AMD confirms a six-core APU exist, used for the Ryzen 3 7440U
Over the recent past, rumors have been swirling that AMD plans to launch an APU incorporating a big-little core design (Zen 4 + Zen 4c), christened ‘Phoenix 2’, employing a more compact chip. Mark Papermaster, AMD’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, validated that AMD’s heterogeneous architecture processors would indeed grace the consumer market.
According to a report by XDA-Developers, AMD has confirmed the existence of a hexa-core chip for the Ryzen 3 7440U. Though AMD has not explicitly divulged the utilization of a mixed architecture in their underlying design, the specifications align perfectly with previous rumors, corroborating the validity of the information.
The Phoenix 2 isn’t a mere pared-down version of the original Phoenix, featuring hybrid variations. The modifications comprise a decrease in the number of cores from eight Zen 4 performance cores to a combination of two Zen 4 performance cores and four Zen 4c efficiency cores, a reduction in area from 178mm² to 137mm², and a drop in the quantity of Integrated Graphics Processing Units (iGPUs) from twelve to four. Notably, the Ryzen AI engine is absent. Unlike Intel, the Zen 4 and Zen 4c architectures utilize the same Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), the latter essentially being a lower-power, streamlined version of the former, possessing identical Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) but boasting superior power efficiency.
Earlier buzz suggested that both the Ryzen 5 7540U (6C12T+4CU) and the Ryzen 3 7440U (4C8T+4CU) would employ the Phoenix 2 chip. However, AMD has now indicated it would be solely used for the Ryzen 3 7440U. This implies that, despite the Phoenix 2 chip’s compatibility with the Ryzen 5 7540U specifications, AMD has opted against this path. There is speculation that the Ryzen 3 7440U may simultaneously utilize both the Phoenix and Phoenix 2 chips to ensure stable supply, yet in the absence of comprehensive knowledge regarding Phoenix 2’s mixed-architecture characteristics, definitive conclusions remain elusive.
