AMD Sound Wave finally making some noise

A long-unseen codename.

A new leak has confirmed that AMD is an APU codenamed “Sound Wave”. If previous rumors are corret, then this could be AMD’s ARM-based APU, and it would signal the company’s return to non-x86 architectures after more than a decade. The information comes from customs shipping data shared by leaker @Olrak29_, which lists the chip under AMD’s name of “SMV” and provides some packaging specifications.

According to the listing, Sound Wave uses a BGA-1074 package measuring 32 × 27 mm , so a small chip, matching mobile SoC standards and indicating a design aimed at compact or handheld devices. It also adopts the FF5 interface with a 0.8 mm pitch , replacing the older FF3 connector used in devices such as the Valve Steam Deck.

Reports suggest that Sound Wave targets a low-power power range (below 10W), positioning it as a low-power APU for Windows on ARM systems. Earlier leaks described the chip as featuring 2 P-cores and 4 E-cores. It reportedly integrates four RDNA 3.5 compute units, but there was no mention of how many cores exactly.

While AMD has not officially announced Sound Wave, it is expected that the APU could appear next year, possibly aligning with new Microsoft Surface hardware, which was the suggested target for this chip. If rumors about 6 core design are correct, then this is definitely not a competitor to Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite series, which are now set to feature up to 18 combined cores.

Source: Olrak29 via ITHome