AMD Accelerator?

[LungExpansion]

I heard an interesting rumor that AMD may allow an interconnect between its CPU and the AEIGA PPU on the motherboard much like the old Co-Processor days. When Physics are passed to the Opteron CPU there is a dedicated interconnect which will offload the physics to the AEIGA PPU for processing and return it through the Opteron. Since we know Physics is very poor on a CPU this would be interesting.

Needless to say I dont believe its true but its interesting enough to post.

Also not sure if this would go in the CPU or video area.

 

[Cooler]

right we need ppu fourm soon.

 

[Acanthus]

A dedicated HT connection to the CPU would be very good for AMD, not sure that ageia would want this kind of proprietary architecture though.

 

[Munky]

Aeiga would be lucky if they can get a market foothold anytime within the next few years, being picky about proprietary platforms should be the least of their worries. The're already facing potential competition from software physics engines like Havok's, as well as hardware physics processing done on the gpu. And I'd much rather see the above mentioned alternatives gain wide use than having to shell out hundreds of dollars for dedicated physycs hardware. I can see it already:

"The new PhysX-512, a revolutionary new reality processor that will transform your ordinary pc into a virtual reality simulator, all yours for a low price of only $299!" But wait, that's not all!
"Step up to the ultimate in gaming reality with the PhysX-FX! With up to twice the differential equation throughput of the PhysX-512, if you've got no game, the PhysX-FX will bring the game to you for only $499! Call today for a limited time offer that includes the new amazing game Phys Invaders, that will have you shooting down millions of evil space particles for hours of enterntainment!"

:roll:

 

[Peter]

HyperTransport is exactly NOT proprietary. It is an open standard interconnect. You'd be surprised about how much stuff there is - beyond the scope of just AMD64 mainboards.

http://www.hypertransport.org/

Anyhow. Cache-coherent HyperTransport links are about the best way in PC architecture for any kind of processor or coprocessor teaming, and as such, this rumour isn't too far fetched.

What The Register got wrong is that while Opteron 8xx processors do have three such links, the system needs to spare a couple of those to connect the I/O chipset.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Peter
HyperTransport is exactly NOT proprietary. It is an open standard interconnect. You'd be surprised about how much stuff there is - beyond the scope of just AMD64 mainboards.

http://www.hypertransport.org/

Anyhow. Cache-coherent HyperTransport links are about the best way in PC architecture for any kind of processor or coprocessor teaming, and as such, this rumour isn't too far fetched.

What The Register got wrong is that while Opteron 8xx processors do have three such links, the system needs to spare a couple of those to connect the I/O chipset.

I did not say HT was proprietary, i said a HT link to AMD cpus via the chipset would be proprietary.

 

[ElFenix]

why would that be proprietary? in fact, ageia should be jumping at this if it is true because it would require pretty much 0 software support. rather, the processor could identify and offload by itself.

 

[Peter]

Huh? HT links are directly into the CPU, and there's nothing proprietary about the cache coherency thing either. It's just two brains working on the same dataset. Whether they're all full blown x86 processors, network traffic coprocessors, whatever else, or a mix of all of those - that plain and simple just doesn't matter.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: munky
Aeiga would be lucky if they can get a market foothold anytime within the next few years, being picky about proprietary platforms should be the least of their worries. The're already facing potential competition from software physics engines like Havok's, as well as hardware physics processing done on the gpu. And I'd much rather see the above mentioned alternatives gain wide use than having to shell out hundreds of dollars for dedicated physycs hardware. I can see it already:

"The new PhysX-512, a revolutionary new reality processor that will transform your ordinary pc into a virtual reality simulator, all yours for a low price of only $299!" But wait, that's not all!
"Step up to the ultimate in gaming reality with the PhysX-FX! With up to twice the differential equation throughput of the PhysX-512, if you've got no game, the PhysX-FX will bring the game to you for only $499! Call today for a limited time offer that includes the new amazing game Phys Invaders, that will have you shooting down millions of evil space particles for hours of enterntainment!"

:roll:

I'm actually mostly looking forward to the paper launches and price gouging.