April 2nd Update: This post is an April Fools joke.
Canis Majoris is the largest star second largest star in the known universe, it also happens to be the code name of a leaked Intel and AMD joint venture named Project Canis. The JV aims to unify Intel's outstanding fabrication facilities and RTG's graphics ambitions. In simpler words, RTG will be designing the GPU and Intel will be fabricating it. In an oddly gracious gesture, GloFo decided to allow this partnership to go ahead without any financial penalties for - old times sake (or a lot of $$$).
Radeon's new flagship Radeon RX Canis to be manufactured by Intel foundries, will be supporting 10,240 SP and 4 TB/s HBM4
Reliable sources have told us that the JV documentation was personally carried to Intel HQ by Raja Koduri and represents the start of a burgeoning alliance between the two chip powerhouses. AMD's RTG division has always been quite good at the designing part of the chip process and with Intel's foundries in the equation (which are hands down the best on the planet I might add) this is going to utterly disrupt the entire graphics industry.
Update: We also found the draft teaser trailer for the upcoming GPU:
Before we go any further lets go over the leaked specifications of the GPU. The graphics card will be manufactured on the Intel 10nm++ process and will consist of 2 dies of 400mm2 each connected by a brand new TSV based interconnect. Each die will house 80 Control Units with 64 SP each for a grand total of 10,240 stream processors on the board. Remember how AMD used Infinity Fabric to connect different Zen dies in Threadripper? Well, this is like that - but for GPUs. Because this is manufactured in Intel foundries, early reports indicate the chips can boost as high as 2.4 GHz, which is absolutely bat-shit crazy for a GPU.
The TDP numbers are a bit high at 350 Watts but that is something to be expected considering this is going to be an absolute monster in terms of raw performance. At the stated rate of 2441 MHz, AMD RX Canis GPU will be able to boost to 50 TFLOPs of compute performance (single precision). If this isn't an insane value - I don't know what is. This truly represents a generational leap in performance as far as graphics cards go.
| Wccftech | AMD Radeon RX Canis |
|---|---|
| Process | 10nm ++ (Intel) |
| Architecture | Canis 10 |
| Stream Processors | 10240 |
| Core Clock (Boost) | 1800 MHz (2441 MHz) |
| Memory | 32GB HBM4 |
| Bandwidth | 4 TB/s |
| Peak Performance | 50 TFLOPs |
| Die Size | 400mm2 (x2) |
| GPU Type | MCM |
| Interconnect | Unknown (TSV based) |
| Feature Level | Direct3D 12_2 |
| TDP | 350W |
| Power Connectors | 3x 8-pin |
| Expected MSRP | $999 |
| Launch | 2H 2018 |
The card will be rocking HBM4 memory, which is a newer and cheaper variant of HBM3. The JEDEC standard will be produced by Micron and Samsung in collaboration with Intel and the JV expects no memory bottlenecks like before. The total bandwidth available on the card is a massive 4 TB/s which should be more than enough for even the most strenuous graphic requirements.
Of course, higher performance means this is going to be an absolutely insane value proposition for the mining crowd and its unlikely we will see this card in stock at launch. Thankfully, both Intel and AMD are committed to dedicate a significant portion of supply to gamers only - this will be achieved by validating gamers through their Steam accounts. There will be a standard 1 card per user policy which will have to be further validated by linking your Steam account (which must have at least $100 worth of games and 100 hours of gameplay). As far as pricing goes, we have heard that the card's MSRP will be a very reasonably priced $999 (which is cheap as dirt considering the specs on this thing).
Press has already been briefed and under NDA; reportedly told to deny the project exists if asked
We also learned that a very select group of press was shown the prototype behind closed doors and not only were they made to sign an NDA but will have to actively deny the card exists if asked. This is probably one of the reasons why you will not see anyone talking about it and if you ask these certain someones, you will get a response along the likes of "its clearly fake".
We have been told that the top secret GPU has already taped out and will enter volume production by next month. The Intel-AMD joint venture expects it to hit the shelves by holiday season in 2H 2018. This joint venture folks, is apparently the real reason Raja Koduri joined Intel - to usher in a new era of graphics technology. I have to say however, that all of this wouldn't have been possible without GloFo bowing out of the Wafer Supply Agreement a few years early - and something tells me, their consent must have come at quite the price. Stay tuned for more info.
