Could anyone enlighten me on why is there a Jaguar+ core, if Excavator is faster and more efficient? Could it be cost, and if it is, is it enough to justify a substantially lower chip?
*Cat Cores* are manufactured by TSMC at 28nm --- they also fabbed the 40nm 'Bobcat' original AMD 'SoCs'
There are 2 *Excavator* chip fabs/lines that feature 'dense libraries'
The Carrizo Excavator in fabbed on GloFo 28nm SHP and is a derivative of the Bulldozer-Piledriver APU line (Kaveri).
The Carrizo-L Excavator is fabbed on TSMC 28nm *Cat* line --- as a make-believe engineer
D) I suspect it is safe to assume that a good many of the 'masks' involved in the fabbing of these chips are the same (neat way to cut costs)
What evolves from the *Cat Line* is the likely precursor to the AM4 Bristol Ridge and Summit Ridge (the shared FPU of the Bulldozers is being dropped). It's anyone's guess as to the points of manufacture but is sure is interesting that GloFo and Samsung are collaborating on 'FinFet' design.
What that means is that Bristol Ridge and Summit Ridge have the potential to be fabbed at GloFo in Germany, TSMC in Taiwan and/or GloFo Luther Forrest in NY .... and maybe even Samsung.