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[JEMC]

Bofferbrauer2 said:

JEMC said:

Ok, one extra piece of hardware news that may be worth mentioning:

AMD’s Hybrid Phoenix 2 “Little Phoenix” APU With 2+4 Core Configuration Spotted
https://wccftech.com/amd-hybrid-phoenix-2-little-phoenix-apu-with-24-core-configuration-spotted/
AMD is working on its own hybrid BIG.little project which is expected to launch as the Phoenix 2 APU lineup for low-power platforms. One such configuration seems to have been spotted within the MilkyWay@Home database.

The latest SKU was spotted by @InstLatX64 within the MilkyWay@Home database. Although the APU has no name or SKU branding mentioned, it is stated that the "A70F80" CPUID belongs to a range of upcoming APUs that will be part of the Phoenix 2 family. The particular SKU features 12 threads and InstLatX64 states that this is a hybrid configuration comprising 2+4 cores. The CPU is equipped with 1 MB of cache and was tested with 16 GB of memory.

As for what AMD's Phoenix 2 project is, the upcoming hybrid design is said to feature 2 standard Zen 4 cores and at least 4 clock/power-optimized Zen 4 cores. The Zen 4 cores are essentially the same architecture but the way power is managed across them is very different. It is not like Intel's hybrid approach where the P-Core and E-Cores utilize vastly different architectures.

I'm surprised AMD has kept the multithread capabilities for the "little" cores. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

These hybrid chips will probably come for the ultra-low power chips, as in, below 15W TDP. AMD is still using Zen1 chips here, only late last year did Mendocino (Athlon 7120U 2c/2t & 7220U 2c/4t) come out, which brought Zen 2 into that domain. Unaltered, Zen3 and 4 have too many cores for those low power figures, so this is probably their way forward for that segment.

I've seen it pitched as the rumored APU powering the Steam Deck 2 but, given that Valve has said that it will be a while before the next one, I don't think it will be the case.