruction set GCN instruction set RDNA instruction set
Max stock GPU base clock (MHz) 600 800 844 866 1108 1250 1400 2100 2400 400 538 600 ? 847 900 1200 600 1300 1900
Max stock GPU base GFLOPS[g] 480 614.4 648.1 886.7 1134.5 1760 1971.2 2150.4 3686.4 102.4 86 ? ? ? 345.6 460.8 230.4 1331.2 486.4
3D engine[h] Up to 400:20:8 Up to 384:24:6 Up to 512:32:8 Up to 704:44:16[19] Up to 512:32:8 768:48:8 128:8:4 80:8:4 128:8:4 Up to 192:12:8 Up to 192:12:4 192:12:4 Up to 512:?:? 128:?:?
IOMMUv1 IOMMUv2 IOMMUv1 ? IOMMUv2
Video decoder UVD 3.0 UVD 4.2 UVD 6.0 VCN 1.0[20] VCN 2.1[21] VCN 2.2[21] VCN 3.1 ? UVD 3.0 UVD 4.0 UVD 4.2 UVD 6.2 VCN 1.0 VCN 3.1
Video encoder — VCE 1.0 VCE 2.0 VCE 3.1 — VCE 2.0 VCE 3.4
AMD Fluid Motion No Yes No No Yes No
GPU power saving PowerPlay PowerTune PowerPlay PowerTune[22]
TrueAudio — Yes[23] ? — Yes
FreeSync 1
2 		1
2
HDCP[i] ? 1.4 2.2 2.3 ? 1.4 2.2 2.3
PlayReady[i] — 3.0 not yet — 3.0 not yet
Supported displays[j] 2–3 2–4 3 3 (desktop)
4 (mobile, embedded)		 4 2 3 4 4
/drm/radeon[k][25][26] Yes — Yes —
/drm/amdgpu[k][27] — Yes[28] — Yes[28]
  1. ^ For FM2+ Excavator models: A8-7680, A6-7480 & Athlon X4 845.
  2. ^ A PC would be one node.
  3. ^ An APU combines a CPU and a GPU. Both have cores.
  4. ^ Requires firmware support.
  5. ^ a b Requires firmware support.
  6. ^ No SSE4. No SSSE3.
  7. ^ Single-precision performance is calculated from the base (or boost) core clock speed based on a FMA operation.
  8. ^ Unified shaders : texture mapping units : render output units
  9. ^ a b To play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.
  10. ^ To feed more than two displays, the additional panels must have native DisplayPort support.[24] Alternatively active DisplayPort-to-DVI/HDMI/VGA adapters can be employed.
  11. ^ a b DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is a component of the Linux kernel. Support in this table refers to the most current version.

Processors

APU lines

Main article: 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
    • 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.[5]
    • 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.
  2. Budget and mainstream markets (desktop and mobile): Bristol Ridge, and Stoney Ridge (for entry level notebooks), APUs[29]
    • Bristol Ridge APUs utilize socket AM4 and DDR4 RAM
    • Bristol Ridge APUs have up to 4 Excavator CPU cores and up to 8 3rd generation GCN GPU cores
    • Up to a 20% CPU performance increase over Carrizo
    • TDP of 15W to 65W, 15–35W for mobile
  3. Enterprise and server markets: Toronto APU
    • The Toronto APU for server and enterprise markets featured four x86 Excavator CPU core modules and Volcanic Islands integrated GPU core.
    • The Excavator cores has a greater advantage with IPC than Steamroller. The improvement is 4–15%.
    • Support for HSA/hUMA, DDR3/DDR4, PCIe 3.0, GCN 1.2[5][6][10]
    • 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.
    • A complete system with a Toronto APU would have a maximum power usage of 70 W.[6]

CPU Desktop lines

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 2nd Feb 2016, named Athlon X4 845.[30] 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.

List of desktop Excavator CPUs
Brand

Name

Model

Number

Code

Name

Freq. (GHz) Cores TDP

(W)

Socket Cache PCI Express 3.0 Relative IPC Locked
Base Turbo L1D L2
Athlon X4 845 Carrizo 3.5 3.8 4 65 FM2+ 4x

32KB

2x

1MB

x8 1.0 Yes
940 Bristol Ridge 3.2 3.6 AM4 x16 1.1 No
950 3.5 3.8
970 3.8 4.0

Server lines

Main article: 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:[6]

  • 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:

References

  1. ^ "Computex 2015: AMD launches Carrizo A-Series processors". ZDNet.
  2. ^ "AMD leak confirms that Excavator APU will be 28nm, and that some production is moving back to GlobalFoundries - ExtremeTech". www.extremetech.com.
  3. ^ Reynolds, Sam (October 31, 2013). "New confirmed details on AMD's 2014 APU lineup, Kaveri delayed". Vr-zone.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2014. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  4. ^ "AMD updates product roadmap for 2014 and 2015". Digitimes.com. August 26, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c Hachman, Mark (November 21, 2014). "AMD reveals high-end 'Carrizo' APU, the first chip to fully embrace audacious HSA tech". PCWorld. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d Mujtaba, Hassan (December 26, 2013). "AMD Opteron Roadmap Reveals Next Generation Toronto and Carrizo APU Details". WCCF Tech. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  7. ^ "AMD hints at high-performance Zen x86 architecture | bit-tech.net". bit-tech.net.
  8. ^ "AMD to Introduce New High-Performance Micro-Architecture in 2015 – Report - X-bit labs". Archived from the original on 2014-05-13. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  9. ^ Moammer, Khalid (September 9, 2014). "AMD's Next Gen x86 High Performance Core is Zen". WCCF Tech. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Mujtaba, Hassan (May 5, 2014). "AMD Announces 2014-2016 Roadmap – 20nm Project SkyBridge and K12 64-bit ARM Cores For 2016". WCCF Tech. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  11. ^ "AMDs Carrizo architecture detailed and explored". Extremetech.com. June 2, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  12. ^ Crowthers, Doug (August 28, 2012). "AMD Explains Advantages of High Density (Thin) Libraries". Tom's Hardware.
  13. ^ Mujtaba, Hassan (August 26, 2015). "AMD Details Carrizo APUs Energy Efficient Design at Hot Chips 2015 - 28nm Bulk High Density Design With 3.1 Billion Transistors, 250mm2 Die".
  14. ^ "AMD at ISSCC 2015: Carrizo and Excavator Details".
  15. ^ "AMD Announces the 7th Generation APU: Excavator mk2 in Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge for Notebooks". 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  16. ^ "AMD Mobile "Carrizo" Family of APUs Designed to Deliver Significant Leap in Performance, Energy Efficiency in 2015" (Press release). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  17. ^ "The Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 13.0 Page 5 : AMD Mobile CPU Full List". TechARP.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  18. ^ a b "AMD VEGA10 and VEGA11 GPUs spotted in OpenCL driver". VideoCardz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  19. ^ Cutress, Ian (1 February 2018). "Zen Cores and Vega: Ryzen APUs for AM4 – AMD Tech Day at CES: 2018 Roadmap Revealed, with Ryzen APUs, Zen+ on 12nm, Vega on 7nm". Anandtech. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  20. ^ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands in Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  21. ^ a b "AMD Ryzen 5000G 'Cezanne' APU Gets First High-Res Die Shots, 10.7 Billion Transistors In A 180mm2 Package". wccftech. Aug 12, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  22. ^ Tony Chen; Jason Greaves, "AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture" (PDF), AMD, retrieved 13 August 2016
  23. ^ "A technical look at AMD's Kaveri architecture". Semi Accurate. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  24. ^ "How do I connect three or More Monitors to an AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series Graphics Card?". AMD. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  25. ^ Airlie, David (26 November 2009). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33". Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  26. ^ "Radeon feature matrix". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  27. ^ Deucher, Alexander (16 September 2015). "XDC2015: AMDGPU" (PDF). Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  28. ^ a b Michel Dänzer (17 November 2016). "[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0". lists.x.org.
  29. ^ Cutress, Ian (1 June 2016). "AMD Announces 7th Generation APU". Anandtech.com. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  30. ^ Jeff Kampman (2 February 2016). "AMD puts Excavator on the desktop with the Athlon X4 845".