Whatever happened to Kaveri?

Quizzical

AMD launched their Kaveri APUs on January 14 this year.  As I said at the time, it's a nice architecture, but just not for desktops.  The desktop parts were way overpriced for what you get, but a lower power version would be a really nifty laptop chip.

We're now substantially into May, and nearly four months past launch.  Kaveri desktop chips remain way overpriced.  Kaveri laptops not only aren't here, but don't even seem to be coming terribly soon.

So my question is, what happened?  Did AMD feel the need to do another respin after launch before ramping up production?  Was the process node not ready for mass production?  Did some fab equipment fail and delay everything by months?  Did AMD do a ridiculously premature launch and merely price Kaveri high enough that it would stay in stock in spite of not having many chips to sell?  Are they waiting on DDR4 for a laptop version, or less plausibly, GDDR5M memory modules?

asmkm22

At least one laptop example has been found a few days ago:  http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2014/2014050301_AMD_A10-7300_mobile_Kaveri_CPU_spotted_in_HP_laptop.html

asmkm22

One thing that I wonder about AMD is how much of an impact their console obligations have on chip production for other products.  With both consoles released late last year, with 12 to 14 million sold in total, that has to impact their production lines.

grndzro

In stock at Newegg. Pretty much all 5 star reviews.

Cleffy

I feel production for consoles will not slow down a chip maker like AMD who is desperately trying to sell chips. More than likely, its probably AMD knew that Kaveri wasn't a good enough chip and intentionally limited production in order to keep costs down as it was a stop gap between node shrinks.

Ridelynn

That, and AMD doesn't have their own production lines any longer. They outsource production to fab shops depending on the process, capacity, availability, and cost. (Global Foundries, TSMC, etc).

Quizzical

Originally posted by grndzro
In stock at Newegg. Pretty much all 5 star reviews.

That's desktop parts, not laptop.

Quizzical

Originally posted by Cleffy

I feel production for consoles will not slow down a chip maker like AMD who is desperately trying to sell chips. More than likely, its probably AMD knew that Kaveri wasn't a good enough chip and intentionally limited production in order to keep costs down as it was a stop gap between node shrinks.

Kaveri is AMD's first chip on a new 28 nm process node at Global Foundries--and likely a process node for which AMD is the only customer.  Console chips are made at TSMC.

grndzro

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by grndzro
In stock at Newegg. Pretty much all 5 star reviews.

That's desktop parts, not laptop.

Their commin

http://www.overclock.net/t/1487489/hp-com-cpu-world-amd-a10-7300-mobile-kaveri-cpu-spotted-in-hp-laptop