AMD confirmed that there will be two chips for the CDNA 2 architecture GPU

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At the 49th Global Technology, Media, and Communications Conference held by JPMorgan Chase before, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su briefly mentioned the CDNA 2 architecture and its products, saying that it will be launched within the year. According to previous rumors, the code name of the CDNA 2 architecture GPU is Aldebaran, and the product equipped with this GPU is likely to be the long-rumored Instinct MI200 computing card, specifically designed for computationally intensive and HPC workloads.

In the recent Linux kernel update, AMD engineers confirmed that the upcoming CDNA 2 architecture GPU will have two chips. It has long been reported that the CDNA 2 architecture GPU will use MCM (Multi-Chip-Module) packaging technology and the next generation of Infinity Fabric bus technology. Its competitors, NVIDIA Hopper architecture and Intel Xe-HP architecture GPU, most likely will use MCM packaging technology.

According to VideoCardz, the GPU codenamed Aldebaran has two computing chips, which are called die 0 and die 1 in the Linux update. The AMD engineering department stated that only the main chip will process the data of the power supply, and it will not be set by the secondary chip, which finally confirmed that there will be two chips. This means that the main chip will adjust the power consumption and related restrictions of the entire computing part. It is temporarily unclear whether the video memory is also controlled by this chip, or a new I/O module is added to adjust it.

How the GPU code-named Aldebaran uses MCM packaging technology is still unclear, but it must be very different from the past. The dual-chip configuration will require an interconnect chip, which will also increase the size of the package. AMD may make different attempts before fully moving towards multi-computing chips. In fact, AMD has never publicly confirmed that the CDNA 2 architecture GPU will use MCM packaging technology, but will use many side introductions and titles to show its technical characteristics.

The AMD Instinct MI200 computing card is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year and maybe manufactured using a 5nm process.

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