AMD Turns ATI Chip Into High-Performance 'Stream' Processor

[Heinz68]

AMD adapted an ATI graphics processor for floating point intensive computing. The stream processor will have 48 floating point cores and offer a peak performance of 360 gigaflops.

By Sharon Gaudin
InformationWeek Nov 14, 2006 03:21 PM

AMD on Tuesday unveiled a dedicated "stream" processor aimed at the high-performance computing market.

AMD built the processor by adapting an ATI graphics processor for compute-only systems such as workstations and servers, according to Dinesh Sharma, director of enterprise stream computing at AMD. "It was designed to light up pixels on the screen, but we can use those capabilities to solve problems or do financial analysis," he added. "We're using the [graphics processor] in a non-traditional manner."

The stream processor will have 48 floating point cores. Sharma noted that at peak floating point performance, AMD's dual-core processor runs in the 30 gigaflop range. The stream processor should hit 360 gigaflops.
"This is pretty darn clever," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64, a market research and consulting firm based in Saratoga, Calif. "This gives users the ability to really dramatically increase the floating point processing capability of a standard X86 based server. Historically, if you wanted to get this kind of performance, you had to buy great big supercomputers. Then AMD realized they had all this floating point ability that they were practically giving away in 3D chips that people were using for gaming. They took the chip, built a more robust platform, and surrounded it with more memory."

Brookwood said ATI, which was bought by AMD this fall, had been working on turning the gaming or graphics processor into a streaming processor for a few years. "ATI did all the work and AMD gets all the glory," he said, adding that this processor should outperform dual-core processors when it comes to floating point intensive tasks.
Sharma said the streaming processors are ready for shipment.Read the complete article at InformationWeek (http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194300579&subSection=Servers)
XbitLabs (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20061114015455.html) claims that "AMD plans to sell the Stream Processor for $2600"

[a12ctic]

nothing short of amazing, hats off to amd for making that wonderful discovery, this couldve been one of the main points for buying ATI.

[retsam]

i dont get whats so amazing about this asic? big deal companies have had stuff like this for years, unless im missing something here.

[Tygerwoody]

Until I see AMD get off their ass and SELL good products, i could care less. They are getting slaughtered out there by intel. This "we will have a very cool product in 50 years" just doesn't impress me. Sorry.

AMD = 2nd rate company
ATI = 2nd rate company

AMD + ATI = worse than 2nd rate company. Just below Ageia :p

[a12ctic]

Until I see AMD get off their ass and SELL good products, i could care less. They are getting slaughtered out there by intel. This "we will have a very cool product in 50 years" just doesn't impress me. Sorry.

AMD = 2nd rate company
ATI = 2nd rate company

AMD + ATI = worse than 2nd rate company. Just below Ageia :p
umm more like 6 months, anyway, they just slaughtered intel for 4 years, they give them a few months recoil. K8L will throw intel right back on the ground where they belong. Also, why all the ati hate? the 9 series was epic (or the fx series was just pitifully bad), the following sies havnt been to shabby either.

[AdmiralHalsey..]

Is this gonna require special coding and stuff, or will it supliment, replace the existing FPU in the Athlon64's/Opterons??? Cause if it's just plug and play, wouldn't that dramatically help triangle setup and stuff?

[SpiffMistroII]

i dont get whats so amazing about this asic? big deal companies have had stuff like this for years, unless im missing something here.



Well, apparently you don't know anything about the technology.

[tacos4me]

Until I see AMD get off their ass and SELL good products, i could care less. They are getting slaughtered out there by intel. This "we will have a very cool product in 50 years" just doesn't impress me. Sorry.

AMD = 2nd rate company
ATI = 2nd rate company

AMD + ATI = worse than 2nd rate company. Just below Ageia :p

Uhh.. Athlon64 walked all over the Pentium4, for a LONG time. Probably much longer than AMD will "let" C2D walk all over A64. That's just how the industry works. You can't always be on top.

By your logic, Intel = 2nd rate company

[OWA]

Well, apparently you don't know anything about the technology.
So, what about them unified shaders on the G80 that you didn't think was accurate. Wonderin' when you'd show up again. :p

[Tygerwoody]

Uhh.. Athlon64 walked all over the Pentium4, for a LONG time. Probably much longer than AMD will "let" C2D walk all over A64. That's just how the industry works. You can't always be on top.

By your logic, Intel = 2nd rate company
I was putting down Intel during the same time period. Go ahead and do a search on my posts. I call them how I see them. Right now Athlon 64 is crap and I don't see them digging out of their hole anytime soon. Where as intel has never really been in any trouble. Just the name "pentium" and "intel" was enough to still hold a huge market share.

[a12ctic]

I was putting down Intel during the same time period. Go ahead and do a search on my posts. I call them how I see them. Right now Athlon 64 is crap and I don't see them digging out of their hole anytime soon. Where as intel has never really been in any trouble. Just the name "pentium" and "intel" was enough to still hold a huge market share.
how is a 4 year old chip (a64/x2) where the low-mid range chips (for the same amount of money) keep up with intels brand new chips that took years to develope in anyway "crap". Do you think Joe overclocks his CPU, no, at stock speeds the 4200 keeps up with the 6300 for the same exact price. If any chip is crap its the c2d, thats just now catching up with a chip thats years old.

[tacos4me]

I was putting down Intel during the same time period. Go ahead and do a search on my posts. I call them how I see them. Right now Athlon 64 is crap and I don't see them digging out of their hole anytime soon. Where as intel has never really been in any trouble. Just the name "pentium" and "intel" was enough to still hold a huge market share.

Oh I believe you. I don't really need to waste time searching. Was simply disagreeing.

Yes, Intel has the upper hand right now, by quite a lot, but I wouldn't necessarily call the A64 line crap just yet. AMD has quite a few new products lined up, of which probably won't be faster than a C2D, but I'm definitely interested in seeing the overclockability of a cheap 65nm 3800+. :)

[superklye]

how is a 4 year old chip (a64/x2) where the low-mid range chips (for the same amount of money) keep up with intels brand new chips that took years to develope in anyway "crap". Do you think Joe overclocks his CPU, no, at stock speeds the 4200 keeps up with the 6300 for the same exact price. If any chip is crap its the c2d, thats just now catching up with a chip thats years old.
I don't know what benchmarks you're looking at, but it didn't just "catch up."

It blew A64 out of the water and then out of the air back into the water to blow it out of the water again.

[Mr_LoL]

I don't know what benchmarks you're looking at, but it didn't just "catch up."

It blew A64 out of the water and then out of the air back into the water to blow it out of the water again.
Better off not wasting your time with that assclown.

[retsam]

Well, apparently you don't know anything about the technology.enlighten us oh all knowing and all telling great one!!! please do!!

[Tygerwoody]

how is a 4 year old chip (a64/x2) where the low-mid range chips (for the same amount of money) keep up with intels brand new chips that took years to develope in anyway "crap". Do you think Joe overclocks his CPU, no, at stock speeds the 4200 keeps up with the 6300 for the same exact price. If any chip is crap its the c2d, thats just now catching up with a chip thats years old.
Its not my fault they are using 4 year old technology still. Intel at least has been TRYING different architecture. AMD has basically kept the same damn architecture for their chips(other than slight changes) for the past 4 years. Intel has drastically changed the way their chips have been working. Also during this whole time, intel has at least had chips that competed in some way. The chips might have been more expensive than AMD's offering, but they still competed. AMD's top of the line FX-62 doesnt have a PRAYER against a lowly intel chip like the e6400.

What I don't understand is that now is the time AMD needs to start saving money, developing new technology, and start creating better cpu's. What do they do? The COMPLETE opposite. They buy a bankrupt, 2nd rate company(ATI). Yea, real smart AMD. Like you REALLY need ATI's debt/failing video card series.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised in the next few years if Nvidia bought AMD/ATI. That or just put them out of business :p

[a12ctic]

Its not my fault they are using 4 year old technology still. Intel at least has been TRYING different architecture. AMD has basically kept the same damn architecture for their chips(other than slight changes) for the past 4 years. Intel has drastically changed the way their chips have been working. Also during this whole time, intel has at least had chips that competed in some way. The chips might have been more expensive than AMD's offering, but they still competed. AMD's top of the line FX-62 doesnt have a PRAYER against a lowly intel chip like the e6400.

What I don't understand is that now is the time AMD needs to start saving money, developing new technology, and start creating better cpu's. What do they do? The COMPLETE opposite. They buy a bankrupt, 2nd rate company(ATI). Yea, real smart AMD. Like you REALLY need ATI's debt/failing video card series.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised in the next few years if Nvidia bought AMD/ATI. That or just put them out of business :p
The c2d is far from new technology, they just took what they had, redid it, and slapped a **** load of cache on, hell it still uses fsb, something amd got rid of with their last gen chips, the a64...

[Tygerwoody]

The c2d is far from new technology, they just took what they had, redid it, and slapped a **** load of cache on, hell it still uses fsb, something amd got rid of with their last gen chips, the a64...
which apparently wasn't a good idea...

FSB ftw (nana2)

[nekrosoft13]

everyone else :nutkick: a12ctic

[nemecb]

Fanboys ftl tbh. So many acronyms, so little time.:D

This isn't a rumor though, is it? I thought I saw something about this on a tech news site at some point, maybe MikeC even linked it from the nvnews home page.

[ViN86]

Until I see AMD get off their ass and SELL good products, i could care less. They are getting slaughtered out there by intel. This "we will have a very cool product in 50 years" just doesn't impress me. Sorry.

AMD = 2nd rate company
ATI = 2nd rate company

AMD + ATI = worse than 2nd rate company. Just below Ageia :p
in AMD's defense, they dominated the market for years. intel was working on the C2D for a looooong time. AMD beat them to the dual core market and their athlon 64 series crushed the P4.

theyre behind now and everyone jumps ship and doubts them forever? intel had YEARS to put together their C2D architecture. its not really a surprise. and i hope AMD rebounds. now flame me for being a "fanboy". whatever, im just saying all of your opinions change in seconds. AMD will be on top again some time, then everyone will talk this way about intel. so whats the point in continuously flaming them? it just wastes forum space and most of all, time.

for the record, i would get a C2D if i could afford one right now.

[nekrosoft13]

i simply buy whats better and faster now.

i had p4, i bought x2 later, now i'm planning a upgrade to c2d in spring/summer.

[SpiffMistroII]

enlighten us oh all knowing and all telling great one!!! please do!!


http://techreport.com/etc/2006q4/stream-computing/index.x?pg=1

[SpiffMistroII]

Its not my fault they are using 4 year old technology still. Intel at least has been TRYING different architecture. AMD has basically kept the same damn architecture for their chips(other than slight changes) for the past 4 years. Intel has drastically changed the way their chips have been working. Also during this whole time, intel has at least had chips that competed in some way. The chips might have been more expensive than AMD's offering, but they still competed. AMD's top of the line FX-62 doesnt have a PRAYER against a lowly intel chip like the e6400.

What I don't understand is that now is the time AMD needs to start saving money, developing new technology, and start creating better cpu's. What do they do? The COMPLETE opposite. They buy a bankrupt, 2nd rate company(ATI). Yea, real smart AMD. Like you REALLY need ATI's debt/failing video card series.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised in the next few years if Nvidia bought AMD/ATI. That or just put them out of business :p


Pity because apparently you have never heard of Netburst then. It's kind of sad to see post like this. You are so far off based it's scary.

1) ATI is not in dept.

2) They are not 2nd rate, whatever the hell makes you think that?



And yes, FSB sucks compared to HT. That is a ****ing fact.

[jolle]

This seems pretty much like any GPGPU application to me.
Im kinda hoping apps like Maya get augmented to be able to render on DX10 GPUs in the near future, that would prolly blow CPU rendering out of the water.
Or atleast allow the CPU to dispatch certain parts of the rendering pipeline to the GPU for processing, but since the DX10 GPUs seem fairly versitile it seems to me like it should be doable to put the entire thing on there.
Memory shouldnt be a problem with the virtual memory stuff in DX10 (and D3d9Ex)

This CUDA API thing NV released for the G80 seems like the ticket for stuff like that, C compiler for the GPU.
Im sure ATi has something similar for their R600, it seems a ton better then mapping things to DX or OGL.