The Geography of Silicon: AMD's Island Codenames

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to an interactive journey through the geography of silicon. During the early to mid-2010s, AMD utilized a naming scheme for their Radeon graphics architectures that took inspiration from famous islands across the world. From the icy terrains of the Arctic to the tropical paradises of the Caribbean and Oceania, these codenames marked significant milestones in computing history, including the legendary Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.

Explore the map below to discover the geographical origins of your favorite GPUs.

Northern Islands

HD 6000 Series & TeraScale 2

Barts (St. Barthélemy): Saint Barthelemy, a French-speaking Caribbean island commonly known as St. Barts, HD 6870
Cayman Islands: The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, HD 6970
Antilles: The Antilles, an archipelago within the West Indies in the Caribbean region of the Americas, HD 6990
Turks Islands: The eastern group of the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas. Geographically and culturally part of the Caribbean, separated from the Caicos group by the Turks Island Passage. HD 5570, HD 6570, HD 6670, HD 7570, HD 7670 OEM, HD 8550 OEM
Caicos Islands: The larger western group of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The name 'Caicos' comes from 'caya hico' (string of islands). Primarily limestone islands surrounded by coral reefs, including Providenciales and North Caicos. HD 6450, HD 7470 OEM, HD 8490 OEM, R5 230, R5 235 OEM, R5 310 OEM

The last high-end generation utilizing the VLIW architecture before the monumental shift to GCN.

Southern Islands

HD 7000 Series & 1st Gen GCN

Tahiti: The largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France, HD 7970, HD 8970 OEM, R9 280X
Pitcairn: Pitcairn Island is a volcanic island in the southern Pacific Ocean, one of the 23 inhabited islands of the Pitcairn Islands group, HD 7870, HD 8870
Cape Verde: Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, HD 7770, HD 8760 OEM, R7 250X
New Zealand: An island country in the southwestern Pacific. Used for the initial set of partner-designed dual-Tahiti HD 7990 cards (e.g., PowerColor, ASUS ARES II). HD 7990 (Initial/Custom)
Malta: A microstate in the Mediterranean known as the 'Heart of the Mediterranean'. Used for the official, higher-clocked (1GHz+) refresh of the HD 7990. HD 7990, HD 8990 OEM

Introduced the legendary GCN architecture, setting up AMD for a decade of graphics technology dominance.

Sea Islands

HD 8000 / Rx 200 Series & 2nd Gen GCN

Curaçao: A Lesser Antilles island in the Dutch Caribbean. HD 8860, R9 270X (Pitcairn refresh)
Bonaire: A Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles. HD 7790, HD 8770 OEM, R7 260X
Tobago: The smaller of the two main islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Located at the southern end of the Lesser Antilles, it features the volcanic 'Main Ridge' mountains. R7 360, RX 455 OEM (Bonaire refresh)
Trinidad: The largest and most populous island of Trinidad and Tobago, located just 11km from Venezuela. Geologically part of South America and rich in oil and gas. R9 370X (Curacao refresh)
Hainan: Hainan is a tropical island province of China, Mobile/OEM
Öland: Öland is a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, HD 8670 OEM, R7 250, R7 350 OEM

A refinement phase optimizing the initial GCN design for better performance-per-watt.

Volcanic Islands

R9 290/390 Series & 3rd Gen GCN

Hawaii: An island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland. R9 290X, FirePro W9100
Tonga: An archipelago in Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. R9 285, R9 380 (1792 SPs)
Antigua: An island in the Leeward Islands known for its "365 beaches". R9 380X (Tonga refresh, full 2048 SPs)

Brought massive compute horsepower to the mainstream, forcing fierce competition in the enthusiast market.

Pirate Islands

Fury Series & 3rd Gen GCN + HBM

Fiji: an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean, R9 FURY X, F9 Nano, Radeon Pro SSG, Instinct MI8

Fiji was an engineering marvel, utilizing groundbreaking High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) next to the die.

Arctic Islands

RX 400 Series & Polaris

Ellesmere: the northernmost and third-largest island in Canada, located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Polaris 10, RX 480, WX 7100, Radeon Pro Duo Polaris
Baffin: in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, Polaris 11, RX 460, WX 4100

Shifted focus slightly from high-end to mass-market domination with the 14nm FinFET process.