AMD CEO Lisa Su to reveal more on Vega on 16 May

Rumours suggest it still won't quite be a full launch for AMD's next-generation GPU micro-architecture and graphics cards

AMD will disclose more details about its long-awaited new GPU architecture, called Vega, on 16 May.

That's according to hardware site WCCFTech, citing sources at the company who claim that the company is planning an event - not a product launch - in which more details about Vega and Navi GPUs will be disclosed, as well as Zen+ CPU cores.

The event will be presented by CEO Lisa Su, alongside chief technology officer Mark Papermaster, Radeon Technologies Group chief architect Raja Koduri, and Jim Anderson, general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group at AMD.

Further information about Navi is likely to be presented by Koduri, who AMD lured back from Apple in 2013, after he had left in 2009. Koduri has a high reputation and 20 years of experience in everything from software to GPU design, and Navi will be the first GPU Koduri will be entirely responsible for developing from conception to manufacturing since his return to AMD.

It will also be built on GlobalFoundries 7nm FinFET process, and is roadmapped for 2018 availability, although it will (of course) be highly dependent on GlobalFoundries' own technical development - 2019 might be a more realistic time-frame given the slippage of both Polaris and Vega.

AMD has teased out tantalising details about Vega over the past six months or so, although in April it indicated that graphics cards based on Vega would be coming in the current quarter to the end of June.

AMD's anticipated roadmap for Polaris and Vega slipped by around six months last year. Polaris had been expected around March or April, with Vega out in the fourth quarter.

However, Polaris only appeared at the end of June in the Radeon RX 460, 470 and 480 series of AMD graphics cards, while details have only been fitfully released on Vega. It is now expected to be released in the current quarter. Part of the reason for the delays on Vega has been attributed to delays in volume availability of HBM2 memory, which Vega will utilise over GDDR5.

Vega-based devices are still expected to be launched and available before the end of June - at least according to a leak at the end of April.

The Zen+ details, meanwhile, are consistent with AMD CEO Lisa Su's strategy that the company should work on multiple generations of CPUs roadmapped over a three-to-five year period, according to WCCFTech.