AMD Launches Zen 2-based Ryzen and Athlon 7020C Series For Chromebooks

Last year, AMD introduced its entry-level ‘Mendicino’ mobile parts to the market. It combines the 2019 Zen 2 cores with RDNA 2.0 integrated graphics to create an affordable configuration choice for mainstream mobile devices. While much of the discussion in recent months has been about the Ryzen 7040 mobile parts, AMD has launched his four new SKUs, the Ryzen and Athlon 7020C series, specifically designed for his Chromebook sector. .

The most notable features of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020C series processors for Chromebooks include three different core and thread configurations ranging from entry-level 2C/2T to 4C/8T, all based on AMD’s RDNA 2 It comes with Radeon 610M mobile integration. Graphics. AMD’s Ryzen 7020C series is designed for a variety of tasks and users, including consumers, educators and businesses, and is expected to offer similar specs and features as the regular 7020 series mobile parts, but with a wider range of It also extends to the Chromebook and ChromeOS ecosystem. that too.

To quickly recap last year’s AMD Mendocino mobile parts, AMD has launched four SKUs featuring Zen 2 cores and RDNA 2 integrated graphics. Similar to the AMD Mendocino series for Chromebooks announced by AMD, general-purpose Ryzen/Athlon 7020 parts for mobile devices range from two entry-level 2C/2T and 2C/4T parts to up to two more powerful 4C/8T. A wide range of parts, all equipped with AMD Radeon. 610M ‘Mendocino’ integrated graphics.

The top-of-the-line Ryzen 7020 series CPU, the Ryzen 5 7520U, is 4C/8T with a base frequency of 2.8 GHz and a 1T boost frequency of up to 4.3 GHz. The specs are similar, but the slightly slower Ryzen 3 7320U features the same 4C/8T but with 2.4 GHz base and 4.1 GHz 1T boost core clock speeds, both sharing the same 4 MB L3 cache.

The other two chips Althon Gold 7220U and Athlon Silver 7120U are similar, but the Athlon Gold 7220U has Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) enabled and is 2C/4T instead of 2C/2T. All of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020 series processors feature a TDP of 15W and are ideal for low-intensity workloads and low-power solutions where things like extended battery life on the go are more important than raw computing power Suitable for

AMD Ryzen/Athlon 7020C Series: Mendocino for Chromebooks

Interestingly, the Ryzen/Athlon 7020C series is also based on AMD’s Mendocino graphics and TSMC’s 6nm node, making the specs of the 7020C and 7020 series virtually identical. The only difference between both sets of Mendocino chips is that the 7020C SKU is designed specifically for ChromeOS. At the same time, his regular 7020 series caters to Microsoft Windows-based mobile devices such as notebooks.

Starting at the top of the stack, the AMD Ryzen 5 7520C is a 4C/8T part with a base clock frequency of 2.8 GHz and a 4.3 GHz 1T boost clock frequency. The Ryzen 3 7320C is very similar to the Ryzen 5 7520C but slightly slower with a base core frequency of 2.4 GHz (400 MHz lower) and a 1T boost frequency of 4.1 GHz (200 MHz lower). Each core has a dedicated 512 KB L1 cache, so The 4C/8T parts have a total of 2MB of L2 cache and a shared 4MB pool of L3 cache.

Going down the stack we have the Athlon Gold 7220C which is a 2C/4T part with a total of 1MB of L2 cache and the same 4MB of L3 cache available for this particular SKU. The base frequency is 2.4 GHz and the 1T boost frequency is up to 3.7 GHz. Last but not least, the entry-level Athlon Silver 7120C doesn’t benefit from SMT, so it’s basically a 2C/2T chip with the same 2.4 GHz base frequency as the Athlon Gold variant, but with a 1T boost. The frequency is slightly slower 3.5. GHz (below 200 MHz).

TDP is a cryptic term, but from a manufacturer’s perspective, it’s always a good indicator of where power might be placed. All four of AMD’s Ryzen/Athlon 7020C series processors for ChromeOS use RDNA 2.0-based Radeon 610M integrated graphics, with 2 x CUs with a total of 128 shader cores clocked at 1.9 GHz. is equipped with However, the Radeon 610M is not primarily designed for gaming due to its low number of shader cores. For reference, the Ryzen 7020/7020C series will feature the same integrated graphics as the high-end Zen 4 based Ryzen 9 7945HX 16C/32T mobile processor. This requires discrete graphics to derive additional bandwidth benefits from PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 graphics chips. .

For the 7020C series, all four SKUs feature a TDP of 15W set by AMD. In short, these chips focus on efficiency gains that are important in things like extended battery life, which are essential in mobile devices. .

Both sets of Mendocino-based Ryzen and Athlon 7020/C-series processors have exact specs, but with one important and crucial difference. This is achieved through security features. Naturally, devices designed for Microsoft’s Windows operating system have different requirements and needs than, say, ChromeOS. We reached out to AMD to find out what the difference is in integrated security and AMD said:

“These (7020C series) are the ChromeOS versions of the Mendocino processors launched for Windows last year. The specs are the same. Hence the 7020U series, not for Chromebooks.”

Other features of AMD’s Mendocino-based 7020C series processors include support for up to three external 4K60 displays, with the ability to support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 devices. This is what Chromebook vendors implement through their controllers. Similar to the Ryzen/Athlon 7020 series, the 7020C series also supports his low-power LPDDR5 memory. This is his LPDDR5-5500 in dual channel mode on a Mendocino based chip when it comes to JEDEC. We reached out to AMD for further clarification on what this merging of security features means, but AMD declined to comment or share additional details.

As is often the case with new product launches, AMD provided some internal performance numbers, but we usually take these with a grain of salt and discount. AMD’s slide docs compared the Ryzen 3 7320C to the Ryzen 3 3250C in a performance comparison between AMD. The Ryzen 3 3250C is actually two generations old. The previous generation designed for Chromebooks was his 5025C series. AMD also compared the performance of Arm-based MediaTek Kompanio chips with Intel Core i3-N305 processors.

In terms of its broad claims, AMD claims an average 1.8x performance improvement over Arm’s IP and an average “better” performance of up to 15% over the competition on x86 CISC. increase. AMD also claims leadership in battery life. However, battery and power saving mechanism optimizations are highly dependent on notebook and Chromebook vendors, so it’s a very difficult metric to determine from a platform perspective.

In addition to announcing the Ryzen and Athon 7020C series for Chromebooks, AMD has also announced two new Chromebooks based on the 7020C series in collaboration with partners. One of them is the Dell Lattitude 3445 Chromebook, which is powered by an AMD 7020C series processor, supports up to 256 GB SSD, 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) of LPDDR5 memory, and has integrated Wi-Fi support. 6 and BT 5.2 devices.

The second Chromebook to be announced is the ASUS Chromebook CM34 Flip (CM3401). It features a 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio touchscreen display with an optional one-touch fingerprint sensor and is powered by up to the Ryzen 5 7520C processor. ASUS CM34 Flip also has a built-in FHD webcam with privacy shutter, supporting Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity and BT 5.2 devices.

The Dell Lattitude 3445 and ASUS CM34 Flip (CM3401) are both expected to launch sometime in Q2 2023, and other devices from AMD partners are expected to launch new Chromebooks with Ryzen/Athlon 7020C series processors around the same time. Expected.

At the time of writing, neither AMD nor its Chromebook partners have revealed anything about pricing or other model specs or configurations. As already mentioned, his AMD’s Ryzen and Athlon 7020C series for Chromebooks are expected to launch and hit retail stores sometime during Q2 2023.