AMD: future console gaming chips may merge GPU and CPU

[Zeus]

The Wii and Xbox 360 game consoles both have single GPU's designed by AMD, however speaking in a recent interview, Bob Feldstein (AMD's VP of strategic development) revealed that in the future, console game chips may actually be a single unit as a result of the coming together of the CPU and GPU.


"I'll say that what I see the future as is a combined CPU/GPU, where the delineations are not there anymore. You combine them into a chip; you have compute elements of both, and jobs get kind of -- threads get kind of put on the resources that are best suited for them. GPU-like resources, vector engines for problems that simulate the real world, graphics, and physics. And for sequential problems, about other parts of this, you know, you've got your typical sequential processor."

Feldstein went on to discuss ways that the architecture can be evolved to make things easier for game developers:

"So, what I see us doing is math libraries, physics libraries, and collaborating with some of those middleware people we were talking about; to make sure that they have the low-level connections to us, so they don't have to figure things out every time. If we change the architecture, they don't have to redo everything -- we can just change some kind of layer."


News Source: <A href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16028" target="_Blank">Gamasutra</a>

[dalezer]

damn I love AMD. CPU and GPU FUSION! HA! lol that pretty kewl. Wonder how this will improve GPU processing?

w00t CANADA ROX!!!

[WickedSkin]

AMD is Canadian? OMG I'll have to get a new CPU :P

[foundmy]

amd is american. they bought ATI so that is where the GPU comes in.

but by merging both will this solve the overheating design flaw of the xbox360 or make it worse, instead of 3 RROD you get NOTHING?

[mashti]

F Nvidia , AMD ATI Rulesssssssssss i will be upgrading my PC from x1800xl to 2900pro very soon :D

[So-Unreal]

this will be in Nintendo's next system if anything, this news is MONTHS old for me. if the gpu has anything to do with the 3 red lights and if they are not getting the gpu at the price they want i dont think they will good with ATI/AMD again. Plus this chip is for LAPTOPS for right now and its not and will not (i dont think) be a high end performance part.

[Ichinisan]

damn I love AMD. CPU and GPU FUSION! HA! lol that pretty kewl. Wonder how this will improve GPU processing?

w00t CANADA ROX!!!

Learn to speak.

AMD is a US company. AMD has talked several times about merging the CPU and GPU for specialized applications since acquiring ATI, a large Canadian manufacturer.

[So-Unreal]

F Nvidia , AMD ATI Rulesssssssssss i will be upgrading my PC from x1800xl to 2900pro very soon :Dim a 100% ATI user BUT the new "8800 GT" just came out http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140 they are Faster then the 8800 GTS (most of the time from what i seen). I just got a 2900 Pro 1GB for $337 shipped. But really my X1950 Pro went bad(after almost 11 months) so i sent it back to newegg and they claimed they did not have anymore. So they refunded my $219. So I got my 2900 Pro 1GB for $118. The 8800 GT ($250) is faster then the 2900 XT. I Think as SOON as the 8800 GT shows up on newegg im getting one knowing that ATI has NEW cards coming on the 19th(and if they are faster then the 8800 GT at about the same price then I will be picking one up.

[put4558350]

well. that why amd buy ati.

or amd already buy ait. so thay say that ?

[Kenban]

Except by switching to AMD for the CPU the console builders would be in the same situation Microsoft was this generation by making backwards compatibility a pain. For both Sony and Microsoft it would be either recompiling the binaries and hoping for the best or including the CPU from the last generation which can add considerable cost.

I think Microsoft and Sony at the least will stick with IBM and I doubt Nintendo will leave either.

[firaX]

With Sonys policies we all saw how important BC is to them. I dont think any of the future consoles will have BC to the current Gen systems. If anything by then they ll be able to emulate PS2/XBOX fully, but i dont think Ps3 games will work on the Ps4 etc, unless they really make them similar. The Ps2 was powerpc too (correct me if wrong) , and still required chips to run on the Ps3.

[Skyline34]

I don't think the PS2 was PowerPC... IIRC :confused:

[etb]

well nice think.
but intel is planning such a thing aswell.
and amd cpus really suck atm.
they are 16 month behind intel in developing.

[grapeape]

well nice think.
but intel is planning such a thing aswell.
and amd cpus really suck atm.
they are 16 month behind intel in developing.

Really? AMD's Phenom chips are supposed to ship in a few weeks and every indication so far has been that they trounce the Core2 and Quads. Its a ping pong game for both anyway...one takes the corwn the other takes it away back and forth since the early 90's it isnt going to change any time soon. When it comes to graphics performance though I would put my money on Amd, Intel has been in the graphics chip business for years and has never produced anything onboard that could rival even the weakest standalone cards from either ATI or Nvidia.

[spark9990]

i will always support AMD as long as there are others supporting Intel. i don't want any chipmaker to become a monopoly, just look at the prices of Intel quad cores ridiculous prices.

[shemmy]

with MS's track record on cooling, a combined cpu/gpu will need a heatsink the size of fucking alaska to keep it from melting.

[etb]

Really? AMD's Phenom chips are supposed to ship in a few weeks and every indication so far has been that they trounce the Core2 and Quads. Its a ping pong game for both anyway...one takes the corwn the other takes it away back and forth since the early 90's it isnt going to change any time soon. When it comes to graphics performance though I would put my money on Amd, Intel has been in the graphics chip business for years and has never produced anything onboard that could rival even the weakest standalone cards from either ATI or Nvidia.

a friend of mine works for intel(promotion) so that is what he has been told.
sure he is supposed to make people buy their stuff so what he has been told could be just bullshit but as you look in the future (a few years) intel has some crazy **** going on (EUV-Lithographie)
and they have bigger resources so its just a matter of time that amd will lose the race.

[Mikeyy]

That sound very cool having one chip be the CPU/GPU but then again, the heat Generated would be catastrophic.

On second thought, this would suck, because Seriuos gamers need a new GPU every 1-1.5 years. They would have to keep getting new CPU/GPU and would end up Overpaying, or worse have to swich MOBOs each time due to the ridiculous amount of Sockets they keep swiching between.

[MaTiAz]

i will always support AMD as long as there are others supporting Intel. i don't want any chipmaker to become a monopoly, just look at the prices of Intel quad cores ridiculous prices.
Yeah, maybe the QX series are insanely priced, but for example the Q6600 is damn reasonably priced. It's like 50 euros more expensive than my E6750.

But merging the CPU and GPU would make the floating point performance like insane. Say hi to awesome folding@home.

Even though I'd still like to keep the two separate, especially if I don't want to use the chips from the same manufacturer (my previous rig was ATI + AMD, nothign wrong with AMD but I hate the ATI drivers and the R9600XT I had started having trouble like after a year of purchase until it finally died half a year ago, I've heard the same happen to many others).

I'm a nvidia fanboy by heart ;D

[MadMax31]

That sound very cool having one chip be the CPU/GPU but then again, the heat Generated would be catastrophic.

On second thought, this would suck, because Seriuos gamers need a new GPU every 1-1.5 years. They would have to keep getting new CPU/GPU and would end up Overpaying, or worse have to swich MOBOs each time due to the ridiculous amount of Sockets they keep swiching between.

We're talking about consoles, not pc's, of course it would be better the have both combined (think speed in the system bus), also with 45nm tech. (future) I don't see a problem with heat (X-360 has the worst cooling with a stupid ultra small aluminum heat sink, so any x-360 examples don't apply), also with one gpu/cpu chip, the heat sink could be bigger and have cooler temperatures.

Obviously this wouldn't work (business wise and gaming wise) applied to the PC market, because right now AMD sells both cpu's and gpu's, and combining both would reduce one of their business.

Also for the new AMD CPU's don't believe anything until the chips are out (we have some experience already with tech specs... emotion engine :rolleyes:).

And Intel will be releasing their conroe chips and nVidea their G92 GPU's, so time will tell if the crown is handed to AMD (from Intel) or (IMHO) AMD will focus to the mainstream prices GPUs/CPUs...

[grapeape]

Yeah, maybe the QX series are insanely priced, but for example the Q6600 is damn reasonably priced. It's like 50 euros more expensive than my E6750.

But merging the CPU and GPU would make the floating point performance like insane. Say hi to awesome folding@home.

Even though I'd still like to keep the two separate, especially if I don't want to use the chips from the same manufacturer (my previous rig was ATI + AMD, nothign wrong with AMD but I hate the ATI drivers and the R9600XT I had started having trouble like after a year of purchase until it finally died half a year ago, I've heard the same happen to many others).

I'm a nvidia fanboy by heart ;D

hehe im just the opposite there...i got talked into a 8800gts and have been half temped to go back to my x850 because this one has been such a pain in the ass, blue screening and random reboots at least once a day.... :(

[Kenban]

With Sonys policies we all saw how important BC is to them. I dont think any of the future consoles will have BC to the current Gen systems. If anything by then they ll be able to emulate PS2/XBOX fully, but i dont think Ps3 games will work on the Ps4 etc, unless they really make them similar. The Ps2 was powerpc too (correct me if wrong) , and still required chips to run on the Ps3.

The PS2 was not a powerpc system. It was some custom piece of junk that was done in house. Only the gamecube was PPC based last generation.

Really? AMD's Phenom chips are supposed to ship in a few weeks and every indication so far has been that they trounce the Core2 and Quads. Its a ping pong game for both anyway...one takes the corwn the other takes it away back and forth since the early 90's it isnt going to change any time soon. When it comes to graphics performance though I would put my money on Amd, Intel has been in the graphics chip business for years and has never produced anything onboard that could rival even the weakest standalone cards from either ATI or Nvidia.

Intel is shipping engineering samples of their new chips and they are breaking about every benchmark out there. The new 45nm quad core chips are faster, cooler, and over clock easily. The reviews are amazing and I think AMD might be 2 years or more behind these new chips. Here is an article (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/29/intel_core_2_extreme_qx9650/1) from Bit-tech on the new chip. This is going to be Intel's top of the line $999 processor.

AMD does not have a thing in the near future which can even match what Intel is doing. Their engineering teams are still doing a good job at core design but they are very behind on production. AMD is still producing 90nm chips and is trying to move to 65nm while Intel has been at 65nm for a long time and is just about to start shipping 45nm. Intel was out showing off 32nm wafers a few days ago. They have working 32nm chips they are still 18-24 months away from mass production but this is creating a huge rift between them and AMD.

Every process shrink reduces costs, lowers power usage, and increases performance on the same design. Intel has also been using a quad core design which is much cheaper to produce.

[Mikeyy]

The PS2 was not a powerpc system. It was some custom piece of junk that was done in house. Only the gamecube was PPC based last generation.



Intel is shipping engineering samples of their new chips and they are breaking about every benchmark out there. The new 45nm quad core chips are faster, cooler, and over clock easily. The reviews are amazing and I think AMD might be 2 years or more behind these new chips. Here is an article (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/29/intel_core_2_extreme_qx9650/1) from Bit-tech on the new chip. This is going to be Intel's top of the line $999 processor.

AMD does not have a thing in the near future which can even match what Intel is doing. Their engineering teams are still doing a good job at core design but they are very behind on production. AMD is still producing 90nm chips and is trying to move to 65nm while Intel has been at 65nm for a long time and is just about to start shipping 45nm. Intel was out showing off 32nm wafers a few days ago. They have working 32nm chips they are still 18-24 months away from mass production but this is creating a huge rift between them and AMD.

Every process shrink reduces costs, lowers power usage, and increases performance on the same design. Intel has also been using a quad core design which is much cheaper to produce.

Yeah I agree. Its a shame AMD is a generation behind. I like AMD my current computer has an AMD, but I need to build a new one ASAP and its looking like Im Going Intel.

I look forward to Tom's hardware charts though.
http://www.tomshardware.com/us/