Question AMD Laying off 4% of worldwide workforce to "focus more on AI"

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maddie

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2010
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Zen6 client will abandon CCDs + IODs if what we're being told is true. It'll be APUs for client desktop and mobile. Not sure what will happen to the Range product line though.
Do we know this?

What if mobile & desktop use more tightly integrated chiplets as the halo models? With cache and IO not scaling well, and advanced nodes increasing rapidly in cost, you would want to use chiplets going forward. Chiplets allow 2 layouts needed for all of the SKUs. Doing designs spanning 6 <> 16 (24?) cores will entail more unique layouts and increase costs.
 

poke01

Platinum Member
Mar 8, 2022
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The issue is that M4 seems to have a pretty beefy iGPU that would (theoretically) beat a lot of mdGPU competition if Apple allowed it. Or to put it another way, if Apple opened up the M4 and let Linux run on it, how many existing dGPU/mdGPU solutions could beat it on a level playing field?
Not even Linux support just support Vulkan for gaming. Keep Metal for compute.

Honestly, all Apple have to do is next gen beef up the GPU core with some matrix units and it will sell even more.
Keeping all that in mind, how strong will the iGPU on Strix Halo be?
For compute? move on

For gaming it will be on par with a 4070 mobile in rasterisation
Meh, when it's absolutely all of them, and the cheapest Mini PC with this chip costs 1000$, then it's evident AMD is pricing this thing way too high.
Agree, AMD is the one to blame. Strix Point is priced too high compared to previous APUs.
 

DaaQ

Golden Member
Dec 8, 2018
1,568
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Well it's AMDs fault then, I checked on Amazon and Newegg and there are zero laptops with HX 370 below 1500$. Most of them have dGPU but even ones with a measly 4050 were going for more than 1700$.
I mean, what's the point in creating an APU with the most CU (890M) but still worse than an entry level 4050 if all the laptops using them are going to be so expensive? makes zero sense to me.
IIRC AMD does not set prices of laptops. Correct me if I am mistaken.
 

The Hardcard

Senior member
Oct 19, 2021
271
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HSA is not part of the reasons for the shared FPU. The architectural choice for the shared FPU was done before Fusion/HSA was born.
That is inaccurate. The Fusion project began in 2006 which would be around the timeframe that the Bulldozer design began. And, I do recall that AMD made statements that they expected heavy floating point tasks would move to the GPU when Bulldozer released. I haven’t come across any explicit statements that they were conceived together, but it is hard to imagine that not being the case.

Also your previous comment about it being an area thing can be true, but in and of itself doesn’t not exclude HSA being an another factor, nor even what is what is more likely, the main factor.

One thing also, 3 or 4 months back a member of AMDs graphics team stated in a Phoronix thread that HSA hardware coherence remains in the Ryzen processors, but was never enabled in any Ryzen BIOS because Microsoft didn’t want to be bothered with it. It would be great if enabling it is part of the Halo project.
Huang made an article on big iGPUs mainly about M4 pro but the same will apply to M4 Max/Strix halo

He says users can just multiple dGPUs to bypass the low VRAM. It will be more cost effective and a lot faster for LLMs.

Big iGPUs are way to save money for AMD/Apple. Simple as that. For laptops they make sense but desktops is a BIG no.

Most gamers will look for the green sticker, this will be true until AMD beats Nvidia in all areas for gaming like the current X3D cpus.
The only part of Strix halo I'm interested is the CPU part, GPU not so much. Apple already has a bigger IGPU for those LLM users with higher BW.

Gaming is a wash as its still RDNA 3.5.

I was disappointed that he didn’t include runs on MLX as that is beginning to pull away from llama.cpp in both compute and bandwidth utilization. It wouldn’t affect his conclusion and assessment, but MLX is really becoming a performant framework.
 

LightningZ71

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2017
1,910
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IIRC AMD does not set prices of laptops. Correct me if I am mistaken.
We're also still in the "early adopter tax" era of a new AMD laptop processor. It'll come down by ~20% by the middle of 1Q25. My son managed to purchase an 8845hs/4060/32GB/1TB laptop a couple months ago for a list price near $850. That was over $1100 when I first saw that configuration on the market.
 

NostaSeronx

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2011
3,743
1,250
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That is inaccurate. The Fusion project began in 2006 which would be around the timeframe that the Bulldozer design began. And, I do recall that AMD made statements that they expected heavy floating point tasks would move to the GPU when Bulldozer released. I haven’t come across any explicit statements that they were conceived together, but it is hard to imagine that not being the case.

Also your previous comment about it being an area thing can be true, but in and of itself doesn’t not exclude HSA being an another factor, nor even what is what is more likely, the main factor.
The main factor for the cores having a shared FPU is area-related. Bulldozer's design lineage began in 1998.
First design, low-power, had homogeneous clusters (2 Int+FP) - 1998
Second design, low-power, had heterogeneous clusters (1Int + 1 FP) - 1999-2002 [effectively became Bobcat]
Third design, high-performance, had homogeneous integer clusters with a single FPU (2 Int + 1 FP) - 2002-2004
Fourth design, low-power, similar to above but is built for compute density and efficiency, SMT-like behavior - 2005-2007 (Cluster-based Multithreading, Multi-threaded Compute Core)

~~~
Fifth design, high-performance, adds additional resources at various stages to allow the combinable clusters to be uncombinable cores, CMP-like behavior - 2007-2010 (Chip-level Multithreading, Dual-core Compute Module) [this one is closely related to Andy Glew's K10, not Charles R. Moore's Bulldozer]

The first fusion product was Swift. Which had two Stars Gen3 cores. Which was followed up by quad-core Llano which actually released.

AMD's design teams are not smart enough to conspire a weak FPU to sell Fusion/APUs/HSA or anything like it. Bulldozer and Fusion was not conceived together.
 
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DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
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GTracing

Member
Aug 6, 2021
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The main factor for the cores having a shared FPU is area-related. Bulldozer's design lineage began in 1998.
First design, low-power, had homogeneous clusters (2 Int+FP) - 1998
Second design, low-power, had heterogeneous clusters (1Int + 1 FP) - 1999-2002 [effectively became Bobcat]
Third design, high-performance, had homogeneous integer clusters with a single FPU (2 Int + 1 FP) - 2002-2004
Fourth design, low-power, similar to above but is built for compute density and efficiency, SMT-like behavior - 2005-2007 (Cluster-based Multithreading, Multi-threaded Compute Core)
View attachment 111707
~~~
Fifth design, high-performance, adds additional resources at various stages to allow the combinable clusters to be uncombinable cores, CMP-like behavior - 2007-2010 (Chip-level Multithreading, Dual-core Compute Module) [this one is closely related to Andy Glew's K10, not Charles R. Moore's Bulldozer]

The first fusion product was Swift. Which had two Stars Gen3 cores. Which was followed up by quad-core Llano which actually released.

AMD's design teams are not smart enough to conspire a weak FPU to sell Fusion/APUs/HSA or anything like it. Bulldozer and Fusion was not conceived together.

AMD has needed HSA for a long time. The Bulldozer processor module, introduced in late 2011, paired two integer cores to a single shared floating point unit. Each core pair can run two threads, but if both threads make intensive use of floating point code, they have to compete for that shared floating point unit.

AMD's theory was that floating point-intensive code would use the GPU, so the relative lack of floating point power in the CPU wouldn't matter. But that didn't happen and still hasn't happened. There are several reasons for this, but one of the biggest is the inconvenience and inefficiency of mixing between CPU and GPU code, due to the memory copying and pinning that has to take place. HSA eliminates these steps. While this still doesn't make programming the GPU easy—many programmers will have to learn new techniques to take advantage of their massively parallel nature—it certainly makes it easier.
 

NostaSeronx

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2011
3,743
1,250
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@GTracing

Peter Bright. AMD's "heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access" coming this year in Kaveri, Ars Technica, April 30, 2013.

Are you sure you want to use DrPizza's op-ed pieces as a source?
"I actually asked AMD a number of these questions, and they never bothered replying to me. It's possible they never will." - DrPizza in the comments. Why am I the one doing this due diligence crude for you people.

I have already gone through the history of Bulldozer. There is not a single inch of design collaboration between the Bulldozer team and fusion/apu/hsa team. None. There is no AMD theory that the GPU will magically fix the FPU.

I will not be replying after this. I am done doing this in a thread NOT about Bulldozer mind you. So, this is my last post in this thread regarding Bulldozer.
 
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DaaQ

Golden Member
Dec 8, 2018
1,568
1,139
136
We're also still in the "early adopter tax" era of a new AMD laptop processor. It'll come down by ~20% by the middle of 1Q25. My son managed to purchase an 8845hs/4060/32GB/1TB laptop a couple months ago for a list price near $850. That was over $1100 when I first saw that configuration on the market.
I am adopting early tax, due to IF tariffs are applied, it could possibly cost more than msrp now. 9800x3d.

Then again it is the largest upgrade for me. Soon will be the M.2 drive, then just have to make new acrylic tubing bends. Really wish someone would release the Taichi VRM block they are using on the Aqua. Although I know it is not necessary like AM3+.
 

GTracing

Member
Aug 6, 2021
168
396
106
@GTracing

Peter Bright. AMD's "heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access" coming this year in Kaveri, Ars Technica, April 30, 2013.

Are you sure you want to use DrPizza's op-ed pieces as a source?

I have already gone through the history of Bulldozer. There is not a single inch of design collaboration between the Bulldozer team and fusion/apu/hsa team. None.
Who's DrPizza? I used anandtech before arstechnica. You didn't like that source either.

I saw your history lesson. Even if the architecture has its roots way before fusion was ever conceived. The fact remains that with bulldozer AMD made the choice to target int performance over floating point. Don't you think that it's possible that part of the reason is they thought GPU compute was going to be more relevant and a bigger fpu wasn't going to be necessary?
 

The Hardcard

Senior member
Oct 19, 2021
271
351
106
The main factor for the cores having a shared FPU is area-related. Bulldozer's design lineage began in 1998.
First design, low-power, had homogeneous clusters (2 Int+FP) - 1998
Second design, low-power, had heterogeneous clusters (1Int + 1 FP) - 1999-2002 [effectively became Bobcat]
Third design, high-performance, had homogeneous integer clusters with a single FPU (2 Int + 1 FP) - 2002-2004
Fourth design, low-power, similar to above but is built for compute density and efficiency, SMT-like behavior - 2005-2007 (Cluster-based Multithreading, Multi-threaded Compute Core)
View attachment 111707
~~~
Fifth design, high-performance, adds additional resources at various stages to allow the combinable clusters to be uncombinable cores, CMP-like behavior - 2007-2010 (Chip-level Multithreading, Dual-core Compute Module) [this one is closely related to Andy Glew's K10, not Charles R. Moore's Bulldozer]

The first fusion product was Swift. Which had two Stars Gen3 cores. Which was followed up by quad-core Llano which actually released.

AMD's design teams are not smart enough to conspire a weak FPU to sell Fusion/APUs/HSA or anything like it. Bulldozer and Fusion was not conceived together.
Name those 1998 - 2009 chips please. If you search Bulldozer on Anandtech, the first Bulldozer was 2011, articles I read at the time they published. Rereading those articles, there is no reference to pre-2011 Bulldozer.

Please explain what you are referencing.

EDIT: OK. You are flat out wrong. I don’t know why. Maybe you’ll figure it out. I vividly recall the Bulldozer launch and going back, the articles are very clear. Bulldozer, by AMD’s very explanation from the beginning, involved moving floating point workloads to GPU, this was the central reason for Bulldozer’s design. Bulldozer and HSA were hand in hand from the start.
 
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Thunder 57

Diamond Member
Aug 19, 2007
3,079
4,873
136
Name those 1998 - 2009 chips please. If you search Bulldozer on Anandtech, the first Bulldozer was 2011, articles I read at the time they published. Rereading those articles, there is no reference to pre-2011 Bulldozer.

Please explain what you are referencing.

Nosta doesn't ever cite. His posts are basically fan fiction. Usually inolving strange AMD things or FDSOI.
 

The Hardcard

Senior member
Oct 19, 2021
271
351
106
Yikes. Did he write the article? It just says "Ars Staff" for me. But I could see where they'd want to remove any reference to a problematic author like that.
It bad that he is a pedophile, but that has no impact on the accuracy of his technical writing. His Ars articles remain valid.
 

Doug S

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2020
2,888
4,911
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The challenge is quite tricky here. Apple is seen as a vertically integrated provider where the claim that they choose only the best possible ingredients is believable. That approach is boosted by not even allowing any alternatives.

AFAIK there is nothing preventing Nvidia or AMD from selling GPUs for Apple Silicon. Its not close to worth it for them though, because only the Mac Pro has any sort of expansion slot (unless you count TB for an externally connected GPU) and the Mac Pro's iGPU is pretty darn good so your market even further limited beyond the universe of "Mac Pro users" to that niche of Mac Pro users who need more GPU power than the iGPU provides. Then they have to write and maintain GPU drivers for macOS and amortize that cost among that tiny segment of Mac users who might potentially be customers.
 
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