In the wake of a "Future of Computing" event held today in Singapore, John Byrne, senior VP and general manager of AMD's Computing and Graphics unit, has taken to YouTube to hype the firm's upcoming Carrizo APU. The Kaveri replacement targets "performance mobile" and all-in-one systems, and Byrne says Carrizo represents AMD's "biggest leap ever from an energy efficiency perspective."

AMD is already performing validation testing on Carrizo silicon. The chip will ship in first half of next year, which Byrne says is "right on schedule"—a refrain that's repeated multiple times during the short video. In an accompanying press release, AMD indicates that the first systems won't be available until "mid-year 2015."

Carrizo combines Excavator CPU cores with a "brand new graphics architecture." Interestingly, it doesn't appear to feature the on-package memory rumored earlier this year. I don't see separate dies on the processor package, and AMD's marketing materials make no mention of on-package memory.

Unlike Kaveri, Carrizo is a true SoC; the APU and south bridge occupy the same die. Integrating the chipset allows Carizzo to share the same processor package as Carrizo-L, a lower-power chip designed to supplant AMD's Beema SoC. PC makers should appreciate being able to solder either chip to the same motherboard.

Source: AMD

AMD's latest official roadmap (PDF) indicates that Carrizo-L will have up to four "Puma+" cores. Those should be similar to the standard Puma cores in Beema, and it looks like the GCN-based integrated graphics is largely unchanged. The roadmap specifically lists "next generation" GCN graphics for Carrizo but not for its little brother.