AMD Fusion

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AMD Fusion OR Swift

The next generation of AMD chips. They're not releasing much information, but they have been talking about it for a while. We do know that it's the merging of AMD and ATI, meaning that there will be a CPU and GPU in the same unit. Here's speculation:

• It may use 22nm manufacuring, as opposed to 32nm which the Intel Core i9 will use.
• There may be up to 16 seperate cores on the chip
• It seems to have been repeatedly delayed, first planned for Q1 2009 or earlier, then 2010 but latest evidence seems to suggest that it will be 2011 before we'll see this monster in action. You can expect more information before then though.

So discuss, criticise or bring new information to the table. I'm holding out for more information before i decide if i should get this or the Core i9. It looks amazing, but are people just over stretching their imaginations? Could it ever live up to all this hype and expectation? Only time will tell.

 

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According to somebody, computers always, every time without fail get two times faster every two years. I doubt there will ever be a point when we will have to stop making hardware better (unless we perfect Organic computing, maybe) because of Wirth's law. Harsh, but it's true.

Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.

Also, just found out that it may have been renamed Swift, which would explain why it's on their site as a 'philosophy'.

 

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Well the advantage of course with multiple cores is that you can do more at once. But yeah, we need more programs that can take advantage of all of the cores possible.

 

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Yeah, that's it. But Wirth's law is also true. Remember when Windows 3.1 was new? It loaded probably faster than Vista or 7 would today, and you would never hope to fill a 2 MB Hard Drive. Programming is going downhill, Linux is a step in the right direction but still...

 

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The world would be a better place without money. And countries. And religion. And possessions. What the hell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw

 

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But i'm not the only one...

It would also work if people weren't so selfish.

 

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Isn't Bulldozer their chip that combines graphics and video... it might just be the server one and there's a desktop one with Bulldozer 'in it'.

And stable doesn't mean good. Who's personality needs to change? If you think that doing stuff for the good of humanity and not for a small piece of paper is bad then yes, you should change your personality

 

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Why settle for 'suffice' when you can have perfection?

I don't think the graphics+processor chip will be called Fusion, since that just seems to be a running theme for AMD. I think it's their motto.

 

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I doubt many people here will be interested in fusion since dedicated GPUs will be essential if you want to play the latest games in high quality.

Yes... that's why it's in the chip. It saves you having to buy a separate graphics card.

 

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Except it won't - as I understand it, it'll be capable of general purpose GPU tasks [compute shaders etc] and light 3D work. It won't be a replacement for a full blown GPU, it'll just replace the current idea of having an IGP on the motherboard; instead it will be on the physical CPU device.

Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, ta. With a data source to back it up - I'll openly admit what I know about Fusion is basically based on hearsay and apocryphal internet rumourmongering, and I'm too busy just now to look into it extensively.

It will have direct access to the backside pool of main memory directly from the processor socket. This means lower latency time, by a long shot. Now since no technical details have been released nobody knows the power of these GPUs, so they may be a replacement for the Chipset graphics or a replacement for a Graphics Card, or maybe both, depending on your model.