http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/ambidextrous-computing-2014may05.aspx


"Skybridge" (products available 2015)

A new family of 20 nanometer APUs and SoCs (ARM and x86) that are expected to be the world’s first pin-compatible ARM and x86 processors, full SoC integration, AMD Graphics Core Next technology, "HSA" (Heterogeneous System Architecture) and AMD Secure Technology via a dedicated Platform Security Processor (PSP).

- The 64-bit ARM variant of “Project SkyBridge” will be based on the ARM Cortex®-A57 core

- the x86 variant will feature next-generation “Puma+” CPU cores


"K12" (products available 2016)

A new 64-bit high-performance, low-power ARM-based core, designed by a core development team led by Chief CPU Architect​ Jim Keller.

The way I read this, is that the K12 will be a custom design ARM core, developed in-house by AMD. Apple did magic with their "Cyclone"/A7, which Apple promoted as a "Desktop Class" processor, a bold statement that actually has been confirmed as no exaggeration, as we have seen examples of in this thread. In a similar way, K12 seems to be AMD's take on going beyond the "standard" ARM Cortex-A57 core, and as a stopgap until it's done, they will be using the A57 in their "Skybridge" platform.


In that PR they also mention they have now publicly demonstrated for the first time their 64-bit ARM-based AMD Opteron™ A-Series processor, codenamed "Seattle", running a Linux environment derived from the Fedora Project.


Interesting times ahead for ARM indeed. As always!



(Edited: the CSS for the ul/li tags seems to be broken)