AMD Opens New Global Design Center

[exfileme]

AMD has opened a new design center as part of phase two of its transformation.

AMD Opens New Global Design Center : Read more

 

[razor512]

How about focusing just on CPU's without built in GPU's that can compete against the core i7 in terms of ipc?

 

[aggroboy]

How about focusing just on CPU's without built in GPU's that can compete against the core i7 in terms of ipc?

IPC improvements and GPU are not mutually exclusive.

Also the FX line doesn't have GPU.

 

[tomfreak]

How about focusing just on CPU's without built in GPU's that can compete against the core i7 in terms of ipc?

wishful thinking but not the casual market want. Radeon is the only reason people buy AMD APU/CPU. Why do u think AMD gonna give up that luxury?

 

[sarinaide]

What makes people think that APU's cannot at some point compete with Intel cores down the line?

 

[The_Trutherizer]

@razor512: the core i7 and AMD APUs are filling different market niches. I'd rather have both focusing on what they do best.

 

[falchard]

lol they moved the jobs to India. Honestly, I don't think India has enough qualified individuals to compete with Intel. I have seen software outsourced to India, its just not very good or professional.

 

[howee]

And considering AMD APU's outsell their FX line 8 to 1, I think they should focus more on iGPU and architectural improvements on the CPU side

 

[deksman]

How about focusing just on CPU's without built in GPU's that can compete against the core i7 in terms of ipc?

Because that would not be 'moving forward' (it would effectively mean focusing on an outdated premise).
The CPU in terms of single-threaded tasks is also falling out of relevance, and more and more tasks are being delegated to the GPU (not the CPU) due to the sheer computing power it has compared to the CPU.
Intel doesn't have a HSA/hUMA equivalent, and AMD made a smart move by focusing on that - still it focused on those features when software support was next to non-existent.

The only reason people focus on single-threaded tasks in the first place is because Intel dominates the market more or less and pays developers and manufacturers, but this is the last period of its usefulness (because everything is going multithreaded - which is where AMD is more than capable).

Also, people tried (via virtual machine) to switch CPU ID's, which effectively gave AMD (that registered as an Intel cpu) a pretty good performance advantage in games (WoW comes to mind). Intel under such circumstances performed lower (its results were very similar to AMD with only 10% to 20% difference going to Intel).
Point is, that it would appear software is optimized to take full advantage of Intel instructions while intentionally crippling AMD (to this day) which is what produces lower scores in benchmarks, various games (which seem to be more CPU bound), etc.

Bottom line is, until we have a properly written software that can fully take advantage of all instruction sets in both Intel and AMD, saying which one is 'noticeably better' or plainly 'superior' is pointless.
The market is saturated with bias - neutrality is effectively non-existent and it would appear that the more money company has, they can pay developers and manufacturers to shun the 'competition' and shift the market in their favor - and if this continues, AMD can probably make a CPU which is realistically 4x faster and better than Intel, but it would still register as slower if the software is not optimized to take advantage of the architecture or all of its instruction sets.

 

[jk47_99]

It's nice to see them building something rather than selling off assets, I hope it is a move in the right direction. APU's and getting decent level performance/graphics into a SFF is the future.

@6falchard Nice generalisation there, India has some the most qualified and highly skilled technical people in the world, AMD is not the first to tap into this. It's good enough for them but obviously not for top brass like yourself.

And it is not like the Brits I worked with impressed me with the quality of their work or professionalism, pot-kettle-black.

 

[3ogdy]

The APUs saved (and still do) AMD from a painful death. They'll never give up making what got them out of those really hard times when Bulldozer came out.
They still release CPUs...but their main focus is on APUs, which seems the right choice to me, especially since they can remain in the market and give Intel a run for their money at certain price points.

 

[sarinaide]

The APU is evolutionary in as much revolutionary, the term is not made up and has been around for a while now but the concept and design is. If one calls Intels HD integrated graphics more like video output then AMD truely has integrated graphics for a developing environment AMD is adapting for it. Heterogeneous systems architecture is not a made up concept either, it is a break from traditional computing to a more efficient form and already the HSA organisation can boast Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, Samsung, ARM as prominant players and is growing with Microsoft and EA likely to follow suit.

Right now the APU as AMD said it would is evolving take Llano to Richland every release has increased performance/watt and per core performance along with iGPU gains. APU's are not limited to DT silicon, mobile, low powered systems, servers and hybrids along with Custom silicon (ie: PS4, XBone) have far greater markets than traditional designs. If you have read anything AMD in the last 4 months you would realize that AMD are expanding markets which ultimately means a product line.

 

[ddpruitt]

How about focusing just on CPU's without built in GPU's that can compete against the core i7 in terms of ipc?

For the same reason Intel isn't really focusing on this area anymore, the money's elsewhere. Even when AMD was winning this race Intel simply used there monopoly status to freeze them out of the market. But working on a broader market they stand a much better chance of growing, unlike Intel which seems to be stuck in neutral at the moment.

 

[ojas]

lol they moved the jobs to India. Honestly, I don't think India has enough qualified individuals to compete with Intel. I have seen software outsourced to India, its just not very good or professional.

Half the people in Intel are Indian, or Chinese. Same applies to AMD, Nvidia (their Tegra stuff), Microsoft, IBM, NASA, MIT, most of your Ivy League colleges, etc. Hotmail was made by an Indian. Lots of people in all of your tech companies are Indian. Kabini, Tamesh and Kaveri are/were designed in India.

Not that i really believe in what i'm going to say after this, but since you're choosing to be the stereotypical stupid American, i have to:
If Americans designed better chips, maybe AMD wouldn't have to outsource production?

/rant

 

[sarinaide]

lol they moved the jobs to India. Honestly, I don't think India has enough qualified individuals to compete with Intel. I have seen software outsourced to India, its just not very good or professional.

Half the people in Intel are Indian, or Chinese. Same applies to AMD, Nvidia (their Tegra stuff), Microsoft, IBM, NASA, MIT, most of your Ivy League colleges, etc. Hotmail was made by an Indian. Lots of people in all of your tech companies are Indian. Kabini, Tamesh and Kaveri are/were designed in India.

Not that i really believe in what i'm going to say after this, but since you're choosing to be the stereotypical stupid American, i have to:
If Americans designed better chips, maybe AMD wouldn't have to outsource production?

/rant

 

[dozerman]

Deksman, your comment reminds me of back in the day when a VIA processor's I'D was changed to that of an Intel proc's and it magically started benching something like twenty percent higher.

 

[bustapr]

lol they moved the jobs to India. Honestly, I don't think India has enough qualified individuals to compete with Intel. I have seen software outsourced to India, its just not very good or professional.

it actually is really good and professional. india is actually one of the(if not THE) world leaders in nanotech research and engineering. india has many capable researchers that would rather stay at home rather than move to the US to pursue work in advanced engineering. salaries are also lower than in US. Im all for US companies keeping jobs in US, but for a company in AMDs situation(that of a company just getting by), saving on cost with as minimal effect on performance as possible is a necessary thing to do.

 

[Alexey Doilnitsyn]

Deksman, your comment reminds me of back in the day when a VIA processor's I'D was changed to that of an Intel proc's and it magically started benching something like twenty percent higher.

One of the reason may be Intel IPP (integrated Performance Primitives) library, which contains a lot of code optimized using SIMD instructions like SSE. By default, IPP works only on Intel processors. Still alternate processors like VIA or AMD do support those SSE instructions, and can run the IPP faster when it recognizes that processor supports SSE instructions. Many commercial software vendors use IPP in their applications, so this may be a reason of this benchmark effect.