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AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

theregister.co.uk

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Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#11

Post by m0nastic »

rbanffy wrote: post #10
drewvolpe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do: cloud computing and mobile. 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. On the server, a large % of apps will be written on a layer above the OS (GAE, Azure, Heroku, DjangoZoom, ...).

I'd love to see that happen, but we have been predicting the demise of Windows since the last century but Windows is still going strong. Inertia is a powerful thing.

I certainly wouldn't go so far as to bet that Windows will go away, but I think that previous predictions about Windows demise were predicated on it being replaced on people's PC's with something else.

That never happened (and I agree may not ever happen), but I think the growing widespread adoption of non-pc computing devices (phones, tablets, tv's, etc.) definitely has a fighting chance. Within ten years, I'd bet that the vast number of people will be accessing the internet primarilly from something besides a PC.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#12

Post by CrazedGeek »

lojack wrote: post #7
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

I wouldn't be surprised if more users were on devices that ran linux than devices that ran windows nowadays.

If you trust StatCounter's stats, mobile is gaining on desktops, but just barely: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_vs_desktop-ww-monthly-2010...

(Also according to StatCounter, on the desktop, Windows has a 92% share. Make of that what you will.)

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#13

Post by cageface »

jallmann wrote: post #8
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

I don't think this is meant to replace the x86 ISA, but rather SIMD units like MMX/SSE and traditional GPU shaders. The article was a bit muddled -- I'm waiting for the Anandtech version. Successful adoption will be dependent on good tooling. Auto-vectorizing is really hard in compilers, mostly because current languages aren't really built for it. But if AMD were to introduce something purpose-built (eg, with a Matla…

Maybe something like Google's new Renderscript API could be used to expose this in a friendly way?

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#14

Post by azakai »

drewvolpe wrote: post #4
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

I do: cloud computing and mobile. 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. On the server, a large % of apps will be written on a layer above the OS (GAE, Azure, Heroku, DjangoZoom, ...).

> 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.

That sounds about right, except what is Windows Mobile doing there? It's a pretty tight race for third place, and I wouldn't bet on Microsoft there.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#15

Post by codedivine »

azakai wrote: post #14
drewvolpe wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do: cloud computing and mobile. 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. On the server, a large % of apps will be written on a layer above the OS (GAE, Azure, Heroku, DjangoZoom, ...).

> 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. That sounds about right, except what is Windows Mobile doing there? It's a pretty tight race for third place, and I wouldn't bet on Microsoft there.

Who would you bet on? The only other players are RIM/Blackberry and WebOS and I am not too sure how well they will hold up.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#16

Post by SkyMarshal »

rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

"but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world."

One possible way is that Linux quickly adapts to support it and gains a significant, un-ignorable performance advantage on the server side, forcing MS to step up and quickly support it as well. Basically, similar to happened with the transition to 64bit, must moreso.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#18

Post by sliverstorm »

rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

My guess is as bad as yours, but it seems to me like they intend to make the change mostly invisible to the software layer.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#19

Post by rbanffy »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #16
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

"but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world." One possible way is that Linux quickly adapts to support it and gains a significant, un-ignorable performance advantage on the server side, forcing MS to step up and quickly support it as well. Basically, similar to happened with the transition to 64bit, must moreso.

With AMD's support for GPUs under open-source? Their lack of support in the past (to the point of not even properly documenting their hardware) is not very encouraging.

Re: AMD's master plan to topple Intel - Back to the top on a radical GPU

#20

Post by tsotha »

drewvolpe wrote: post #4
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I'd love to be able to go back to the diverse ecosystem we had in the 80's, but I don't see how an architecture that deviates significantly from the x86 norm could gain traction in this Windows world.

I do: cloud computing and mobile. 5 years from now, it won't be a windows world. Consumers will be spending most of their time using iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. On the server, a large % of apps will be written on a layer above the OS (GAE, Azure, Heroku, DjangoZoom, ...).

This can't possibly be true. It may be true for home users and hobbyists, but people running business applications need screen real estate and a keyboard on which you can touch type. That's the Achilles heel of mobile, and it's not going away.
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