XBitlabs: Advanced Micro Devices Set to Unveil New Strategy Next Week

[cbn]

Tom's hardware: 3 ideas for Project WIN

Let’s be realistic. AMD’s opportunity to jump on the smartphone and tablet processor train has come and gone. While we can still discuss whether there is a market for tablets outside the iPad, it is apparent just how much Intel is struggling to make a dent in this market and come up with a product that is competitive with ARM architectures. Despite its huge resources, Intel needs years to come up with even a halfway decent product that is suited for tablets. What does that mean for AMD if the company also needs to compete in traditional markets that are the source of its income? Should AMD attempt to break into the smartphone market with an x86 product and face the same uphill battle that Intel has chosen? In addition, AMD has the aforementioned credibility issue because the company never competed in ultramobile space with the exception of its Geode processors on the very low end. If AMD is basically occupied with battling Intel in traditional x86 markets, how could AMD sustain an onslaught of ARM vendors, including Qualcomm, Samsung and especially Nvidia? Taking its x86 architecture into the ultramobile space is a huge risk that perhaps AMD should not be taking.

Instead, it is much more likely for AMD to join Nvidia & Co. in the ARM camp and line up against Intel. Not only is there a new market that is opening up in ARM-based Windows devices, but AMD already has ties at ARM, and it could use its graphics technology to become a key differentiator in this market. Once again, AMD would clash with Nvidia and compete with Qualcomm, which purchased its Imageon graphics technology in 2008 and now calls it Adreno. However, a clash with Nvidia may be more reasonable than dealing with Intel.

Given the traction of the ultramobile market and the ongoing speculation that Read was hired because of Meyer’s lack of an ultramobile product roadmap, AMD will have to make a spectacular mobile announcement this Wednesday. The integration of ARM into its product line could do it.

 

[exar333]

Intel already has tablets out there. Their battery time at idle is about half what ARM tablets are at load.

They both suck, whats you point? ARM cannot 'magically' make SB-performance on 2W of power. Droning on and on about ARM doesn't make them any better.

 

[exar333]

It is the 9th, where is the news?

 

[Genx87]

Yeah, we know, since that's what you keep repeating on and on and as loudly as you can. What you apparently want everyone to forget is that while the present Atoms aren't at all optimized for ultramobiles (they suck, to put it bluntly, and everyone agrees on that), Medfield, really as the first Atom SoC, will be:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4345/...-architecture-group-14nm-airmont-atom-in-2014

It's amazing how some people (specifically the crazed Intel haters) expects Intel to have low-power (smartphone grade) processors on the market since before they were even committed to that market. And since they don't, Intel simply must lack the capability to design such a chip. Brillant conclusion.

Intel doesnt lack the capability fo designing such a chip. I just dont believe they can using x86 designs.

Also, it is hilarious I am an intel hater now

 

[Genx87]

They both suck, whats you point? ARM cannot 'magically' make SB-performance on 2W of power. Droning on and on about ARM doesn't make them any better.

And neither can Intel.

 

[AdamK47]

It is the 9th, where is the news?

AMD calls it "Project WIN". Look at the post above yours. They are supposed to have a "worldcast" today about it, but most of the details are on the page linked.

 

[Olikan]

AMD calls it "Project WIN". Look at the post above yours. They are supposed to have a "worldcast" today about it, but most of the details are on the page linked.

x-labs post something about not so long.
"Another Major Delay" delayed it for 3 month.

 

[cbn]

Bring on the ARM AMD APUs... I like the ring of that

How about APUs ARM AMD? Ya'gettit?

How about the following 35 letter equation?

ARM'd UP + ATI AP "Application Processor" AMMO = Fusion Chain Reactions

I made it from the following pool of 35 letters:

TI
OMAP
AMDer
ARM
APUs
China
Fusion
Action

Oh, man....I can't believe how bored I am to come up with this junk

 

[AdamK47]

I misspoke when I said "details". Toms Hardware doesn't really go into the actual details of it.

 

[exar333]

And neither can Intel.

Thanks for clearing that up...

 

[exar333]

I misspoke when I said "details". Toms Hardware doesn't really go into the actual details of it.

Gotcha - you confused me!!

I read the Toms post a couple days ago (it's pretty well written IMHO) but I have been waiting for details on what their plan exactly is. I assume thats what others are waiting for too. Just havent seen anything posted around the net yet today...

Edit: Sounds like the plan is 'secret'. I guess we have to wait for a leak...

 

[cbn]

ARM doesn't have to beat Intel on performance in order to displace them.

Yep, Apparently Apple is demanding battery life.

http://articles.businessinsider.com...7_1_intel-today-macbook-air-power-consumption

 

[-Slacker-]

Apple's PC marketshare is 10~15%, so they can sod off.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Rumours are the next Xbox has an ARM chip in it. MS and Nvidia dont get along. Could the next Xbox have an ARM chip and a GPU both made by AMD?

 

[Cerb]

Rumours are the next Xbox has an ARM chip in it. MS and Nvidia dont get along. Could the next Xbox have an ARM chip and a GPU both made by AMD?

Possible, but only if the A15 provides amazing real performance, and can be produced in massive quantities before MS needs the device out.

 

[Genx87]

Thanks for clearing that up...

Clearing what up? You are asking ARM to do what Intel cant and imply that is a bad thing for ARM. Wake me up when Intel can stuff SB performance into a 2W part. Until then I dont see what relevance making that demand has to do with the discussion.

 

[Despoiler]

Does anyone see the irony in the fact that Rory Read fires a bunch of PR and marketing people and then comes up with one of the worst project names ever? I mean "Project WIN"? Did he go to the frat boy school of marketing?

 

[Idontcare]

Does anyone see the irony in the fact that Rory Read fires a bunch of PR and marketing people and then comes up with one of the worst project names ever? I mean "Project WIN"? Did he go to the frat boy school of marketing?

My understanding is that Rory is a huge Charlie Sheen fan.

 

[iCyborg]

It wasn't Rory who came up with it, it says it was created before his time. Maybe he even fired the person behind the name?

 

[Idontcare]

It wasn't Rory who came up with it, it says it was created before his time.

The initiative was in effect before Rory was hired, but it wasn't given a name until he was in the driver seat.

All companies have these initiatives, there's really nothing to see here that you wouldn't see in your own workplace. The name is just funny.

 

[iCyborg]

Well, actually it's only us who learned about its name with Rory in charge. Maybe AMD had an internal name for it before. If it wasn't for the leaked email, we still wouldn't know. So we don't really know who is to be blamed for it

 

[Idontcare]

Well, actually it's only us who learned about its name with Rory in charge. Maybe AMD had an internal name for it before. If it wasn't for the leaked email, we still wouldn't know. So we don't really know who is to be blamed for it

Your position would appear to be in error.

AMD's Project Win: A Misunderstanding

As for Project Win, that's simply an internal codename referring to an effort to streamline AMD's business practices. The project didn't have a name previously but it refers to something AMD has been talking about in its earnings calls for the past couple of quarters. An excerpt from last quarter's earnings call where Project Win was referenced (not by name) is below:

edit: I am told by a credible source that I am wrong about this, "Project WIN" was in fact internally referenced by name before Rory even came aboard. Point goes to iCyborg in this round...till next time

 

[cbn]

I think Project "WIN" is simply an abbreviation for the acronym "WINDOWS HALT": Windows Isn't Necessary, Don't Operate Windows Software, Help Arm Lead Technology

The initiative breaks down as follows

1. Windows Isn't Necessary: Pretty Basic Really. Personal computing has moved beyond x86 with the emergence of mobile operating systems becoming, well, more personal than PCs.

2. Don't Operate Windows Software: A soft initiative at AMD to get employees (including software engineers) away from x86 laptops/desktops and more familiar with Android and other other OSes.

3. Help Arm Lead Technology: This is AMD's plan to help ARM, without getting taken advantage of by ARM.

 

[cbn]

there are already enough ARM competitors with powerful chips coming out in 2012 let alone 2014.

But only Qualcomm has a custom ARM CPU.

Regarding custom core, I found this article rather interesting.

It basically compares Nvidia's strategy of using four Vanilla cores to Qualcomm's two custom cores.

Raj Talluri, Qualcomm: "Nvidia brings a different marketing philosophy. They take a different attitude about how they market their products. Just because you make one device with four cores...[but] the rest of the system has to be big too," he said.

Talluri continued. "What's the big deal? I can get two or I can get four cores from ARM. When we do a core, we design it from the ground up. That means we do a lot of custom transistors. For example, when we run a processor at 1.4GHz or 1.5GHz...we don't push the voltage to get higher [speeds]. Because our design can run that fast at nominal voltage. The power consumption just explodes if you push the voltage up."

Qualcomm has, for many years, had an ARM architectural license, which allows the company to custom design its ARM processors--what Talluri is referring to when he speaks about designing a chip from the "ground up." Nvidia, only recently--earlier this year--got an architectural license from ARM.

Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia: "I feel that I answered this question once for dual-core. Using multiple processors is the best way to conserve energy when you need performance. And our strategy, our approach is efficient performance. We want performance but not at the expense of running transistors super hot. Parallel processing is really the most energy efficient way to get performance. And we'll use as many cores as the technology can afford. And the applications can use," he said.

Huang continued. "There's all kinds of application that benefit from mutli-core and quad-core. One is multi-tasking. [For example] if I'm buying an application, updating a whole bunch of applications, while I'm reading a book and connected to Wi-Fi and I'm streaming music. That's a lot of stuff going on. That's even a lot of stuff going on for a desktop PC. So, there's no question that performance lags a bit when that happens and when quad-core hits it's just going to crank right through all of that."

The Nvidia Vanilla quad core achieves a greater die size penalty, but the Qualcomm Custom Core requires greater upfront R&D.

A couple of questions:

1.Is Microsoft going to open up "Windows Phone" so TI and Nvidia can compete with higher volumes of chips? (If so, then I would imagine justifying the cost of a Custom Core ARM would make more sense)

2. Can Custom ARM CPU cores from Server designs be re-purposed for smartphone SOCs? (provided they are compatible with ARMv8, etc)

 

[wlee15]

But only Qualcomm has a custom ARM CPU.

There's also Marvell.