AMD Aldebaran Rumored To Be Arcturus’s Successor, Could Be Featured on Instinct MI200 GPU Accelerator

It looks like AMD is accelerating the production of its next-generation Instinct accelerator, the MI200, which is expected to feature an MCM GPU design. According to the latest information dump, not only is the codename for the GPU unveiled but also a range of new specifications.

AMD Instinct MI200 Accelerator Rumored To Be Codenamed Aldebaran, Will Succeed Arcturus With MCM GPU Design & HBM2E Memory

The AMD Instinct family, starting in 2020, is all CDNA architecture-based. The first generation CDNA flagship, the Instinct MI100, was internally codenamed Arcturus. It was a follow-up to Vega and the GPUs are named after giant stars. The successor to the Instinct MI100, the MI200, is also seemingly going to be named after a huge star and this time, it is expected to be known as Aldebaran.

In the latest Linux patch support (via Phoronix), the AMD Instinct MI200 could be known as Aldebaran which is a giant star located within the constellation of Taurus and has a solar radius of 44.13 or 75% more than Arcturus. The naming convention seems to suggest that Aldebaran will be twice as powerful as Arcturus since the numbers in the MI accelerator's naming convention represent the theoretical Flops performance. This is just speculation at this point but given that the accelerator is expected to feature an MCM GPU design, it might be real.

The patches also reveal that the AMD Instinct MI200 'Aldebaran' GPU will feature HBM2E memory support. The brand new memory standard was first used by NVIDIA's Ampere GA100 GPUs & will offer a nice boost over the standard HBM2 configuration used on the Arcturus-based MI100 GPU accelerator. HBM2E allows up to 16 GB memory capacity per stack so we can expect up to 64 GB HBM2E memory at blisteringly fast speeds for Aldebaran.

Other features listed include SDMA (System Direct Memory Access) support which will allow data transfers over PCIe and XGMI/Infinity Cache subsystems. It looks like AMD will incorporate its new Infinity Cache design on upcoming Instinct accelerators too so we are looking for a very advanced version of the Vega GPU.

ARCTURUS

ALDEBARAN

.asic_family = CHIP_ARCTURUS, .asic_name = “arcturus”, .max_pasid_bits = 16, .max_no_of_hqd = 24, .doorbell_size = 8, .ih_ring_entry_size = 8 * sizeof(uint32_t), .event_interrupt_class = &event_interrupt_class_v9, .num_of_watch_points = 4, .mqd_size_aligned = MQD_SIZE_ALIGNED, .supports_cwsr = true, .needs_iommu_device = false, .needs_pci_atomics = false, .num_sdma_engines = 2, .num_xgmi_sdma_engines = 6, .num_sdma_queues_per_engine = 8,

.asic_family = CHIP_ALDEBARAN, .asic_name = “aldebaran”, .max_pasid_bits = 16, .max_no_of_hqd = 24, .doorbell_size = 8, .ih_ring_entry_size = 8 * sizeof(uint32_t), .event_interrupt_class = &event_interrupt_class_v9, .num_of_watch_points = 4, .mqd_size_aligned = MQD_SIZE_ALIGNED, .supports_cwsr = true, .needs_iommu_device = false, .needs_pci_atomics = false, .num_sdma_engines = 2, .num_xgmi_sdma_engines = 3, .num_sdma_queues_per_engine = 8,

There's also a hint at the MCM GPU design again for the AMD Instinct MI200 'Aldebaran GPU'. The patch states a new mode known as Performance Determinism in which the PMFW will maintain sustained performance level and can be enabled on a per-die basis. This would allow each GPU die to run this feature but a max graphics frequency needs to be specified so they don't exceed the power caps.

Do note that AMD's CDNA 2 GPU will be fabricated on a brand new process node & are confirmed to feature a 3rd Generation AMD Infinity architecture that extends to Exascale by allowing up to 8-Way coherent GPU connectivity.

AMD Radeon Instinct Accelerators

Accelerator Name	AMD Instinct MI400	AMD Instinct MI350X	AMD Instinct MI300X	AMD Instinct MI300A	AMD Instinct MI250X	AMD Instinct MI250	AMD Instinct MI210	AMD Instinct MI100	AMD Radeon Instinct MI60	AMD Radeon Instinct MI50	AMD Radeon Instinct MI25	AMD Radeon Instinct MI8	AMD Radeon Instinct MI6
CPU Architecture	Zen 5 (Exascale APU)	N/A	N/A	Zen 4 (Exascale APU)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
GPU Architecture	CDNA 4	CDNA 3+?	Aqua Vanjaram (CDNA 3)	Aqua Vanjaram (CDNA 3)	Aldebaran (CDNA 2)	Aldebaran (CDNA 2)	Aldebaran (CDNA 2)	Arcturus (CDNA 1)	Vega 20	Vega 20	Vega 10	Fiji XT	Polaris 10
GPU Process Node	4nm	4nm	5nm+6nm	5nm+6nm	6nm	6nm	6nm	7nm FinFET	7nm FinFET	7nm FinFET	14nm FinFET	28nm	14nm FinFET
GPU Chiplets	TBD	TBD	8 (MCM)	8 (MCM)	2 (MCM) 1 (Per Die)	2 (MCM) 1 (Per Die)	2 (MCM) 1 (Per Die)	1 (Monolithic)	1 (Monolithic)	1 (Monolithic)	1 (Monolithic)	1 (Monolithic)	1 (Monolithic)
GPU Cores	TBD	TBD	19,456	14,592	14,080	13,312	6656	7680	4096	3840	4096	4096	2304
GPU Clock Speed	TBD	TBD	2100 MHz	2100 MHz	1700 MHz	1700 MHz	1700 MHz	1500 MHz	1800 MHz	1725 MHz	1500 MHz	1000 MHz	1237 MHz
INT8 Compute	TBD	TBD	2614 TOPS	1961 TOPS	383 TOPs	362 TOPS	181 TOPS	92.3 TOPS	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FP16 Compute	TBD	TBD	1.3 PFLOPs	980.6 TFLOPs	383 TFLOPs	362 TFLOPs	181 TFLOPs	185 TFLOPs	29.5 TFLOPs	26.5 TFLOPs	24.6 TFLOPs	8.2 TFLOPs	5.7 TFLOPs
FP32 Compute	TBD	TBD	163.4 TFLOPs	122.6 TFLOPs	95.7 TFLOPs	90.5 TFLOPs	45.3 TFLOPs	23.1 TFLOPs	14.7 TFLOPs	13.3 TFLOPs	12.3 TFLOPs	8.2 TFLOPs	5.7 TFLOPs
FP64 Compute	TBD	TBD	81.7 TFLOPs	61.3 TFLOPs	47.9 TFLOPs	45.3 TFLOPs	22.6 TFLOPs	11.5 TFLOPs	7.4 TFLOPs	6.6 TFLOPs	768 GFLOPs	512 GFLOPs	384 GFLOPs
VRAM	TBD	HBM3e	192 GB HBM3	128 GB HBM3	128 GB HBM2e	128 GB HBM2e	64 GB HBM2e	32 GB HBM2	32 GB HBM2	16 GB HBM2	16 GB HBM2	4 GB HBM1	16 GB GDDR5
Infinity Cache	TBD	TBD	256 MB	256 MB	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Memory Clock	TBD	TBD	5.2 Gbps	5.2 Gbps	3.2 Gbps	3.2 Gbps	3.2 Gbps	1200 MHz	1000 MHz	1000 MHz	945 MHz	500 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory Bus	TBD	TBD	8192-bit	8192-bit	8192-bit	8192-bit	4096-bit	4096-bit bus	4096-bit bus	4096-bit bus	2048-bit bus	4096-bit bus	256-bit bus
Memory Bandwidth	TBD	TBD	5.3 TB/s	5.3 TB/s	3.2 TB/s	3.2 TB/s	1.6 TB/s	1.23 TB/s	1 TB/s	1 TB/s	484 GB/s	512 GB/s	224 GB/s
Form Factor	TBD	TBD	OAM	APU SH5 Socket	OAM	OAM	Dual Slot Card	Dual Slot, Full Length	Dual Slot, Full Length	Dual Slot, Full Length	Dual Slot, Full Length	Dual Slot, Half Length	Single Slot, Full Length
Cooling	TBD	TBD	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling	Passive Cooling
TDP (Max)	TBD	TBD	750W	760W	560W	500W	300W	300W	300W	300W	300W	175W	150W

News Sources: Videocardz , Komachi , Coelacanth’s Dream

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