Lots of ways to get to Magny-Cours
by Charlie Demerjian August 24, 2009
AMD FINALLY STARTED to publicly talk about Magny-Cours and socket G34 during the Hot Chips 21 conference. The socket has a lot of complexities, so for now, we will only take a look at the interconnects, both on chip and off. Magny-Cours is the CPU itself, a 12-core MCM that consists of two Istanbul 6-core CPUs. Each core has 512MB of L2 cache and 12MB of L3, half of which is on each die. The package also has four HT links and four channels of DDR3/1333. Clock speeds were not revealed, but the hint was about a 25% downclocking compared to Istanbul. Magny-Cours MCM and links: Here is where the fun begins, with the MCM itself. The red links are memory channels, two per die, four per socket. Green, blue and grey are all HT, with wide lines representing 16-bit links, narrow ones are 8-bit. It doesn't take much to realize that things are complex here. The wide green link off the bottom is is the external I/O, basically the connection to the chipset, one per socket. Actually, since you can "ungang" the 16-bit HT link into two 8-bit HT links, you could theoretically put two chipsets off of one socket. That said, this is very unlikely to happen, it is much easier to add one off each socket. This link is non-coherent HT (ncHT), meaning that it can't be used for CPU to CPU interconnects. All of the other links, blue and grey are cache-coherent HT (ccHT). If you are sharp eyed, you will notice that the blue ccHT links between the dies on package are different widths. The 'extra' link is extra for a good reason, but more on this later. AMD added it to the mix because it could, more or less for free. It increased the bandwidth between the cores by 50%, but real world performance does not go up by much because the cores are rarely bandwidth bound.
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Intel is buying up small software companies
Two in the last few days
By Nick Farrell, 24 August 2009
WHEN EMPLOYEES at various tech companies come back from their summer holidays they could find that they are working for Chipzilla. Intel has been opening its chequebook in recent days and bought two software companies. Apparently it is desperate to get expertise in the development of applications that aim at multicore processors. It seems that Intel is just now waking up to what we told them years ago, that multicore processors are useless without software to take advantage of them. So far there is still too little software out there to do this. RapidMind and Cilk Arts have both been seduced to work under Chipzilla's banner. RapidMind has written a development platform that helps software developers target multicore processors. Cilk Arts also develops software for multicore computing. Both companies are small firms that employ less than 50 workers. The purchases follow Intel's buyout of WindRiver in June.
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By Nick Farrell, 24 August 2009
WHEN EMPLOYEES at various tech companies come back from their summer holidays they could find that they are working for Chipzilla. Intel has been opening its chequebook in recent days and bought two software companies. Apparently it is desperate to get expertise in the development of applications that aim at multicore processors. It seems that Intel is just now waking up to what we told them years ago, that multicore processors are useless without software to take advantage of them. So far there is still too little software out there to do this. RapidMind and Cilk Arts have both been seduced to work under Chipzilla's banner. RapidMind has written a development platform that helps software developers target multicore processors. Cilk Arts also develops software for multicore computing. Both companies are small firms that employ less than 50 workers. The purchases follow Intel's buyout of WindRiver in June.
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Panasonic Prepares Push for 3DTV
By Michael Barkoviak - August 24, 2009
Panasonic hopes to build up hype for 3DTV, this time announcing an agreement with "Titanic" director James Cameron, who will help promote 3D TVs in Japan and across the world. "I believe 3D is how we will experience movies, gaming and computing in the near future," Cameron said, regarding his deal with Panasonic. "We want to get global interest rolling," he continued. "As a consumer electronics company, they are setting new standards in technology. Panasonic’s brilliance is demonstrated by their 3D presentation for the home. I’ve had an opportunity to view Panasonic’s Full High Definition 3D technology first hand and it was remarkable." The advertising deal makes sense as Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Film prepare to release the movie "Avatar," a film that has been shot in 3D only. Panasonic has rented several trailer-vans that will tour parts of the United States and Europe promoting the film, using a large-screen 3DTV on the outside of the van to show viewers trailer clips from "Avatar."
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Panasonic hopes to build up hype for 3DTV, this time announcing an agreement with "Titanic" director James Cameron, who will help promote 3D TVs in Japan and across the world. "I believe 3D is how we will experience movies, gaming and computing in the near future," Cameron said, regarding his deal with Panasonic. "We want to get global interest rolling," he continued. "As a consumer electronics company, they are setting new standards in technology. Panasonic’s brilliance is demonstrated by their 3D presentation for the home. I’ve had an opportunity to view Panasonic’s Full High Definition 3D technology first hand and it was remarkable." The advertising deal makes sense as Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Film prepare to release the movie "Avatar," a film that has been shot in 3D only. Panasonic has rented several trailer-vans that will tour parts of the United States and Europe promoting the film, using a large-screen 3DTV on the outside of the van to show viewers trailer clips from "Avatar."
Read more here -->Link
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