AMD is planning to launch two new processors in the year 2016. Out of two, one will be aimed at desktop platform and other at mobile platforms. The first processor is named Bristol Ridge and will feature a range of chips for the AM4 and FP4 sockets. AMD Bristol Ridge is expected to hit the market before May 2016.

AMD Bristol Ridge Release date and Specs revealed

Since only few more days left for its official launch, many rumours started spreading about this processor. From the leaks, it is clear that Bristol Ridge is built for mainstream desktop and high-performance mobility products. But Summit Ridge family is built only for desktop platforms

Upcoming Processors in Bristol Ridge family

Citavia has compiled a list of Bristol Ridge SOCs along with their specifications. Though, 13SKUs are listed by the site, it is expected that the total number may still increase. The detailed list of upcoming processors are as follows:

“Mainstream Chips” of AMD Bristol Ridge: AMD FX-9830P, AMD FX-9800P, AMD A12-9730P, AMD A12-9700P, AMD A10-9630P, AMD A10-9600P
“Business Chips” of AMD Bristol Ridge: AMD Pro A12-9800B, AMD Pro A12-9830B, AMD Pro A10-9730B, AMD Pro A10-9700B, AMD Pro A8-9630B, AMD Pro A8-9600B, AMD Pro A6-9500B
Mobility (FP4) APUs of AMD Bristol Ridge:AMD Zen Summit Ridge CPUs

Compared Specification of AMD Carrizo and Bristol Ridge

It is mentioned that there is no major difference in technical aspects of both APUs, Carrizo and Bristol Ridge. Both the processors will include following features:

They will be based on a 3rd generation GCN architecture (GCN 1.2)
The will have full support for DirectX 12 to provide good audio quality
Both APUs will feature UVD, VCD, DCE and Dual Graphics support
They will provide Panel Self Refresh and Dynamic Bezel Adjust support and ability for running 3 displays simultaneously.

Though both APUs will have common features, Bristol Ridge will individually have following features:

It will feature up to four x86 Excavator cores with 2 MB of shared L2 cache. The presence of Excavator core ensures better Instruction per clock than previous generation cores
It will support HSA 1.0
It will support DDR4 memory standard. The Excavator core ensures better IPC (Instruction per clock) versus previous generation cores.

Highlights of AMD Bristol Ridge in terms of Power and Performance

The FP4 is solely for the mobile platform and will include several Bristol Ridge SOCs. Several Quad and Dual core SKUs are lined up. The top end chip is believed to have base clock speed and boost clock speed of 3 GHz and 3.7Ghz respectively. Also, it is expected to generate TPD in the range of 15W to 35W. But, Stoney Ridge family is said to have lower TDPs than the mainstream family. All chips in Bristol Ridge will feature a graphics processing units that comes in 8/6/4 CU dies with clock speed of 600 MHz to 900 MHz

Specifications of AMD Bristol Ridge FP4 Family Chipsets

AMD FX-9830P / Pro A12-9830B

It will feature 4 cores with 3 GHZ base clock speed and 3.7GHz clock speed on overclocking
It will include 2MB L2 cache
It will feature 8 Computing units GPU with clock speed of 900MHz
It will support DDR4 and DDr3 memory
It will generate a TDP of 25W

AMD FX-9800P / Pro A12-9800B

It will feature 4 cores with 2.7 GHZ base clock speed and 3.6GHz clock speed on overclocking
It will include 2MB L2 cache
It will feature 8 Computing units GPU with clock speed of 758MHz
It will support DDR4 and DDr3 memory
It will generate a TDP of 12W

AMD A12-9730P / Pro A10-9730B

It will feature 4 cores with 2.8 GHZ base clock speed and 3.5 GHz clock speed on overclocking
It will include 2MB L2 cache
It will feature 6 Computing units GPU with clock speed of 900MHz
It will support DDR4 and DDr3 memory
It will generate a TDP of 25W

AMD A12-9700P / Pro A10-9700B

It will feature 4 cores with 2.4 GHZ base clock speed and 3.4 GHz clock speed on overclocking
It will include 2MB L2 cache
It will feature 6 Computing units GPU with clock speed of 958MHz
It will support DDR4 and DDr3 memory
It will generate a TDP of 12W

AMD A10-9630P / Pro A8-9630B

It will feature 4 cores with 2.6 GHZ base clock speed and 3.2 GHz clock speed on overclocking
It will include 2MB L2 cache
It will feature 6 Computing units GPU with clock speed of 800MHz
It will support DDR4 and DDr3 memory
It will generate a TDP of 25W

From the above data, we can infer that Bristol Ridge SOCs will have improved clock speed and lower TDP. So, Bristol Ridge is going to be a power efficient processor with high-performance Zen core.

Future plans of AMD in the year 2016

AMD engineers, with their skills applied power management to the 28nm design. It resulted in extreme power efficiency than its previous generation processors. AMD is hence planning for 3 major launch in 2016:

Bristol Ridge processor
High-performance Polaris GPUs and
Zen powered FX series

AMD Bristol Ridge with Excavator Core for FP4 Platform Exposed