darkswordsman17
Lifer
- Mar 11, 2004
- 23,143
- 5,610
- 146
I was gonna say, wasn't there talk that that K12 and Zen were being co-developed with similar ideas behind them? Just one being x86 and the other ARM. Which, especially in hindsight, they were smart to focus development, but I do wonder if they'd be able to apply Zen ideas to ARM for benefits to get into that space. I feel like AMD should at least consider ARM, if for no other reason than to offer hybrid designs, where they could have a bank of ARM cores, and a bank of AMD x86 cores. I think that would help them out in laptop space, where on battery it relies more on the ARM stuff, but then docked, or for certain use cases like gaming it uses the x86 stuff. Really seemingly there's nothing that would stop them from integrating another company's ARM chip just like they do their own modules, so they could slap a Snapdragon chip in there and they can offer all the benefits it has but also x86 compatibility. Which I think that'd be the way to do the Surface Book design, have the ARM chip in the tablet part so it goes to that, and then have the x86 and GPU in the laptop base.
Which, by now the standard ARM cores are probably as good or better than what K12 would have been (maybe not though?), so ditch the custom ARM and just integrate standard ones for low power use. Plus it would let them do Chrome boxes/books, and they could even tout it as a developer feature (where say they could run the ARM stuff in VM so they could test out their Android code). I have a hunch it'd be beneficial for consoles too (especially if they want to win back Nintendo's favor).
Interesting about combining the good parts of Bulldozer and Jaguar. Which, the latter was probably where the CCX design came from, no? I know the console chips, or maybe its just the Xbox, had Jaguar cores in two groups of 4 cores. Not sure what was positive about Bulldozer, although there probably was some aspects, if nothing else some of the logic blocks could probably be ported over, and then they could improve them bits at a time (kinda like them with the 3rd party memory controller).
Which, by now the standard ARM cores are probably as good or better than what K12 would have been (maybe not though?), so ditch the custom ARM and just integrate standard ones for low power use. Plus it would let them do Chrome boxes/books, and they could even tout it as a developer feature (where say they could run the ARM stuff in VM so they could test out their Android code). I have a hunch it'd be beneficial for consoles too (especially if they want to win back Nintendo's favor).
Interesting about combining the good parts of Bulldozer and Jaguar. Which, the latter was probably where the CCX design came from, no? I know the console chips, or maybe its just the Xbox, had Jaguar cores in two groups of 4 cores. Not sure what was positive about Bulldozer, although there probably was some aspects, if nothing else some of the logic blocks could probably be ported over, and then they could improve them bits at a time (kinda like them with the 3rd party memory controller).