AMD began production of Southern Islands GPUs

Fresh info on next generation of AMD graphics processors, codename Southern Islands, was recently published by SemiAccurate web-site. According to the source, Sunnyvale based company had begun producing first GPUs for AMD Radeon HD 7000 line-up in February 2011. This creates an assumption of first Southern Islands series cards to seen the light in the beginning of Q3 2011, that is in the middle of summer season.

Besides that, the source states, that the only reason for possible delays or changes in production plans for AMD Radeon HD 7000 is capability of TSMC to arrange mass supplies of 28nm chips. There are some doubts lefts about it, especially if we consider the problems TSMC had faced while moving to more advanced production technology.

Just to remind you, GPU of Southern Islands line-up will be produces using 28nm process technology and should be a replacement for graphics processors of Northern Islands line-up, which are used for all HD 6000 currently available AMD graphics products, including the “The King and Quine” of graphics cards — AMD Radeon HD 6990. As for the last one, it will be replaced too, AMD Radeon HD 7990 that was already mentioned earlier.