Posts tagged with Chipset
What is an Embedded Platform?
Posted by Guest Blogger in 10:02 pm
Loading ...In the technology industry – both hardware and software – we all use the term “platform” and many times, it means different things to different folks.
So let’s be perfectly clear about today’s announcement.
This is AMD’s platform value to our embedded customer: a single stop for leading-edge processors, graphics and chipsets. And of course, software from our software partners helps complete the package. No other company can develop and deliver this level of silicon technology integration and its benefits to embedded customers, who are more pressed than ever to deliver high performing, low power and differentiated systems and do so in the shortest window of time to maximize revenue. They know that an AMD embedded platform, whether it is client or commercial, can help give them an edge in walking that fine line between high-performance and low-power.
But what else can we offer? (I’m thinking of an infomercial – “But wait…there’s more!”) It’s not just balanced system architecture with advanced energy efficiency – it’s also a strong line-up of AMD chipsets and graphics processors that can help take performance and even the end-user experience to the next level. And like our colleagues on the server side of the house, we don’t compromise on the feature sets and we believe our variety of choice helps our customers develop targeted, differentiated products.
If you’re an embedded systems designer, I’d like to know your take on the value of a highly integrated platform.
Buddy Broeker is AMD’s Director of Embedded Computing Solutions. 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
Playing 20 Questions (Part 1)
Posted by John Fruehe in 9:22 am
We’ve all played the game, is it bigger than a breadbox? Is it an animal, vegetable or mineral? I decided to try an ambitious exercise, soliciting input directly from folks in IT who have questions about our products and where they are headed.
I received more than 20 in this first round and for the purpose of this post, I’ll focus on five questions related to our upcoming server platforms. Look for more posts that address questions around virtualization/cloud computing and future technologies in the coming days and weeks. Because these questions are around future platforms, some data won’t be available until launch.
Is Socket C32 being designed to be backwards compatible with the existing Socket F?
No. Socket F is a DDR2 design and C32 is DDR3. Having interchangeable processors and memories would mean a massive test matrix that OEMs might find difficult to support. Eventually you’ll have to switch over to the new design. Based on the fact that we expect Socket F to end up with ~5 years of life in it from 2006 to 2011, we feel it has served the market well and we don’t want to be focusing the new generation of processor into a 4 year old platform.
Are you going to allow a C32 socket to accept 8-core or 12-core CPU, or a G34 socket to accept 4-core or 6-core CPU?
We do not have plans to support this. The C32 and G34 sockets are different form factors with different sizes and pin counts and are targeting workloads with different needs in terms of computational capabilities. The C32 and G34 platforms address different form factors and customer workloads. Our goal is to introduce product features (including core counts) that are best aligned to those customer needs.
Does AMD plan to scale into the >100 thread 8P market with G34 systems?
The G34 systems planned for 2010 are expected to offer scalability to 4 sockets each with 12 cores per socket; that represents a total of 48 cores for a 4P platform. The challenge in moving beyond that level for many mainstream business applications can be that the scalability of the software becomes a bigger challenge than the scalability of the hardware. (Specialized HPC-style applications may be another story altogether.) The market for single systems with 96 cores appears to be very limited at the moment, and new technologies like HPC, cloud and developments such as the HyperTransport HNC specification all represent ways of getting greater scalability in a scale out mode vs. scaling the systems up.
Will AMD be the single chipset source for server main boards in the long term?
AMD plans to release the SR5690 chipset later this year. That will be utilized with existing Socket F processors as well as the future “Maranello” and “San Marino” platforms. We can’t speak to the plans of other companies, but we welcome any additional chipset products from other vendors; competition always breeds the best innovation.
AMD has placed a great deal of emphasis on the fact that all of the new Six-Core AMD OpteronTM processors (formerly codenamed “Istanbul”) fit within the same TDP/ACP as the previous Quad-Core AMD OpteronTM processors (formerly codenamed “Shanghai”). Can we expect this trend to continue with “Magny Cours” and “Interlagos” despite the increasing core count?
Because we are moving to a new platform (codenamed “Maranello”), there is not a need to have exactly the same TDP/ACP as past processors. We do recognize that customers are very comfortable with the power/thermal bands that we have established and we plan to continue to use power bands that are very similar to what we use today. In general, we plan to continue the approach of allowing a single platform to be able to support more than one generation of processors (though not mixed in the same system of course), sharing a common power/thermal envelope. Just as the Socket F (1207) allowed us to support Rev F dual -core, “Barcelona,” “Shanghai” and “Istanbul,” we believe that “Maranello” will support both the “Magny Cours” processors as well as the “Interlagos” processors. We expect the “San Marino” platform to support the “Lisbon” processor as well as its follow-on, the “Valencia” processor.
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.
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