Friday, February 12th 2016

AMD "Zen" Processors to Feature SMT, Support up to 8 DDR4 Memory Channels
CERN engineer Liviu Valsan, in a recent presentation on datacenter hardware trends, presented a curious looking slide that highlights some of the key features of AMD's upcoming "Zen" CPU architecture. We know from a recent story that the architecture is scalable up to 32 cores per socket, and that AMD is building these chips on the 14 nanometer FinFET process.
Among the other key features detailed on the slide are symmetric multi-threading (SMT). Implemented for over a decade by Intel as HyperThreading Technology, SMT exposes a physical core as two logical CPUs to the software, letting it make better use of the hardware resources. Another feature is talk of up to eight DDR4 memory channels. This could mean that AMD is readying a product to compete with the Xeon E7 series. Lastly, the slide mentions that "Zen" could bring about IPC improvements that are 40 percent higher than the current architecture.
Source:
HotHardware
Among the other key features detailed on the slide are symmetric multi-threading (SMT). Implemented for over a decade by Intel as HyperThreading Technology, SMT exposes a physical core as two logical CPUs to the software, letting it make better use of the hardware resources. Another feature is talk of up to eight DDR4 memory channels. This could mean that AMD is readying a product to compete with the Xeon E7 series. Lastly, the slide mentions that "Zen" could bring about IPC improvements that are 40 percent higher than the current architecture.
130 Comments on AMD "Zen" Processors to Feature SMT, Support up to 8 DDR4 Memory Channels
Also, you can charge that when it's decimating the competition. Intel never lowered prices when they sucked b/c they ruled through marketing and bribing publications.
Let's not forget they literally owned Bapco and literally rigged Sysmark. Many still don't know about this. They tried to cover it up when people called them out on Sysmark 2002.
This pile of shit was printed in ACADEMIC books as proof of how awesome intel was. It was pure propaganda. Intel has many methods for their propaganda machine.
Also the latest AMD architecture is "Excavator" not "Steamroller" (as in A10 7870). A new Athlon with Excavator cores was already released. www.anandtech.com/show/10009/amd-launches-excavator-on-desktop-the-65w-athlon-x4-845-for-70
Intel only made a paltry 11.4 billion dollar profit last year while AMD went further into the red by 660 million dollars.
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/intel-reports-full-year-revenue-of-55-4-billion-q4-revenue-of-14-9-billion.219260/
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/amd-reports-2015-fourth-quarter-and-annual-results.219376/
Intel's pathetic market cap of 133 billion dollars compared to AMD's 1.47 billion dollar market cap and that Intel outspends AMD 10 to 1 on R&D and the fact that AMD owes about twice as much as what they are worth and can't hope to repay their debts unless a miracle drops down from heaven on them proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Intel will be begging Lisa Su for scraps from her table soon.
www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/fi-126.1.INTC.NAS
www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/fi-126.1.AMD.NAS
Also, intel is still copying AMD. This has been going on for...13 yrs now?
I want a rational reason to use AMD. I hope it happens.
its honestly not at all bad to still use a fx 8 core for years into the future for gaming.. where dx12 and well optimized dx11 games is a concern its just as good as a i5 and amd seems to have enough confidence in the fx's multi threading to even recommend a fx 6 core for vr.
damn amd and microsoft keeping everyones hardware good for so long is such bs :p
Sadly I stopped believing in fairytales and fantasies a long time ago....
AMD started a price war that bit them right back, i just hope that if they plan another price war that they make sure they can afford it.
Tell you the truth Intel and nVidia are waiting for AMD to do a kick ass product but i bet AMD gets a smack in the face as they can up the anti and still make a profit.
Anyway, like I said, unless there's a materiel change (towards graphene probably), I don't see any more big jumps from Intel in the near-far future. I doubt that shrinking 4 extra nm like Cannonlake will do will offer little more than academical performance gains compared to Kaby Lake. IMO, if Zen is alright, the next battle will be about who's the one who abandons silicon the sooner.
I don't think Intel will win many friends with the pricing of Broadwell-E, if rumours are correct so that might help Zen by making prospective buyers think twice about buying Intel. Unfortunately, Zen is so far out they look like missing the Broadwell-E and Kaby Lake releases. So people may feel the urge to jump twice before Zen desktops arrive.
As for pricing, AMD are not the fan favourite. They stopped budget competing on release way back with the 7970 (of which I bought two). That initial pricing caught many off guard. Fast forward to Nano (niche as it is) and it was too expensive. Now it's been price slashed.
Anyone that thinks either company wants to make cheaper products needs a reality check. Anyone that thinks large companies don't cheat also need to think again. Big money and the options for investors to profit on a product dictate pricing, not any loyalty to the consumer.
Also, AHEMAHEM Intel HT ---> AMD SMT....how much did AMD took to implement that...?
It didn't make fiscal sense for AMD to use it before. They've never had the budget to make the chips even more complex (could barely get them out the door as it was). Zen has been in the works for a long time and with the node shrinks, they have more room to implement better features.
Keep on blabbing. If APUs are so worthless, then why did intel copy it? Is your foot tasty?
funny thing is amd considers each module to have 2 cores haha
before they changed the scheduler it was a horrible mess but anyway its all the same end game just the fx is split more on a integrated hardware level and ht is done more so logically if you will.
BTW, AMD doesn't offer full DX12 (12_1) support, Nvidia has offered 10-bit support since the Geforce 200 Series (nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3011/~/10-bit-per-color-support-on-nvidia-geforce-gpus), and AFAIK Nvidia has beaten AMD in almost every DX11 game out there. I don't know (neither care) what DX12 will mean for the actual gen, but my argument about that is that transitional generations sucks, and that the real DX12 battle begins this year.
So that only leaves you with the HBM argument. Woohoo! Enjoy it for the few more months that remains, fanboy. Maybe because, like I said, there's a market for them? How dense can you be? The fact that I said that APUs have no use for gamers or other resource-hungry apps doesn't mean that they wouldn't be sold at all.
And the absurd argument of "OMG INTEL/AMD INVENTED IT FIRST, SO IT'S BETTER/THEY'RE MORALLY BETTER THAN THE OTHER!" is just the last resort of fanboys to justify their customer choice. Fortunately I'm smart enough as for making my choices based on raw performance and price/performance ratios, and not out of "loyalty" to a CORPORATION you don't even work in.
Seriously, fanboys of any kind are a nuisance, but I swear AMD fanboys are a pest. You can't say the slightest thing against 'their' brand, or in favor of the competition without them crying around in opposition.