Posts tagged with ATI Stream
Playing 20 Questions (Part 3)
Posted by John Fruehe in 11:36 am
(12 votes, average: 4.58 out of 5)
Loading ...To wrap up the first round of “20 Questions,” below are additional questions I received. In the first post, I addressed questions around our upcoming server platforms. The second post focused on virtualization and cloud computing. And the final post will answer questions related to future technology trends/adoption.
If you have additional questions or subjects you’d like me to address, let me know and we’ll play another round of “20 Questions.”
Are there any plans to support the HyperTransportTM Technology High Node Count (HNC) Specification in future CPUs?
HyperTransportTM technology is a key cornerstone of the AMD OpteronTM processor and is expected to be integrated into future AMD Opteron processors. HyperTransport High Node Count (HNC) is a very interesting new specification that supports the development of highly scalable systems. HyperTransport technology is an open industry standard and the HNC specification was developed in conjunction with various HyperTransport consortium members. While not integrated into our public roadmaps at this time, it is a technology in which we see potential.
Is there any news on Torrenza?
Torrenza was an umbrella for a wide range of programs, many of which continue today under our Accelerated Computing initiative. Accelerated Computing takes into account the hardware and software evolution necessary for new combinations of integrated and discrete products designed to deliver a superior user experience across a broad range of usage scenarios. Utilizing the GPU for certain computationally intensive workloads via ATI Stream is an example of that, as are new software development tools like OpenCL that makes it easier to take advantage of the CPU and GPU capabilities in a system. Many of the initial Torrenza technologies were based on the Socket F, so as we move to new sockets (G34 and C32) with Accelerated Computing, we may see different implementations, whether it is socket-based or not. Just like the rest of the market, AMD continues to evolve as we learn more about how customers want to solve computing problems.
Does AMD foresee convergence of desktop and server products/platforms in the future, perhaps when CPU power is no longer the limiting factor in software progress?
Actually, we are seeing the opposite. The biggest driver for change in servers that we are seeing is the need for lower power consumption, not higher power parts. As we look at future processors, we expect to continue to see the divergence of the desktop and server roadmaps. In a desktop, the impact of a higher power processor is less profound than in a server where multiple CPUs can be consuming much more electricity.
Are there plans to release the current Six-Core AMD OpteronTM processor in a quad-core variant in the future?
There are currently no plans, but there are plans for quad-core models of the C32 processor in the first half of 2010.
John Fruehe is the Director of Business Development for Server/Workstation products 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.
OpenCL Changes the Game
Posted by Guest Blogger in 8:00 am
Up until now, GPGPU has been a research technology for early adopters – a new, promising experimental capability for scientists, engineers, financial professionals, and others running compute-intensive applications. Two elements have kept GPGPU largely in the ivory tower: first, the available APIs were proprietary and second, the GPU has been treated as an independent application accelerator instead of as part of a balanced heterogeneous architecture. OpenCL is a game-changing development in both respects, and AMD is taking an important step on that journey today.
In the past, proprietary programming models like CUDA limited target platforms to those from a single vendor. This may have been fine for students experimenting with a new approach, but mainstream ISVs and other large-scale developers need the flexibility inherent in industry standards. With a standard, cross-platform API, developers can deliver solutions on multiple vendors’ hardware while streamlining their development processes and timelines. This is what they’re waiting for – we hear it every day.
Of course no application runs entirely on the GPU. Beyond the obvious need for CPUs to drive execution, most mainstream applications are heterogeneous in nature. They have some functions that accelerate well on multicore CPUs, and others that are perfectly suited for a GPU’s data parallel architecture. A good development platform needs to take that into account – this is the difference between GPGPU as a niche accelerator and GPGPU as a new baseline feature, ready for tomorrow’s systems and applications.
Today, AMD is delivering the first beta release of an OpenCL implementation for the CPU. Managed by the independent Khronos Group, OpenCL addresses the need for a cross-platform, industry standard approach to development for heterogeneous architectures. This can enable more developers to take advantage of GPGPU acceleration in their applications, but what is even more compelling is the opportunity to build applications that leverage all of the system’s compute resources – CPUs and GPUs – to provide a superior user experience. As the only company that designs and delivers both high-performance GPUs and x86 CPUs to the market, AMD is uniquely qualified to help application developers drive full resource utilization forward without feeling the need to force-fit workloads onto one technology or the other.
With the new OpenCL implementation for the CPU, application developers can begin realizing the promise of heterogeneous computing. A video of a 4P Six-Core AMD OpteronTM processor-based system (24 total cores) running an OpenCL-based, fluid/particle simulation can be seen here; for a developer-focused look at how OpenCL forms the basis of an evolving parallel programming ecosystem, see my colleague Margaret Lewis’ blog, Making the Universe Parallel.
Patricia Harrell is Director of Stream Computing at AMD.
Her postings are her 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.