Posts tagged with Bulldozer
The surf report from here to eternity (or at least 2011)
Posted by John Taylor in 9:31 AM
Loading ...As I wrote last week, the AMD Financial Analyst Day held this year in Sunnyvale, CA , is an exciting day in that it represents a high-profile update on the state of AMD as an important innovator and business. We unveiled product and corporate roadmaps through 2011, including a technology direction with AMD Fusion that transcends that timeframe. The insights we shared on Fusion development, more widespread use of teraflops-class GPUs for compute, and our parallel performance/low-power x86 cores development in particular made waves in the business and tech trade press.
But as my high school friends might say on those stormy days when it was possible to truly surf off the west coast of Florida: “Some waves are tasty rides, and some knock you on your tail and get sand in your jams.”
So here’s the waves created by some of the media who attended in Sunnyvale or participated via Web cast.
Tasty waves:
- “Frankly, we’re jazzed about the possibilities…” – Darren Murph, Engadget (Thanks Darren, we are too!)
- “AMD has only recently made strides toward putting the pieces of the puzzle together, but it looks like it’s hitting the home stretch.” – Andy Patrizio, Internetnews.com
- “If all of this works, Fusion could be the basis for some compelling products. Rick Bergman, the head of AMD’s Products Group, promised the technology would “literally deliver a supercomputer on your lap . . . with all-day battery performance.” That’s an ambitious plan, but it’s good to see AMD get some of its mojo back.” – John Morris, ZDNet
- “[Bulldozer is] really a very elegant design and the basis for what AMD, Intel and NVIDIA have been talking about for years now. The CPU will do what it does best while the GPU does what it is good at.” – Anand Shimpi, AnandTech
- “Companies rarely make big news at financial analyst day events, but AMD bucked that trend Wednesday by unveiling details of its newly revamped roadmap, its two brand-new processor architectures, and its plans for CPU/GPU integration.” – Jon Stokes, Ars Technica
Life’s-No-Beach Waves:
- “If chip makers competed on the basis of code names rather than products then Advanced Micro Devices might have beaten Intel a long time ago.” – James Niccolai, IDG News Service
- “AMD has long struggled in the mobile segment, but the company’s 2010 roadmap is potentially strong enough to change its fortunes.” – Joel Hruska, Hot Hardware
- “AMD’s Opteron once held the high ground when compared to Intel’s server offerings. We reckon the boot is just about on the other foot…for now at least, and we wait with bated breath to see what kind of performance Bulldozer-driven Opteron can deliver in 2011.” – Sylvie Barak, HEXUS.net
Whether it’s criticism or praise, tasty or sandy, it’s always interesting to see how different media view our telling of the AMD story, and reshape it for their respective audiences. Overall, I like the “surf report” on the 2009 AMD Financial Analyst Day in the sense that media, to a deeper extent than before, perceive AMD has a unique strategy and unique IP to execute it. Yes, there were questions about how well AMD could win at a game currently defined by its competition (CPU-exclusive marketing and benchmarking). And that question can only be answered as AMD executes to its technology vision and design points.
Now, we’ve heard what the media have to say. What’s your feedback? Make some waves.
John Taylor is Director, Global Platform & Product Communications at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. This blog contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as “plans,” “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates” or “intends.” AMD Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
What a Day, a Year, a Future
Posted by John Taylor in 5:49 PM
We just wrapped AMD’s annual Financial Analyst Day, and throughout the event I couldn’t help but think “What a big year it’s been.” But more importantly, I can’t help thinking, “Wow, we’ve got a great future ahead, and people need to get in on the excitement.”
I tend to get excited about the product and technology disclosures we shared for the first time today. It’s why I drive to work down Hill Country back roads to the AMD Lone Star Campus each morning with a smile on my face – it’s very cool being a part of a company that creates technology that truly matters in people’s lives. It’s also professionally gratifying when media start picking up on that excitement, and I think they increasingly are. After today, I predict the positive vibes will flow even more. I can see media are beginning to recognize our sustained product momentum and unique technology roadmap, and what we presented to them today further illustrates how we plan to sustain this momentum and create high-value experiences across our entire product line.
Before we jump to 2011, let’s look back at 2009.
The entire tech industry, including AMD, entered 2009 on a down note, fallout from a worldwide economic implosion. In spite of that, we’re exiting 2009 in clear, crisp fashion. In 2009 AMD consistently executed, delivered what we promised, and launched well-received new platforms and products for every market we serve, most of them ahead of schedule. And we made sure to focus on delivering these platforms with the right blend of computing performance and superior graphics. Moreover, this year we focused on growing our partner ecosystem and strengthened our customer and OEM relationships by truly listening to customers’ and consumers’ demands and offering complete solutions to match their needs—including the AMD Server Platform featuring the Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor, AMD Platform for Ultrathin Notebooks, AMD Vision Technology, ATI Radeon™ 5800 series graphics cards, and Dragon platform technology featuring AMD Phenom™ II processors.
So what exactly did AMD talk about today?
We talked about all the exciting and innovative things to come in 2010 and 2011. Senior executives including AMD President and Chief Executive Officer Dirk Meyer briefed media and analysts on the great things AMD has in store for the future and discussed the state of our business. During the day, other senior execs talked about our technology strategy, future product and platform plans and led a series of more technical sessions. Attendees got to see firsthand the roadmaps outlined for platforms and technology that span the most popular usage scenarios for customers at work, at home and at play. With the growing importance and ubiquity of multimedia, AMD’s momentum and lead in the graphics market will differentiate us from competitors, enabling a complete computing experience with stunning graphics and video that consumers demand. Our strong roadmap for 2010 is scheduled to be followed with the advent of “Fusion” and the first Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) codenamed “Llano,” in 2011. This arrival will mark a new era in computing, succeeded the previous generations of first clock frequency, then multi-core driven performance gains. We also plan to bring to market the first “Bulldozer” and “Bobcat” core-based platforms, focusing on power, performance and size.
As highlighted in the platform and technology roadmaps presented today, here are the highlights of what’s scheduled to come in 2010 and 2011 (by codename):
Next-Generation Technologies for Next-Generation Graphics
- While AMD maintains momentum in rolling out several more DirectX 11 capable parts from its wildly successful ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series in 2H09 and 1H10 including graphics cards codenamed “Cedar,” “Hemlock,” and “Redwood,” AMD will also introduce DirectX 11 capable members of the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5000 series in 2010, bringing incredible graphics capabilities and stunning HD video to AMD’s new notebook platforms.
- “Bobcat” is AMD’s low-power x86 processor core aimed at notebook processing in ultrathin and netbook form factors, and designed to be extremely small, highly flexible and single threaded.
- “Bulldozer” is AMD’s completely new, high performance architecture for the mainstream server, mainstream desktop and notebook PC markets that employs a new approach to multithreaded compute performance for achieving advanced efficiency and throughput. “Bulldozer” is designed to give AMD an exceptional CPU option for linking with GPUs in highly scalable, single-chip Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) configurations.
Notebook Platforms:
- “Danube” is AMD’s new platform for the mainstream notebook market and will feature the new “Champlain” CPU, the first quad-core processor offered by AMD specifically for the notebook market that includes 2M cache and DDR3 memory support.
- “Sabine,” is AMD’s new mainstream notebook platform slated for 2011 and will be the first notebook platform to feature the quad-core “Llano” APU.
- “Nile” is AMD’s next generation platform for ultrathin notebooks and is scheduled for 1H10, with the dual-core “Geneva” CPU using DDR3 memory technology and is being designed to yield more than 7 hours of battery life under normal usage conditions.
- “Brazos” is AMD’s ultrathin notebook and netbook platform slated for 2011, and “Ontario” is the APU based on the “Bobcat” core.
Desktop Platforms:
- “Leo” is AMD’s next generation enthusiast-class desktop PC platform. Scheduled for 1H10, “Leo” will feature the industry’s first six-core desktop CPU, codenamed “Thuban,” for greater multi-tasking, as well as DirectX 11 capabilities for a visually enhanced gaming experience.
- “Dorado” is AMD’s next-generation mainstream desktop platform with AMD Athlon™ II processors, DirectX 11 discrete graphics options, and stream application acceleration.
- “Lynx,” and “Scorpius” are AMD’s desktop platforms for 2011. “Lynx” is the first desktop platform powered by the quad-core “Llano” APU. “Scorpius” is an enthusiast-class desktop platform featuring the “Zambezi” CPU, the first 8-core solution for enthusiast desktop users based on the “Bulldozer” core.
Server Platforms:
- “Maranello” is AMD’s next generation server platform and remains on track for introduction in 1H10. “Maranello” is a DDR3-based server platform which is expected to offer a new socket infrastructure, Socket G34, to support upcoming 8 or 12-core “Magny-Cours” processors.
- “San Marino” is AMD’s new server platform suited for large, dense deployments that require power efficiency and flexibility that is ideal for small/medium businesses, as well as web, cloud and infrastructure applications.
You can also check out AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager Rick Bergman’s presentation below.
We have an exciting road ahead of us, cool technological advancements and new innovative products we plan to bring to the market, so buckle up your seat belts and enjoy the ride and full featured experience we have in store. AMD has turned the corner, going in the right direction of a fully enhanced user computing experience for every market, there’s no looking back now – full speed ahead.
John Taylor is Director, Global Platform & Product Communications at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. This blog contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as “plans,” “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates” or “intends.” AMD Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
An Inside Look @ AMD Central Engineering (Part I)
Posted by Gary Silcott in 5:29 PM
(10 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
I recently sat down with Chekib Akrout, co-leader of AMD’s Central Engineering organization, to hear his insights into the future of computing, AMD’s engineering teams and the industry. The following is the first of a two-part blog posting that captures our conversation. Chekib joined AMD in June, 2008; he previously held senior positions at Freescale Semiconductor and IBM.
Gary:
You joined the company almost a year ago. What drew you to AMD?
Chekib:
I was drawn by the challenge of bringing together AMD’s intellectual property and obvious engineering talent in innovative ways. That’s what is at the core of an engineer, right? Solving problems and creating new things is both art and science, and I’m drawn to the tension between those two perspectives. I’m also a big believer in process and how you apply the talents of many different people and skills sets to execute very complex projects. Can you consistently execute in a very systematic way? That’s what I came here to help achieve.
Gary:
What are some of the execution challenges that face chip engineering teams?
Chekib:
There are two primary issues you have to consider when you first walk in the door at a chip company: What are the tools being used to do the engineering and what is the mindset of the people using them? What is the priority – features or schedule? And how is that balance being managed? Those are the questions at the heart of what I do every day. When I first joined, the challenges with our first native quad-core product, codenamed “Barcelona”, had really woken everyone up to the idea that our processes were not perfect and needed to be fixed. We’ve spent a lot of time since then to address both the tools and the culture to make sure we can execute, and that paid off tremendously with our first 45-nm product, codenamed “Shanghai“.
Gary: What keeps you up at night?
Chekib:
A big one is how we will wisely use all the transistors we are going to have at our disposal at the advanced process nodes. The processor cores will be very small – so do we use a lot of them or only a few, along with a GPU or two? These kinds of system partitioning questions result in a variety of thought provoking scenarios, and the physical limits of the manufacturing technology will have a large impact of the power consumption and performance budgets. The second is getting AMD’s next processor core generations, codenamed “Bulldozer” and “Bobcat”, built and delivered on time with the right performance to compete.
Gary:
How is AMD’s integrated CPU / GPU product, Llano, looking?
Chekib:
We are quite happy with what we are seeing so far and believe that “Llano” is really going to demonstrate the power of AMD’s two strengths: x86 CPUs and GPUs. The current schedule is for 2011 introduction so it is still early, but because we are using an existing CPU core for the first product and not making big changes in the memory structure right away, we feel quite confident about where we are with Llano. We are doing the smart thing by taking an iterative step as we begin to tackle some of the more interesting optimizations possible with the two different types of cores.
Gary:
What excites you about the current competitive environment?
Chekib:
The leading edge chip manufacturing and design technologies available today and an abundance of high quality people available to innovate with it. That is a very rare combination in the industry. We all have strengths and weaknesses. The trick is identifying and exploiting your strengths against the weaknesses of others in the markets where you play.
Gary:
What role does engineering play in aligning technology’s potential with business realities?
Chekib:
We develop the vision/direction on where technology is going and make sure that vision is in sync with the company’s mission and strengths. In our industry today there are a lot of competition and dynamics in the market, so the right strategy is not always obvious. We have chief technology officers in the business units that specifically address the needs of that space and their customers. Personally, I also have a role inside the company to help promote the technical community and foster innovation. Radical technology developments are still possible even though the industry is more mature now, so we have to keep our eyes open for those in the business too.
Chekib Akrout is Corporate Vice President, Central Engineering, at AMD. As co-leader of AMD’s Central Engineering group, Chekib has direct responsibility for AMD’s Accelerated Computing efforts, Research and Advanced Development Labs (RADL), processor cores and foundational IP, CAD and layout teams. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Gary Silcott is a Product PR manager at AMD supporting ATI Stream technology and AMD Central Engineering. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.