AMD to acquire SeaMicro

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sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
This makes no sense unless AMD already has a bulldozer-sized die packed full of bobcat cores...
 

IlllI

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2002
4,927
10
81
i am actually impressed amd managed to buy a company that was already in bed with intel. because usually, once that happens it is near impossible for amd to make any headway with that company
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
59
91
This makes no sense unless AMD already has a bulldozer-sized die packed full of bobcat cores...

JFAMD denied AMD had any such plans less than a year ago. Unless he was lying, there is no way they could pull together such a project between then and now.

Something else about the deal must be the deal-maker.

i am actually impressed amd managed to buy a company that was already in bed with intel. because usually, once that happens it is near impossible for amd to make any headway with that company

Remember what happened to ATI's chipset deals for Intel platforms when AMD bought ATI?

Short of Rory saying it himself, and Otellini confirming, I cannot believe that AMD will actually be selling/shipping a single SeaMicro server containing a single Intel CPU.

Does Larry Ellison support Itanium after having bought SUN? Does Intel support Oracle with detailed Itanium roadmaps and product schedules?

No. AMD bought SeaMicro for (1) patents, and (2) know-how.

#2 comes down to the people, those 40 individuals, that can make stuff happen.

#1 they could have acquired access to with a simple licensing revenue model, so I consider #1 as simply being part of the reason the price is so high but in and of itself is not the reason for AMD to buy SeaMicro.

So it all comes down to #2. They need people who have the express skills and working capabilities that SeaMicro has inhouse at this time.

AMD did this before. NexGen and the K6 anyone?
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
9,294
3,436
136
www.teamjuchems.com
JFAMD denied AMD had any such plans less than a year ago. Unless he was lying, there is no way they could pull together such a project between then and now.

Something else about the deal must be the deal-maker.



Remember what happened to ATI's chipset deals for Intel platforms when AMD bought ATI?

Short of Rory saying it himself, and Otellini confirming, I cannot believe that AMD will actually be selling/shipping a single SeaMicro server containing a single Intel CPU.

Does Larry Ellison support Itanium after having bought SUN? Does Intel support Oracle with detailed Itanium roadmaps and product schedules?

No. AMD bought SeaMicro for (1) patents, and (2) know-how.

#2 comes down to the people, those 40 individuals, that can make stuff happen.

#1 they could have acquired access to with a simple licensing revenue model, so I consider #1 as simply being part of the reason the price is so high but in and of itself is not the reason for AMD to buy SeaMicro.

So it all comes down to #2. They need people who have the express skills and working capabilities that SeaMicro has inhouse at this time.

AMD did this before. NexGen and the K6 anyone?

Am I to read you think that is a good thing? Since the K6 was largely before my time (and likely others here...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_K6

Maybe JFAMD was not in a place to know? I don't know how likely that is, I am just putting that out on the table.

haha, 8.8 million transistors :awe:
 
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pelov

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2011
3,510
6
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JFAMD denied AMD had any such plans less than a year ago. Unless he was lying, there is no way they could pull together such a project between then and now.

Something else about the deal must be the deal-maker.

They mentioned some Opteron-based stuff coming summer 2012. Keep in mind that part of this group helped develop Bulldozer, IDC. They've probably had this purchase in mind for a while and have got a design that's been sitting idle waiting to be implemented, otherwise, yea, the time frame would seemingly be too short to get it all done from the ground up by summer this year. Also presents AMD with the unique opportunity to show just how scalable their new architecture really is

http://realworldtech.com/forums/index.cfm?action=detail&id=127643&threadid=127643&roomid=2
 
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Zor Prime

Golden Member
Nov 7, 1999
1,023
588
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Am I to read you think that is a good thing? Since the K6 was largely before my time (and likely others here...)

That's not cool, man.

K6 seems like it happened ... a couple years ago or so ...

You just made me feel old. =\
 

lifeblood

Senior member
Oct 17, 2001
999
88
91
This makes sense. Intel will always be ahead of AMD in Foundry process (22nm vs 32nm) so they need to find other ways to improve performance per watt. If you can reduce the total amount of power the MB uses than your CPU can run a little hotter and still be competitive. This is true regardless whether its BD based Opteron or the much smaller Brazos CPU.
 

Edgemeal

Senior member
Dec 8, 2007
211
57
101
i am actually impressed amd managed to buy a company that was already in bed with intel. because usually, once that happens it is near impossible for amd to make any headway with that company



SeaMicro doesn't even buy chips directly from Intel, they buy them through a distributor, they never had any partnership with Intel, all they did was use Intel (Atom/Xeon) chips, and that will change over time now that AMD owns them.
 

itsmydamnation

Platinum Member
Feb 6, 2011
2,923
3,550
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This makes no sense unless AMD already has a bulldozer-sized die packed full of bobcat cores...

i dont agree.

1. I dont see the ROI begin there, a 400mm bobcat/jaguar die means new fllor plans , new cache design etc and low production numbers.
2. memory bandwidth, unless they go a new memory controller the cores are going to be starved. That isn't good for a cloud VPS at all where your selling VM's by the core.
3. The bobcat/jaguar APU's can powergate the GPU's if there not used.
4. using an existing/planned APU + the already created Tech makes R&D and production costs low.

jaguar based SOC's are going to have 4 cores so 1536 jaguar cores in 10 RU using existing interconnect is pretty impressive.
 

Olikan

Platinum Member
Sep 23, 2011
2,023
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SeaMicro doesn't even buy chips directly from Intel, they buy them through a distributor, they never had any partnership with Intel, all they did was use Intel (Atom/Xeon) chips, and that will change over time now that AMD owns them.



woot! how did they manage to survive?
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
59
91
Am I to read you think that is a good thing? Since the K6 was largely before my time (and likely others here...)

The AMD of the 286-486 era, the K5, and the K6 followed by K7 makes for an intriguing tale.

What was impressive about the K6 was not so much the "K6" itself but the story behind AMD's failed efforts to get the K5 off the ground while this startup was able to get their own Nx586 off the ground.

AMD, in a stroke of managerial brilliance, bought out NexGen so they could get their hands on a Pentium-class microarchitecture that was truly capable of competing with the Pentium.

The AMD of today would have never existed were it not for the fact they were able to acquire NexGen to shore up their own internal design weaknesses.

NexGen:
The AMD K6 is based on the Nx686 microprocessor that NexGen was designing when it was acquired by AMD. Despite the name implying a design evolving from the K5, it is in fact a totally different design that was created by the NexGen team, including chief processor architect Greg Favor,[1][2] and adapted after the AMD purchase. The K6 processor included a feedback dynamic instruction reordering mechanism, MMX instructions, and a floating-point unit (FPU). It was also made pin-compatible with Intel's Pentium, enabling it to be used in the widely available "Socket 7"-based motherboards.
AMD purchased NexGen when AMD's K5 chip failed to meet performance and sales expectations.
The AMD K6 is based on the Nx686 microprocessor that NexGen was designing when it was acquired by AMD. Despite the name implying a design evolving from the K5, it is in fact a totally different design that was created by the NexGen team, including chief processor architect Greg Favor,[1][2] and adapted after the AMD purchase. The K6 processor included a feedback dynamic instruction reordering mechanism, MMX instructions, and a floating-point unit (FPU). It was also made pin-compatible with Intel's Pentium, enabling it to be used in the widely available "Socket 7"-based motherboards.

The success of the K6 kept AMD in the game, and if it weren't for the demise of DEC and the flood of design engineers that came from its bankruptcy the K7 would not have existed either. AMD, being in the right place at the right time, was able to snap up loads of DEC ex-alpha design engineers (including Dirk Meyers) and put them to task creating the original Athlon K7.
 

Zor Prime

Golden Member
Nov 7, 1999
1,023
588
136
Certainly not my intention!

Sorry you had to use one of your ~5 posts per year on that!

(that's a crazy low post count! )

I've been reading some forums for over a decade without even signing up.

There's also this: Sometimes it's better to remain silent and let everyone think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

But yes, the K6 was awesome for its time. It was excellent at integer operations but the FPU wasn't up to standard with Intel's offerings at the time. It was also the debut of 3DNow! and AMD tried to compensate for its lacking FPU with optimized applications. I remember playing Quake 2 with AMD's official Quake 2 3DNow! patch.

IMO the computing scene back then was a hell of a lot more entertaining than today. Small bumps in MHz & etc. could make the difference between a game or app being a pain in the ass to deal with to actually being usable and not wanting to hang yourself. Today, a couple hundred MHz bump and real-world performance improvement is hardly noticeable in some instances.

Anyway ... nostalgic memories.

/derail off
 

formulav8

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2000
7,004
522
126
Well, I do not know about servers, but Intel has been making motherboards for long time.

Foxconn makes the Intel branded boards not Intel. But Intel does spec and validate the boards.

There's good AMD branded RAM, though.

Patriot actually makes the ram. AMD just specces and validates their ram.


Also it should be a gimme that AMD will still sell Intel based servers after they acquire SM. It will take AMD quite a few months to design and validate their own AMD based servers.
 

formulav8

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2000
7,004
522
126
Today, a couple hundred MHz bump and real-world performance improvement is hardly noticeable in some instances.

Actually, in basically all instances 200mhz does nothing noticable today. 100mhz back when cpu's were under 500mhz was a solid 20% increase or more. Today based on 3-3.5ghz cpu's 100 mhz is pretty much nothing more than a goose egg increase.

Also which area of WV are you at? I was born and raised in Princeton. I still have family there and go up there about 3 times a year or so. I still greatly enjoy visiting. Very beautiful up there. (Especially compared to the midlands area of South Carolina :\).
 

senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,197
126
i am actually impressed amd managed to buy a company that was already in bed with intel. because usually, once that happens it is near impossible for amd to make any headway with that company

Not that impressive. Money talks. But buying your customers is a very expensive way to get market share.
 

grimpr

Golden Member
Aug 21, 2007
1,095
7
81
Seamicros tech which are ex AMD engineers will kickstart AMD into the new era. If only they didnt sold their mobile gpu tech to qualcomm they could have ridden a golden train wagon along with seamicro.
 

Edgemeal

Senior member
Dec 8, 2007
211
57
101
If only they didnt sold their mobile gpu tech to qualcomm they could have ridden a golden train wagon along with seamicro.

Last I read qualcomm still hadn't used that gpu tech they bought from AMD and were using something else (at least in their ARM chips), so it must not have been very good.
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
9,294
3,436
136
www.teamjuchems.com
Last I read qualcomm still hadn't used that gpu tech they bought from AMD and were using something else (at least in their ARM chips), so it must not have been very good.

They also got the Engineers, who have evidently been hard at work if Anand's articles are anything to go by...
 

grimpr

Golden Member
Aug 21, 2007
1,095
7
81
Last I read qualcomm still hadn't used that gpu tech they bought from AMD and were using something else (at least in their ARM chips), so it must not have been very good.

Oh it is, qualcomm is happy with it.

Adreno, the company's proprietary GPU technology, integrated into Snapdragon chipsets (and certain other Qualcomm chipsets) is Qualcomm's own design, using assets the company acquired from AMD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(system_on_chip)

http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releas...s-handheld-graphics-and-multimedia-assets-amd

“
With the sale of these handheld technology assets and resources to Qualcomm, we are better able to focus on our core business and leverage our unique position as a leader in both x86 computing and high-end graphics,” said Robert J. Rivet, chief operations and administrative officer, chief financial officer of AMD.
D:
 
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cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
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This is surprising!

The big question is what type of CPU for these boxes?

AMD Bobcat CPU cores or AMD ARM CPU cores?
 
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