ATI Trillian "top of the heap" Evergreen card

[josiahsuarez]

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/08/11/evergreen-has-six-members/
ATI's Evergreen has six members
The last card is called......
by Charlie Demerjian

August 11, 2009

WORD IS HITTING the street about the last ATI Evergreen card. The top 5 were recently named, but there is a sixth lurking in the shadows.

The new card is called Trillian, and it is supposed to be at the top of the heap. It is a card name, not a new ASIC, so don't expect any new silicon. Just like Hemlock is two Cypresses on a board instead of a new chip, Trillian is also made up of existing silicon.

The name has some interesting connotations, the first three letters of which are 'tri'. That leaves two interpretations, the most obvious of which is a three GPU board. There have been a few demos here and there of three GPU boards, but nothing that ever made production.

Given that the interconnect on the 3870x2 and 4870x2 are simple PCIe-2 switches, it should be pretty easy to do a three-way board. A 16x PCIe-2 slot is more than capable of providing the needed bandwidth, even with Cypress's immense shader count. This scenario is pretty doubtful though, a 3x Cypress board would run into power limits unless ATI pulled off some serious magic that the TSMC 40nm process seems currently (pun intended) incapable of providing.

The more likely Trillian board is a multi-monitor card that has been spoken about as far back as Computex. Multiple outs fit into existing leaks quite well, but what chip it is based on is quite another question entirely.S|A

[Toss3]

So basically Redwood = 5850, Juniper = 5870, Cypress = 2x5850 and Trillian 2x5870. :)

[pakotlar]

So basically Redwood = 5850, Juniper = 5870, Cypress = 2x5850 and Trillian 2x5870. :)

No. It looks like Redwood = 300nm , Cypress = 2*Redwood, Juniper = 192nm

[Toss3]

No. It looks like Redwood = 300nm , Cypress = 2*Redwood, Juniper = 192nm

You sure about that (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20090729231441_Additional_Details_Regarding_ATI_s_ DirectX_11_Family_Revealed.html)?

Cypress – dual-chip flagship graphics solutions powered by two RV870 chips (originally known as R800);
Juniper – single-chip performance-mainstream graphics solution(s) based on RV870 chip;
Redwood – single chip mainstream graphics solution(s) based on RV830 chip;
Cedar – single chip entry-level graphics solution(s) based on RV810 chip;
Hemlock – unknown.

[Heinz68]

Toss3, look what Xbit says in your linked article:
Since the information comes from an unofficial source and is currently has not been confirmed by any other sources, any details should be considered as guesses.

There are so many variations of the code names, it looks like nobody is sure.

Charlie better be right with the code names after accusing Theo Valich of plagiarism. Apparently Theo copied the code names from theINQUIRER Sylvie Barak and she had them wrong mainly listing the Hemlock as entry level. I posted the Theo article before the edit, here (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=136312).

Here is a small quote from the long article about "Plagiarism is rampant in IT journalism" by Charlie (http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/07/27/plagiarism-rampant-it-journalism/).

The problem in question is that Hemlock, listed by Sylvie here (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1468991/amd-evergreen-codenames-revealed), the "....low level offerings named after the poisionous[sic] shrubbery, Hemlock.", is not a low end part, is the highest end part. Hemlock is the code for the dual Cypress board, likely to be called 5870X2. The low end parts are Cedar and Redwood, mid-range is Juniper, and the high end single chip is Cypress. Hemlock is above that, a dual Cypress/X2 board, not the low end.

Before I jumped to conclusions, I talked to AMD and asked the people that Sylvie had talked to if they had given her the information as I knew it, or as she had written it. We all agreed that her story was a mild transcription error, nothing more. I have done many of these as well over the years, everyone has. I also confirmed that there is no disinformation campaign floating around, no leaked slides with the wrong info, just the correct information.

The codes according to Charlie are like this (http://icrontic.com/news/more-on-amd-dx11-and-intels-westmere)
Hemlock: Highest-end desktop part, probably dual Cypress GPUs a la the rumored Radeon 5870 X2.
Cypress: High-end single-GPU part. Similar to the Radeon HD 4870 when it launched.
Juniper: Mid-range desktop part. Similar to the Radeon HD 4850 when it launched.
Cedar & Redwood: Low-end desktop parts. Similar to the Radeon HD 4650 and 4670.

Only in this thread OP article is Charlie talking about Trillian and either he doesn't know much about it or he is not talking. Maybe it is something to be released later.

Way too much talk about the codes, where are the Graphic Cards. :)

[Toss3]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up Heinz68! :)

[pakotlar]

There was a great post by a guy on beyond3d bringing up the idea that the only die is 192mm^2. Variations are 2*192 and 4*192 (or maybe 3*192). So bascially its on package MCM, like the Pentium Duo, or Core 2 Quad (or xbox 360 edram or whatever you want).

I think this makes the most sense.

And toss, as for what the codenames actually are, its quite possible no one will know. What is most logical is to follow the size order of the trees, or alternatively, possibly Cypress being top-end because it usually grows in a wide canopy like structure (hence x2). Redwood being top single-chip card makes sense, or x2 also makes sense.

However I think the idea that we're getting rid of AFR by using hugely fast interconnected dice on an MCM is correct. This offers us the redundancy that multi-chip gpu's do (vs. single huge monolithic die), gives us easy ability to share memory between gpu dice. It also makes sense that we will see odd memory width configurations, as 192*2 = 384 (rumored to be the mem config on the mid-range part). That seems to be the most elegant solution, and is certainly where gpu's are headed. We'll see if ATI is the first to get there [with Evergreen].

[Heinz68]

It would be nice if the MCM design with shared memory is true, but so far I do read only some speculations about it.

I remember reading similar speculations before the 4000 series dual GPU cards.

Well I wish this time the rumors are right.