New Zen microarchitecture details

[cytg111]

Optimistic : Thats fantastic, cant wait to hear more.
Pessimistic : Just shows its ISA compliant. Lets hope it doesnt crash.

 

[KTE]

Optimistic : Thats fantastic, cant wait to hear more.
Pessimistic : Just shows its ISA compliant. Lets hope it doesnt crash.

Doom isn't CPU intensive and a benchmark even PD does far better than usual in.

Sent from HTC 10
(Opinions are own)

 

[itsmydamnation]

Doom isn't CPU intensive and a benchmark even PD does far better than usual in.

Sent from HTC 10
(Opinions are own)

its a well threaded benchmark doesn't mean it isn't CPU intensive

 

[DrMrLordX]

It's 8 pm in LA. Have they demoed Doom yet?

 

[The Stilt]

It's 8 pm in LA. Have they demoed Doom yet?

Practically no :sneaky: 😀

 

[frozentundra123456]

its a well threaded benchmark doesn't mean it isn't CPU intensive

He is correct though. It isnt cpu intensive at all. Or I suppose more accurately one can say it is gpu limited with almost any cpu.

 

[cytg111]

So they demoed a working sample of Zen that didnt crash running DOOM. It is not nothing.

 

[The Stilt]

So they demoed a working sample of Zen that didnt crash running DOOM. It is not nothing.

It would be pretty bad if final silicon did that D:

 

[Dresdenboy]

It would be pretty bad if final silicon did that D:

BTW is it normal to have no labels on the ES chips at all? :sneaky:

 

[The Stilt]

BTW is it normal to have no labels on the ES chips at all? :sneaky:

ALL of the lasering missing (completely blank)?
I've had such production silicon, but they are for special purpose only. It can be used as a safety measure, since unless you have the right equipment and info, the CPU is nothing but a paper weight :sneaky:

 

[Dresdenboy]

ALL of the lasering missing (completely blank)?
I've had such production silicon, but they are for special purpose only. It can be used as a safety measure, since unless you have the right equipment and info, the CPU is nothing but a paper weight :sneaky:

Yep, like this (from the video):

 

[The Stilt]

Which video?

 

[Dresdenboy]

Which video?

This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IyrR8KsSfQ

 

[The Stilt]

This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IyrR8KsSfQ

Thanks.

If you look where the lady is putting the trays into, it becomes pretty obvious why they are blank chips 😉

Unfused and unmarked parts about to be fused and marked.

 

[Dresdenboy]

Thanks.

If you look where the lady is putting the trays into, it becomes pretty obvious why they are blank chips 😉

Unfused and unmarked parts about to be fused and marked.

OK, thanks. Interesting. Where can I get one? 😉

AMD is giving unusual insights here.

 

[Doom2pro]

Thanks.

If you look where the lady is putting the trays into, it becomes pretty obvious why they are blank chips 😉

Unfused and unmarked parts about to be fused and marked.

Are they binned before that part or are they benched at that stage, then fused and labeled?

 

[therealnickdanger]

It would have been nice to see some details/metrics to go along with that video. Resolution? Quality? Frame rate?

It's hard to believe how long it takes to go from "playing Doom" to shipping a product.

https://youtu.be/y0Y7ScfaVHs

 

[Unoid]

No, they won't.

Thanks for adding to the conversation with insightful facts and knowledge.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Thanks for adding to the conversation with insightful facts and knowledge.

IBM's processes, including 14nm SOI, are typically quite exotic. The wafers tend to be expensive, yields aren't great, and so on. This is one of the reasons that IBM never really gained much traction as a general purpose foundry, and why they ultimately paid GloFo to take the fabs.

GloFo, as part of a wafer supply agreement with IBM, will continue to run IBM's exotic processes in its newly acquired fabs for the POWER chips. But it is very unlikely that third party fabless customers will want in on the fabs.

A good clue here is that in recent presentations around OpenPOWER, IBM and its partners have talked about POWER-derivative chips from partners being built by third party manufacturing houses rather than on IBM's old fabs now owned by GloFo.

Anyway, no way AMD is going to use these expensive, low-yielding, and probably difficult to design for processes for future CPUs or GPUs.

 

[DrMrLordX]

22nm FDSOI is supposedly already cheaper per transistor (not necessarily taking into account design complexity) than various finFET processes from the "next generation" of nodes. It shouldn't take that long for yield issues associated with 14nm HP finFET to even out simply from repeated iteration, to the point where AMD could seriously consider it as a "step up" node to use after 14nm LPP.

 

[Glo.]

IBM's processes, including 14nm SOI, are typically quite exotic. The wafers tend to be expensive, yields aren't great, and so on. This is one of the reasons that IBM never really gained much traction as a general purpose foundry, and why they ultimately paid GloFo to take the fabs.

GloFo, as part of a wafer supply agreement with IBM, will continue to run IBM's exotic processes in its newly acquired fabs for the POWER chips. But it is very unlikely that third party fabless customers will want in on the fabs.

A good clue here is that in recent presentations around OpenPOWER, IBM and its partners have talked about POWER-derivative chips from partners being built by third party manufacturing houses rather than on IBM's old fabs now owned by GloFo.

Anyway, no way AMD is going to use these expensive, low-yielding, and probably difficult to design for processes for future CPUs or GPUs.

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329887
I suppose you have not read this article on the matter of production costs between processes.

I think that AMD will use this(FD-SOI) process for both Zen AND Vega GPUs.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I think that AMD will use this(FD-SOI) process for both Zen AND Vega GPUs.

I doubt it. See:

“FinFET technology is expected to play a critical foundational role across multiple AMD product lines, starting in 2016,” said Mark Papermaster, senior vice president and chief technology officer at AMD. “GLOBALFOUNDRIES has worked tirelessly to reach this key milestone on its 14LPP process. We look forward to GLOBALFOUNDRIES' continued progress towards full production readiness and expect to leverage the advanced 14LPP process technology across a broad set of our CPU, APU, and GPU products.”

http://www.globalfoundries.com/news...logy-success-for-next-generation-amd-products

 

[Ajay]

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329887
I suppose you have not read this article on the matter of production costs between processes.

I think that AMD will use this(FD-SOI) process for both Zen AND Vega GPUs.

That article is terrible!!
As one responder points out, 14nm FD-SOI is still in development - so it's yields are not yet known (which invalidates any cost metric).

 

[Arachnotronic]

That article is terrible!!
As one responder points out, 14nm FD-SOI is still in development - so it's yields are not yet known (which invalidates any cost metric).

IBM's 14nm FinFET process that will be used to manufacture POWER9 uses SOI wafers, IIRC.

 

[Phynaz]

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329887
I suppose you have not read this article on the matter of production costs between processes.

I think that AMD will use this(FD-SOI) process for both Zen AND Vega GPUs.

As pointed out in the thread about the article, Handel Jones is a paid shill.