NEWZ: ATI / AMD Streams Procesor Unveiled

[Splash]

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.



http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194300579

 

[ddrueding]

Very cool. Just stick a GPU on Hypertransport and let the games begin

 

[sechs]

I was going to say that this was a pretty quick turn around, but it turns out ATi had been working on this for years.

What are the chances, however, that this technology will make its way onto a CPU?

 

[ddrueding]

I'd read that ATI had been working on it, but likely had no really useful way to implement it until AMD/Hypertransport showed up. I didn't think this was really a new technology, just a different architecture/implementation of existing manufacturing technologies. Like having an engine optimized for torque instead of horsepower.

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

...but it turns out ATi had been working on this for years.

I'm sure the marketplace analysts at ATI have been eyeing the coprocessor / accelerator market for a long time. It's not a big market, but it is pretty lucrative. Weitek and a few others did well in the coprocessor market until they were gobbled up.

Now you have coprocessor support built into HyperTransport. And, then, erm.. there's ATI living nowadays right in the thick of HyperTransportland. With all those GPU cores spewing out of its *own* foundries, a transcendental math coprocessor is a natural fit in its OEM component lineup.

What are the chances, however, that this technology will make its way onto a CPU?

Every once in a while around here I like to bring up my not-so-wacky idea that one day your mobo's microprocessor could mostly be a super-fast Radeon or GeForce GPU with an integrated ALU/FPU section to support "conventional" software like operating systems and non-graphical applications.

 

[sechs]

CPU and GPU cores *will* end up together on the same piece of silicon; so, if a little tweaking allows you to use the GPU core as a super-nasty coprocessor, I figure that'd fly pretty far.