I found recently that AMD HD 7xxx GPUs will consist of 2 different types of architecture.The low and mid range will be based on its current VLIW-4D architecture (the same used in the Radeon HD 6900 Series GPUs),and the high range is based on the new Graphic Core Next architecture, which includes new shader engines called Compute Units (CU). It is expected that the new architecture has a large computing power, high capacity interconnection with multiple chip architectures compatibility (x86, ARM, FPGA, MIPS, DSP and others) and it can make use of the new PCI Express 3.0.
TSMC and Global Foundries will be responsible for the manufacture of these new chips, though it is unclear which of them will manufacture models of low, medium or high ranges, although it could presumably TSMC will manufacture high-end chips ( and perhaps the mid-range), and Global Foundries may be responsible for manufacturing the low-end chips, which is not unreasonable. Considering that currently it is responsible for making the APU Llano, and they incorporate an IGP based on Radeon HD 6xxx (VLIW-5D).
The first 28nm AMD HD 7xxx GPUs was supposedly going to arrive in Q4 of this year (from October to December), which would of gave it a few months advantage over Nvidia 28nm GPUs whose first arrival will be in the first half of 2012 .Recently Donanimhaber conducted an interview with Powercolor’s Director of Sales, Elaine Liao, who said HD 7xxx series can be expected in Q1 2012.
Another surprise is that the next generation Radeon HD will process of 40 nanometers (40nm). This clearly conflicts with the idea that both AMD and its competitor Nvidia are now ready to jump to a 28nm manufacturing process. Similarly, it is absolutely opposed to the official statement, which the manufacturer offered in July, in which he claimed that the new AMD Radeon HD 7000 series would have an effective transition to 28nm process technology.
FYI,PowerColor is coming out with a 6970 X2.
