Energy-Efficient Graphics and Multimedia in 28-nm Carrizo Accelerated Processing Unit

Carrizo is AMD's sixth-generation accelerated processing unit (APU), optimized to deliver performance uplifts and battery-life improvements in thinner and lighter notebook platforms. Its primary goals are to deliver a differentiated gaming and multimedia experience to the end user and to make progress toward AMD's goal of improving energy efficiency in its APUs by 25 times by year 2020. This article describes the new features, low-power architecture, and power management algorithms used to achieve these goals. Carrizo delivered a 63 percent increase in the 3DMark11 benchmark score, a 350 percent increase in video transcoding throughput, a 60 percent reduction in full-screen HD video playback power, and a 50 percent reduction in Windows idle power compared to its predecessor, the Kaveri APU.