AMD Confirms Radeon Instinct MI100 ‘Arcturus’ Discrete GPU Accelerator With CDNA Architecture In 2H 2020

During Dell's EMC presentation, AMD's CTO, Mark Papermaster, confirmed that they will be introducing the next-generation CDNA architecture-based Radeon Instinct MI100 accelerator during the second half of 2020.

AMD's Radeon Instinct MI100 CDNA Architecture Based Discrete GPU Accelerator Arriving in 2H 2020

The AMD Radeon Instinct MI100 which is internally referred to as 'Arcturus' will be a next-gen HPC part that will feature an enhanced version of the 7nm Vega architecture. The accelerator has never been mentioned by AMD officially until now. The GPU seems to be the top HPC part for 2020 in the AMD first-generation CDNA portfolio. Mark confirmed that the Discrete GPU will be introduced in the second half of 2020.

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Mark Papermaster confirmed MI100 Discrete GPU accelerator for 2H 2020 pic.twitter.com/P6KTrm0B2S

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) June 17, 2020

Following is the quote from Mark during the Q/A session:

Like our multi-generational commitment to the Zen roadmap in x86 CPU, we have done the same with our DNA architectures for GPU - rDNA for gaming and visualization, and cDNA for compute & AI. The rDNA is driving gain in AMD share for graphics and deployed in the upcoming Sony and Microsoft new game consoles, and for cDNA you will see the MI100 discrete GPU both 2nd half of 2020.

The ROCm software stack creates an alternative for GPU compute with easy portability and enabling competition. - AMD CTO, Mark Papermaster

Based on what we have learned from various prototype leaks, the Radeon Instinct MI100 'Arcturus' GPU will feature several variants. The flagship variant goes in the D34303 SKU which makes use of the XL variant. The info for this part is based on a test board so it is likely that final specifications would not be the same but here are the key points:

• Based on Arcturus XL GPU
• Test Board has a TDP of 200W
• Up To 32 GB HBM2 Memory
• HBM2 Memory Clocks Reported Between 1000-1200 MHz

The Radeon Instinct MI100 test board has a TDP of 200W and is based on the XL variant of AMD's Arcturus GPU. The card also features 32 GB of HBM2 memory with pin speeds of 1.0 - 1.2 GHz. The MI60 in comparison has 64 CUs with a TDP of 300W while clock speeds are reported at 1200 MHz (Base Clock) while the memory operates at 1.0 GHz along with a 4096-bit bus interface, pumping out 1 TB/s bandwidth. There's a big chance that the final design of the Arcturus GPU could be featuring Samsung's latest HBM2E 'Flashbolt' memory which offers 3.2 Gbps speeds for up to 1.5 Tb/s of bandwidth.

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

So far, AMD has unveiled that the main focus of CDNA would be performance, efficiency, features, scalability in the data center market. Currently, AMD's GCN architecture has served this segment but with CDNA, AMD will be creating GPUs specifically optimized for high-performance Compute, Machine Learning, and HPC. The 1st Gen CDNA GPUs will feature a 2nd Gen Infinity Architecture and would utilize the ROCm (Radeon Open Compute Platform) to power the data center with key optimizations and enhanced scalability. The 2nd Gen Infinity Architecture will allow for 4-8 Way GPU connectivity in a singular node, allowing the new Radeon Instinct boards to run in harmony.

AMD has proved that they can offer more FLOPs at a competitive price so maybe that is where Arcturus would be targetting. With 2H 2020 now set for the Radeon Instinct MI100, we will soon know how AMD's latest CDNA architecture competes against NVIDIA's Ampere based A100 GPU accelerator in the HPC segment.

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