AMD Launches Zen 2-based Ryzen and Athlon 7020C Sequence For Chromebooks

Final 12 months, AMD unveiled their entry-level ‘Mendicino’ mobile parts to the market, which mix their 2019 Zen 2 cores and their RDNA 2.0 built-in graphics to create an reasonably priced number of configurations for mainstream cellular gadgets. Though a lot of the dialogue over the previous couple of months has been about their Ryzen 7040 cellular elements, AMD has launched 4 new SKUs explicitly designed for the Chromebook house, the Ryzen and Athlon 7020C collection.

A number of the most notable options of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020C collection processors for Chromebooks embrace three completely different configurations of cores and threads, starting from entry-level 2C/2T as much as 4C/8T, all with AMD’s RDNA 2-based Radeon 610M cellular built-in graphics. Designed for all kinds of duties and customers, together with and never restricted to customers, schooling, and companies, AMD’s Ryzen 7020C collection seems to be to supply related specs and options to their common 7020 collection cellular elements however expands issues to the broader Chromebook and ChromeOS ecosystem too.

Shortly recapping final 12 months’s AMD Mendocino cellular elements, AMD launched 4 SKUs with Zen 2 cores and RDNA 2 built-in graphics. Very similar to the AMD Mendocino collection for Chromebooks that AMD has introduced, their generic Ryzen/Athlon 7020 elements for cellular gadgets vary from two entry-level 2C/2T and 2C/4T elements as much as two beefier 4C/8T elements, all with AMD’s Radeon 610M ‘Mendocino’ built-in graphics.

The highest tier Ryzen 7020 collection CPU, the Ryzen 5 7520U, has 4C/8T, with a base frequency of two.8 GHz and a 1T enhance frequency of as much as 4.3 GHz. Related in specification however barely slower, the Ryzen 3 7320U has the identical 4C/8T however with a 2.4 GHz base and 4.1 GHz 1T enhance core clock pace, whereas each share the identical 4 MB of L3 cache.

The opposite two chips, Althon Gold 7220U and Athlon Silver 7120U have been once more related, however the Athlon Gold 7220U has Simultaneous Multithreaded (SMT) enabled, giving it 2C/4T as an alternative of 2C/2T. All of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020 collection processors even have a TDP of 15 W, making them extra appropriate for much less intensive workloads and lower-powered options the place issues like extending battery life on the go are extra essential than uncooked compute energy.

AMD Ryzen/Athlon 7020C Sequence: Mendocino For Chromebooks

Apparently, the Ryzen/Athlon 7020C collection can also be based mostly on AMD’s Mendocino graphics and TSMC’s 6 nm node, and the specs between the 7020C and 7020 collection are just about similar. The one actual distinction between each units of Mendocino chips is that the 7020C SKUs are designed particularly for ChromeOS. On the identical time, the common 7020 collection caters to Microsoft Home windows-based cellular gadgets reminiscent of notebooks.

Beginning on the high of the stack, the AMD Ryzen 5 7520C is a 4C/8T half with a 2.8 GHz base and a 4.3 GHz 1T enhance clock frequency. The Ryzen 3 7320C is similar to the Ryzen 5 7520C, nevertheless it’s barely slower, with a base core frequency of two.4 GHz (400 MHz much less) and a 1T enhance frequency of 4.1 GHz (200 MHz much less). Every core has a devoted 512 KB of L1 cache, so the 4C/8T elements have a complete L2 cache of two MB and a shared 4 MB pool of L3 cache. 

Shifting down the stack, we have now the Athlon Gold 7220C, a 2C/4T half with a mixed whole of 1 MB of L2 cache, and this particular SKU has the identical 4 MB pool of L3 cache out there to it. It has a 2.4 GHz base frequency, with a 1T enhance frequency of as much as 3.7 GHz. Final however not least, the entry-level Athlon Silver 7120C would not profit from SMT, so it is basically a 2C/2T chip with the identical base frequency of two.4 GHz because the Athlon Gold variant however with a barely slower 1T enhance frequency of three.5 GHz (200 MHz much less).

Whereas TDP is an enigmatic time period, it is all the time a very good indication of the place energy will doubtless sit from a producer’s standpoint. All 4 of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020C collection processors for ChromeOS use their RDNA 2.0-based Radeon 610M built-in graphics, which has 2 x CUs with a complete of 128 shader cores which are clocked to 1.9 GHz. Though the Radeon 610M is not primarily designed for gaming as a result of low variety of shader cores. For reference, the Ryzen 7020/7020C collection options the identical built-in graphics discovered on the higher-end Zen 4 based mostly Ryzen 9 7945HX 16C/32T cellular processor, which requires discrete graphics to unleash the extra bandwidth advantages from PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 graphics chips.

Within the case of the 7020C collection, all 4 SKUs have a TDP of 15 W set by AMD, which implies these chips are targeted on delivering extra effectivity, which is essential in issues reminiscent of extending battery life, which is significant in a cellular machine.

Regardless of each units of the Mendocino-based Ryzen and Athlon 7020/C collection processors that includes the precise specs, there’s one key and demanding distinction. This comes by way of Security measures, and because it’s to be anticipated, a tool designed for Microsoft’s Home windows working system has completely different necessities and desires from one thing reminiscent of ChromeOS. We reached out to AMD to search out out what variations there are in built-in safety, with AMD stating the next:

“These (7020C collection) are the ChromeOS variations of the Mendocino processors launched for Home windows final 12 months. They do share the identical specs. Nevertheless, the 7020C Sequence is optimized for ChromeOS, together with completely different fusing particularly for ChromeOS safety features. Therefore the 7020U collection can’t be used for Chromebooks”.

Different options of AMD’s Mendocino-based 7020C collection processors embrace assist for as much as three exterior 4K60 shows, with the potential to assist Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 gadgets; that is one thing the Chromebook distributors will implement by controllers. Just like the Ryzen/Athlon 7020 collection, the 7020C collection additionally helps the lower-powered LPDDR5 reminiscence, which regarding JEDEC, is LPDDR5-5500 in twin channel mode for the Mendocino-based chips. We requested for additional clarification from AMD on what this fusing of safety features entails, however AMD declined to remark or share extra particulars.

As is typical with a brand new launch, AMD did present some in-house efficiency figures, however we often take these with a pinch of salt with out emphasizing them an excessive amount of. Inside AMD’s slide deck, the AMD to AMD efficiency comparisons have been evaluating the Ryzen 3 7320C in opposition to the Ryzen 3 3250C, which is, in truth, two generations previous; the earlier technology designed for Chromebooks was the 5025C collection. AMD additionally in contrast efficiency in opposition to Arm-based MediaTek Kompanio chips and an Intel Core i3-N305 processor.

Concerning the broader claims made, AMD claims a 1.8x uplift in efficiency on common in contrast with Arm’s IP, with as much as 15% ‘higher’ efficiency on common in opposition to the competitors on the x86 CISC. AMD additionally claims management in battery life. Nevertheless, as it’s broadly right down to pocket book and Chromebook distributors to optimize by its batteries and power-saving mechanisms, it is a a lot more durable metric to guage from a platform standpoint.

Along with their announcement of the Ryzen and Athon 7020C collection for Chromebooks, AMD has additionally introduced two new Chromebooks with its companions based mostly on the 7020C collection. Certainly one of these is the Dell Lattitude 3445 Chromebook, which is powered by the AMD 7020C collection processors, with assist for as much as 256 GB of SSD, 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) of LPDDR5 reminiscence, and with built-in assist for Wi-Fi 6 and BT 5.2 gadgets.

The second Chromebook to be introduced is the ASUS Chromebook CM34 Flip (CM3401), which has a 14″ 16:10 facet ratio touchscreen show with an non-compulsory one-touch fingerprint sensor and is powered by as much as and together with the Ryzen 5 7520C processor. The ASUS CM34 Flip additionally has an built-in FHD webcam with a privateness shutter and helps Wi-Fi 6 wi-fi connectivity and BT 5.2 gadgets.

Each the Dell Lattitude 3445 and ASUS CM34 Flip (CM3401) are anticipated to launch someday in Q2 2023, with different gadgets from AMD’s companions anticipated to launch new Chromebooks with Ryzen/Athlon 7020C collection processors across the identical time. 

On the time of writing, neither AMD nor their Chromebook companions have supplied any indications on costs or different mannequin specs or configurations. As we have talked about, AMD’s Ryzen and Athlon 7020C collection for Chromebooks are anticipated to launch and hit retail cabinets someday in Q2 2023.