Jaguar (microarchitecture)

Computer processor microarchitecture by AMD

The AMD Jaguar Family 16h is a low-power microarchitecture designed by AMD. It is used in APUs succeeding the Bobcat Family microarchitecture in 2013 and being succeeded by AMD's Puma architecture in 2014. It is two-way superscalar and capable of out-of-order execution. It is used in AMD's Semi-Custom Business Unit as a design for custom processors and is used by AMD in four product families: Kabini aimed at notebooks and mini PCs, Temash aimed at tablets, Kyoto aimed at micro-servers, and the G-Series aimed at embedded applications. Both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One use SoCs based on the Jaguar microarchitecture, with more powerful GPUs than AMD sells in its own commercially available Jaguar APUs.^[2]

Design

A die shot of a Jaguar processor used in a Playstation 4 Pro

• 32 KiB instruction + 32 KiB data L1 cache per core, L1 cache includes parity error detection
• 16-way, 1–2 MiB unified L2 cache shared by two or four cores, L2 cache is protected from errors by the use of error correcting code
• Out-of-order execution and speculative execution
• Integrated memory controller
• Two-way integer execution
• Two-way 128-bit wide floating-point and packed integer execution
• Integer hardware divider
• Consumer processors support two DDR3L DIMMs in one channel at frequencies up to 1600 MHz^[3]
• Server processors support two DDR3 DIMMs in one channel at frequencies up to 1600 MHz with ECC^[4]
• As a SoC (not just an APU) it integrates Fusion controller hub
• Jaguar does not feature clustered multi-thread (CMT), meaning that execution resources are not shared between cores

Instruction-set support

The Jaguar core has support for the following instruction sets and instructions: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, F16C, CLMUL, AES, BMI1, MOVBE (Move Big-Endian instruction), XSAVE/XSAVEOPT, ABM (POPCNT/LZCNT), and AMD-V.^[1]

Improvements over Bobcat

• Over 10% increase in clock frequency^[5]
• Over 15% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC)^[5]
• Added support for SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, CLMUL, MOVBE, AVX, F16C, BMI1^[5]
• Up to four CPU cores
• L2 cache is shared between cores
• FPU datapath width increased to 128-bit^[5]
• Added hardware integer divider
• Enhanced cache prefetchers
• Doubled bandwidth of load–store units
• C6 and CC6 low power states with lower entry and exit latency^[5]
• Smaller, 3.1 mm² area per core
• Integrated Fusion controller hub (FCH)
• Video Coding Engine

Features

Processors

Consoles

1. Unified Shaders : Texture Mapping Units : Render Output Units
2. Precision performance is calculated from the base (or boost) core clock speed based on a FMA operation.
3. Pixel fillrate is calculated as the number of ROPs multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
4. Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of TMUs multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
5. UHD BD is the only video disc format supporting HDR.
6. Cache
7. "Digital" version does not have an optical drive.
8. Feature preview of Rapid Packed Math, introduced in GCN 5 Vega.
9. Swap

Desktop

SoCs using Socket AM1:

Desktop/Mobile (28 nm)

Server

Opteron X1100-series "Kyoto" (28 nm)

Opteron X2100-series "Kyoto" (28 nm)

Embedded

Jaguar derivative and successor

In 2017, a derivative of the Jaguar microarchitecture was announced in the APU of Microsoft's Xbox One X (Project Scorpio) revision to the Xbox One.^[26] The Project Scorpio APU is described as a 'customized' derivative of the Jaguar microarchitecture, utilizing eight cores clocked at 2.3 GHz.^[27][28]

The Puma successor to Jaguar was released in 2014 and targeting entry level notebooks and tablets.^[29]

References

1. "Software Optimization Guide for Family 16h Processors". AMD. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
2. "Xbox One vs. PS4: How the final hardware specs compare". ExtremeTech. November 22, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
3. "AMD releases 5 Kabinis and 3 Temashes". SemiAccurate. 23 May 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
4. "AMD launches Opteron X-Series, Moving Jaguar into Servers". Bright Side Of News. 30 May 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
5. "Slide detailing improvements of Jaguar over Bobcat". AMD. 29 August 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
6. MACHKOVECH, SAM (2 August 2016). "Microsoft hid performance boosts for old games in Xbox One S, told no one". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
7. Walton, Mark (10 August 2016). "PS4 Neo: Sony confirms PlayStation event for September 7". Ars Technica. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
8. Walton, Mark (19 April 2016). "Sony PS4K is codenamed NEO, features upgraded CPU, GPU, RAM—report". Ars Technica. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
9. Smith, Ryan (8 September 2016). "Analyzing Sony's Playstation 4 Pro Hardware Reveal: What Lies Beneath". Anandtech. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
10. Freedman, Andrew (3 November 2017). "Xbox One X vs. PlayStation 4 Pro: Which Powerhouse Should You Get?". Tom's Guide. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
11. "PS4 Pro's additional RAM frees up memory for game developers". Polygon. Retrieved 2018-11-23.
12. "Microsoft's Project Scorpio Gets a Launch Date: Xbox One X, $499, November 7th".
13. "Xbox One Project Scorpio specs: 12GB GDDR5, 6 teraflops, native 4K at 60FPS". 6 April 2017.
14. Cutress, Ian (21 August 2017). "Hot Chips: Microsoft Xbox One X Scoprio Engine Live Blog". Anandtech. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
15. AMD Radeon R3 5350 compare Nvidia GeForce GT 520 GPU
16. "AMD Introduces New Socketed AMD Sempron and AMD Athlon APU Products with AM1 Platform". AMD. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
17. "AMD introduces its Mini-PC based Kabini". Tech News Pedia. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
18. Shimpi, Anand. "AMD's Jaguar Architecture: The CPU Powering Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Kabini & Temash". AnandTech. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
19. "AMD Expands Elite Mobility APU Line-Up with New Quad-Core Processor". Amd.com. 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
20. "AMD Quanta A4-1200 APU Tablet Prototype". YouTube. 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
21. Shvets, Gennadiy. "AMD G-Series GX-416RA specifications". cpu-world.com. CPU-World. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
22. "AMD Embedded G-Series System-on-Chip (SOC)" (PDF). AMD. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2013-11-10.
23. "Netboard A10". deciso.com. Deciso B.V. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
24. Schellevis, Jos. "Under the Hood: AMD G-Series SOC Delivers the Horsepower for Next Generation Firewalls". community.amd.com. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
25. "PC Engines apu2c2 product file". pcengines.ch. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
26. Leadbetter, Richard (6 April 2017). "Inside the next Xbox: Project Scorpio tech revealed". EuroGamer. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
27. Howse, Brett (3 November 2017). "The Xbox One X Review". Anandtech. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
28. Carbotte, Kevin (21 August 2017). "Microsoft Details Xbox One X Scorpio Engine SoC". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
29. Lal Shimpi, Anand (29 April 2014). "AMD Beema/Mullins Architecture & Performance Preview". Anandtech. Retrieved 17 April 2017.