AMD - Bulldozer Chitchat

[Terbinator]

When are the PD cores expected, Q2?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The quad core 8 thread socket 2011 CPUs seem to have a similar transistor count to the FX8100 series and a similar size too. Looking at the non-gaming benchmarks in the Anandtech review the FX8150 seems to be competitive in many of them with the Core i7 3820 and the Core i7 2600K.

However,power consumption seems the greater concern,and it really does look like 32NM process probably is the main culprit.

I suspect the cores have been spread apart in the Bulldozer die so to minimise heat hotspots, although I could be wrong in this assumption.

It does make me think that if the FX8150 had been clocked at a nominal 4.2GHZ instead of 3.6GHZ it would have been far more competitive than it is now.

When are the PD cores expected, Q2?

Trinity is either Q1 or Q2 and Vishera is being released in Q3.

[Terbinator]

It does make me think that if the FX8150 had been clocked at a nominal 4.2GHZ instead of 3.6GHZ it would have been far more competitive than it is now.

Won't someone please think of the TDP!?!?!?

Trinity (The APU right?) will be using BD cores or BD cores of the enhanced variety?

[watercooled]

Yeah, if you look at sites like Phoronix for benchmarks, BD is very competitive for HPC and server workloads. I also suspect the GF 32nm process for the inefficiency, however with Llano it seems they have been very conservative with the stock voltage which seems to be the same for everything rather than set per-die. It's 1.4125v and, despite Llano being very power frugal, if you do a search for 'Llano undervolt' or similar, people are getting to below 1.2v stable at stock clocks. It's hard to see why there's such a difference when the overall transistor count of Llano and Zambezi are actually quite similar - my A6-3500 system* pulls 23-24w from the wall at idle and I've seen peak 75w (normally 70 max though) under heavy GPU/CPU load which would be even lower if AMD had eased off on the voltage. I'm not using a PicoPSU which should give better results, but the 350w Antec MT-350 will be much better suited than the ridiculous 1000w PSU test systems some websites are using to test efficiency...

[watercooled]

Won't someone please think of the TDP!?!?!?

If the 32nm process had a better yield it would be possible.

Trinity (The APU right?) will be using BD cores or BD cores of the enhanced variety?

Piledriver cores.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is an picture of an actual Trinity die and a demo of Trinity:

http://www.techpowerup.com/158480/AM...ternative.html

It would be have better if AMD had said what settings the game(DiRT3?) was running at though.Perhaps a picture of what speed the CPU was running at too would have been a good idea.

[watercooled]

Looks impressive!
Not sure 'Lightning Bolt' is a great idea though, unless it's free from licensing. http://xkcd.com/927/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is the original article with a few more details:

http://hothardware.com/News/AMD-Fusi...olt-In-Action/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

According to the article in post 1144, a 17W TDP Llano CPU was used in the demo?? Really??

[watercooled]

Maybe that means the yield issues at GF are much better? They could be aiming to replace the high-end Bobcat APUs with Trinity until the next generation, Kerala, arrives.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Maybe that means the yield issues at GF are much better? They could be aiming to replace the high-end Bobcat APUs with Trinity until the next generation, Kerala, arrives.

I am hoping that is the case although the GF process is meant to be better at low voltages.

[scaryjim]

If all of that is true, *and* AMD's marketing bods can get their thumbs out of wherever they're stuck in and actually get some design wins for the technology, AMD could end up owning the mobile space over the next couple of years. Sufficient CPU power, brilliant graphics, low TDPs, Windows 8... it very much looks like it's all coming together...

[Biscuit]

The mobile space all seems to be a bit of a gamble as to which way its going to go at the moment. X86 companies are doing a damn good job at getting power usage down but ARM based companies are doing a damn good job of speeding things up in the same power envilope.
Lot more competition in the ARM arena though and i think its going to be interesting when windows and android start appearing on both platforms as it essentially pits both AMD and Intel against all them all.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The article in post 1144 shows ICS running on a Zacate tablet.

[Biscuit]

The article in post 1144 shows ICS running on a Zacate tablet.

Yeah i know thats why i said it

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah i know thats why i said it

Doh!