Read more.Aims to build leadership IP in low power, x86 and ARM server and graphics processing.
Read more.Aims to build leadership IP in low power, x86 and ARM server and graphics processing.
Let's hope they have a separate roadmap for (at least)trying to catch up with Intel, otherwise the future looks bad from the innovation and competition point of view.
It's clear that they aren't. Transitioning to the non-consumer segments means that AMD has pretty much given up chasing after Intel's consumer market. I hope that AMD doesn't give up entirely, but I'm sure it will become difficult to fight Intel even on the APU front.
They've pretty much said for definite that they aren't abandoning the consumer PC market, and don't forget that transitioning 50% of revenue to emerging and non-traditional computing market still means that they see 50% of their revenue as coming from the traditional PC and server market. I don't think they're going to bother chasing halo x86 CPU performance though: they'll stick to providing well-balanced mainstream computing solutions and pushing the envelope of what's possible with APUs. Steamroller will really be the crux of what happens to AMDs CPU segment going forward - it will determine whether the investment in bulldozer was really worth it, or if they're going to have to go through another painful grounds-up redesign of their x86 core to push more performance out of it. Either that or try to migrate Jaguar into the performance space, and I don't think Jaguar will do the clock speeds they'd need for that...
For the main market, I don't see the point of going after x86 performance since many applications such as in SMEs, home and mobile are quite easily covered in terms of performance by the current lineup. Heterogenous computing seems to be AMD's vision for the future of computing and that could close the gap between AMD and Intel in overall performance.
The enthusiast side of me already knows the cost of Intel not having competition and if you want a modern day example, take the 4960X. Because AMD does not have a competitor in this price/performance bracket, Intel are quite happy to kick back and rehash old tech.
I hope AMD's console play works out and heavily multithreaded goes big, as it could well close the performance gap for FX6xxx and 8xxx processors to their Intel counterparts.
I hope you're right - as I'd like to replace my current six-way PhenomII with something that can turn in a decent performance against a top of the line Haswell without resort to overclocks. At the moment though, it looks like if I want that kind of "enthusiast" performance level out of the box then my rig is going to end up with an "Intel Inside" sticker on it.
On the other hand if AMD are going to be aggressive about the mobile space then perhaps that might give them enough of a steady revenue stream to "go back to the drawing board" and deliver something on the desktop side less reliance on throwing cores at the problem? Although a cynic might argue that the focus on mobile is because they realise that they've got a good shot against Intel in this area, plus Intel's lead on the desktop is too large that the moment.
*sniff*
I miss being able to see AMD's consumer products on roadmaps, outside of mainstream APUs I mean.
If we don't see 8-core Steamroller or Excavator mid to high end products from AMD in 2014/15, I'll have to give up years of support to AMD and go Intel.
I'd rather not do this, but my Phenom II X4 940 will only cut the mustard for a while longer and I can't wait forever to upgrade.
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