Papermaster presentation on HSA, ARM, Steamroller, and "Freedom Fabric"

[dbcoopernz]

http://www.slideshare.net/AMD/surround-computing-the-future-of-work-play#btnNext

Details are sparse ... He does claim that "Production of ARM technology-based AMD Opteron™ processors planned for servers in 2014" though.

 

[ShintaiDK]

"Production". Usually means a year later for release. 2015 would also fit the overall expectations for the ARM cores they are to use.

 

[AtenRa]

"Production". Usually means a year later for release. 2015 would also fit the overall expectations for the ARM cores they are to use.

This is "production" of a product, not "production ready" for a manufacturing process.

 

[inf64]

Yeah,if they stated tape-out in 2014 then it would mean ~1 year later the introduction to the market. Production means it's in the fab being made with ~3months of total time from start of production process in the fab to shipping of the said product.

Good thing is that they mention SR core again,without making any claims on shipping date though. So the core is not dead(as reported by Charlie) and is alive and will launch. It fixes one of the few downsides of module concept in BD core,a single thread execution. The other downside,the power draw, should be addressed by process node change(hopefully).

 

[MisterMac]

Isn't it weird he calls it "Steamroller".


why not just Steamroller?


Why qoutation marks? - is it a fake SR Core based on PD?

 

[inf64]

Isn't it weird he calls it "Steamroller".


why not just Steamroller?


Why qoutation marks? - is it a fake SR Core based on PD?

It's a conspiracy! It might be a fake PD based on K8 which they call Steamroller.The duplicated decode stages for each integer core are just for decoration on the slide,it's really a K8/Hammer core.

 

[Idontcare]

Isn't it weird he calls it "Steamroller".


why not just Steamroller?


Why qoutation marks? - is it a fake SR Core based on PD?

I would assume they are referring to steamroller in quotes because it is an internal project name and not an actual product name.

 

[guskline]

Isn't it weird he calls it "Steamroller".


why not just Steamroller?


Why qoutation marks? - is it a fake SR Core based on PD?

Good grief Charlie Brown!

Seriously, I think AMD has put the brakes on and is looking at ALL cpu production. When you are in the dire financial straits that they are coupled with the move to mobility throughout the industry its not hard to understand why AMD would not shift gears and try to redesign a chip that is both powerful and power friendly. That might not sit well with the OCing crowd, myself included, but based upon the buying market we are a small fraction of the overall mix. I really doubt we will see any upgrades from the PileDriver for a LONG time.

 

[podspi]

It's a conspiracy! It might be a fake PD based on K8 which they call Steamroller.The duplicated decode stages for each integer core are just for decoration on the slide,it's really a K8/Hammer core.

Your use of the 'hammer' codename has brought back so many memories of sitting on IRC waiting for that thing to be released...

 

[inf64]

Your use of the 'hammer' codename has brought back so many memories of sitting on IRC waiting for that thing to be released...

Yeah it was a long wait,I was excited when they actually previewed the first silicon @ 800Mhz on Ace's HW (IIRC). Those were the days .

 

[Idontcare]

Yeah it was a long wait,I was excited when they actually previewed the first silicon @ 800Mhz on Ace's HW (IIRC). Those were the days .

I was there too, Ace's, but I am pretty sure I never posted. You were a viscous bunch at the time between P4man and Paul Demone, etc. I kept to the sidelines as a lurker because the good debates were good, but the nasty stuff was just too nasty.

 

[inf64]

I wonder what happened to Demone guy,he just vanished from the forums at one point. He was very knowledgeable person,a bit fanatical but still knowledgeable .

 

[Idontcare]

I wonder what happened to Demone guy,he just vanished from the forums at one point. He was very knowledgeable person,a bit fanatical but still knowledgeable .

Last I saw of him he was posting over on RWT. As vicious as ever which is partly why I don't even lurk at RWT, the noise is unpalatable regardless the quality of the signal IMHO.

 

[inf64]

Last I saw of him he was posting over on RWT. As vicious as ever which is partly why I don't even lurk at RWT, the noise is unpalatable regardless the quality of the signal IMHO.

Ah RWT forum! Thanks for reminding me about that place,I completely forgot about it. Their forum structure was very bad so I just avoided it but now it's a bit better I see.Might check it out these days,there should still be some good info there(despite the bad signal to noise ratio^^).

 

[MisterMac]

I would assume they are referring to steamroller in quotes because it is an internal project name and not an actual product name.

Correct me if i'm wrong - but neither zilla or AMD usually do that.


I'd love in a million years for charlie to be wrong (I somehow have this image of a chubby little charlie eating sticky cookies\candy and typing up rumours - while laughing - i know i'm very broken inside! ) - so he could be forced to apologize.

But they should start showing something of SR if it's on track for 2014 no?

Even if their whole survival isn't guaranteed - it would send a signal of confidence.
Hence why i find sudden quotation marks weird - BD or PD never had that.

 

[inf64]

Bulldozer and Piledriver in official docs had quotation marks...
Googled in 5 seconds:
Image1 - PD
Image1 - BD
Image3 - PD and BD
Image4 - PD in FX Next slide

Plenty official docs with quotation marks around Bulldozer,Piledriver,Excavator etc.

 

[Idontcare]

Correct me if i'm wrong - but neither zilla or AMD usually do that.


I'd love in a million years for charlie to be wrong (I somehow have this image of a chubby little charlie eating sticky cookies\candy and typing up rumours - while laughing - i know i'm very broken inside! ) - so he could be forced to apologize.

But they should start showing something of SR if it's on track for 2014 no?

Even if their whole survival isn't guaranteed - it would send a signal of confidence.
Hence why i find sudden quotation marks weird - BD or PD never had that.

LOL at the "broken inside" quip

I suspect it is one of those things that varies from individual to individual in terms of whoever pulled together the slides.

Remember when JFAMD made all those youtube videos about bulldozer going to 11 and so on but his toy "bulldozer" prop was actually a front-end loader? Sometimes even the pros get mixed up.

That said, regarding the veracity of the "steamroller is coming" possibilities...I was never more excited for AMD's near future than when I saw the steamroller details announced this past summer, even if they were merely based on simulations.

So when AMD seemed to be imploding this late fall with Rory's rush to demonize all things that defined the AMD of his predecessor I began dialing down my own expectations of AMD's future being more akin to "Via on steroids".

Now with this latest news, it looks like steamroller may actually have a chance of seeing the light of day, which will be great.

But the timing...yeah, its really not good. Steamroller may be what bulldozer should have been, and it may come on 28nm too. But it will face a very bad market situation if 14nm Broadwell has been released or is about to be released whenever steamroller is finally released.

 

[mrmt]

But the timing...yeah, its really not good. Steamroller may be what bulldozer should have been, and it may come on 28nm too.

If Steamroller biggest improvement is the decoder, how will it be a game changer? Sound like a minor improvement to me, and one that will cost more die area and more thermal budget. And some AMD fanboys used to call Fermi the baconator. I wonder how they are going to call Steamroller. The barbecuer?

 

[inf64]

If Steamroller biggest improvement is the decoder, how will it be a game changer? Sound like a minor improvement to me, and one that will cost more die area and more thermal budget. And some AMD fanboys used to call Fermi the baconator. I wonder how they are going to call Steamroller. The barbecuer?

Decoder split won't be the only improvement,AMD is betting on a few more bigger ones. Check the AT article on SR presentation from HC 2012 , it covered all the important angles. Summed up: up to 20-30% single thread execution speedup vs previous generation of bulldozer(whether it's PD or BD is unclear though). That is a massive improvement but like IDC said it won't mean much if it launches along side 14nm intel product.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Keep in mind, even though SR has split decoders, they issue on every other cycle. So it's not as big an improvement as some would lead you to believe..

 

[mrmt]

Decoder split won't be the only improvement,AMD is betting on a few more bigger ones. Check the AT article on SR presentation from HC 2012 , it covered all the important angles. Summed up: up to 20-30% single thread execution speedup vs previous generation of bulldozer(whether it's PD or BD is unclear though). That is a massive improvement but like IDC said it won't mean much if it launches along side 14nm intel product.

We heard that jazz before, it is 20-30% while the chip is in development and only in a few cases, then when the chip is about to launch the increments suddenly become a lot more modest, and it is only in a few special cases.

One has to wonder about the thermal budget, bigger cores with more structures means more heat, and even Vishera isn't exactly a star here. IVB-EP will bring sizable improvements in this area, how are they going to compete against that?

 

[AtenRa]

If Steamroller biggest improvement is the decoder, how will it be a game changer? Sound like a minor improvement to me, and one that will cost more die area and more thermal budget. ?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6201/amd-details-its-3rd-gen-steamroller-architecture

 

[AtenRa]

Keep in mind, even though SR has split decoders, they issue on every other cycle. So it's not as big an improvement as some would lead you to believe..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6201/amd-details-its-3rd-gen-steamroller-architecture

Steamroller addresses this by duplicating the decode hardware in each module. Now each core has its own 4-wide instruction decoder, and both decoders can operate in parallel rather than alternating every other cycle

 

[mrmt]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6201/amd-details-its-3rd-gen-steamroller-architecture

Do you mind adding something beyond AMD PR?

 

[AtenRa]

Do you mind adding something beyond AMD PR?

I know you are negative about everything AMD but next time try read first and then comment about SR microarchitecture.