Linux, Open-Source Affected In AMD Cutbacks?

[deanjo]

Apparently the current Linux patches floating around already cause a 10-20% gain in most places.

Vista7 vs. the Vista8 preview looks more like a stalemate to me. Few if any optimizations so far on that side.

Links? Most of what I am seeing is a 2-5% increase.

[elanthis]

Might be tin-foil hat mode, though I remember AMD speaking about how game developers should move away from APIs in order to get more out of PC hardware.

That guy was a fucking moron. Simple as that. His entire argument was based on the console development practice, which only works because your application targets a very specific unchanging carved-in-stone hardware ABI. For example, even when Microsoft upgraded the Xenon CPU/GPU bundle for the revamped XBox360's, they still hamstrung a lot of the easy performance gains from the shrunken and simplified SoC just to 100% ensure that the new hardware behaved identically in every way to the original hardware.

You really, really, REALLY don't want developers making those kinds of hacks that work around APIs. In an ideal world, we're rely even less on hardware than we do now and target nothing _but_ APIs, such as by shipping all "binaries" as LLVM bitcode files that are JIT compiled to the native machine code just before execution (just like our graphics APIs do now). Or just shipping C#/Java, except some mythical version of those that doesn't suck donkey-nuts for systems/games programming.

Then again AFAIK the next gen xbox will use Fusion.

No, no it absolutely is not. Microsoft did register a trademark for the name "Fusion." By definition that cannot be the same thing as AMD's Fusion, or Microsoft would not have been able to register a trademark for the name. The odds of any console ever using any x86-based CPU ever again is slim to none. You can bet that AMD GPUs will be in the next wave of consoles, and you can bet that IBM's CPUs will be in them (though I'd also be willing to bet that an ARM CPU may be in at least one of them).

[leeenux]

It's not only "gaming" where BD takes a beating. It gets pretty much dominated across the board.

Not according to the review on this very site. It actually does quite well, which should translate even better into the 16 core server variants that I've been waiting to get my hands on.

[deanjo]

Not according to the review on this very site. It actually does quite well, which should translate even better into the 16 core server variants that I've been waiting to get my hands on.

For a measly $25 more you can get into the Sandy Bridge i7's that lay a licking on it or a i5-2500k that is $60 cheaper, and the intels are far more power efficient. OC an i5 up to BD's power consumption and it even lays a lickin on AMD's flagship.

[DaemonFC]

I'm not going to say AMD is going out of business. But what if they did? Major cutbacks aren't the sign of a healthy company.

This just means that having open source drivers for Radeon cards is that much more important. Remember 3dfx? Their cards work on Linux and the company has been out of business since they went bankrupt in 2000 and Nvidia bought them.

This is before Windows XP shipped, so there was never even any official support for those cards on Windows XP. The only Windows NT support that existed at all was a beta driver for Windows 2000 that leaked out just before the company tanked and "sort of" worked with Windows XP (it crashed a lot).

Fast forward 11 years, and these cards still have Mesa support. they were only dropped recently in the 7.12 git series, and it will be possible for distributions to add this support back for the foreseeable future. If Ubuntu 12.04 opts to do this, those cards will be supported in a popular Linux distribution until 2017, 17 years after the last Voodoo cards went out of production. In the life span of the Voodoo series Linux support, a child could be born and age into adulthood. In the computer world, 17-19 years is an eternity. (*Even without Mesa support, these cards have Kernel Mode Setting, and XAA 2d acceleration)

On the Linux side, if AMD disappeared tomorrow, their cards would still work on Linux for many years. If AMD disappeared tomorrow, they probably wouldn't work in Windows 8. Food for thought. Windows users are always in the most danger of drivers no longer being available either because the company no longer exists to make them, or they have long since had new products out and they use the lack of available drivers for the new version of Windows as a way of forcing working hardware into a landfill. Viva la Vista!

[Luke_Wolf]

You people seriously think AMD is going under? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Surely you must be joking. either that or you're not paying any attention to sales. THE simple fact of the matter is that AMD is doing so well that they're having trouble keeping up with the shipments, FX series CPUs are only beginning to stop being sold out, and their other product lines are doing extremely well as well, and of course let's not forget that they also have the Radeon division supporting them as well. AMD is doing now the best it has done in recent history (Since the recession/depression began).

I would expect that the firings have more to do with the new CEO restructuring things to how he sees fit than anything, I wouldn't know but that'd be my guess.

[deanjo]

You people seriously think AMD is going under? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Surely you must be joking. either that or you're not paying any attention to sales.

They are having a hard time. Read their financials and take a look at their stock price

THE simple fact of the matter is that AMD is doing so well that they're having trouble keeping up with the shipments, FX series CPUs are only beginning to stop being sold out, and their other product lines are doing extremely well as well,

Global Foundries is having problems with their yields, that is why there is a shortage.

and of course let's not forget that they also have the Radeon division supporting them as well. AMD is doing now the best it has done in recent history (Since the recession/depression began).

That is the one area that is doing OK. In fact it has been the old ATI that has been keeping their heads barely above water the last few years.

I would expect that the firings have more to do with the new CEO restructuring things to how he sees fit than anything, I wouldn't know but that'd be my guess.

With the large amount being focused around marketing I wouldn't be surprised. AMD's marketing has been near non existent over the last few years and with the latest round they were over pumping a product that clearly disappointed quite a few people after all the hype build up of BD.

[del_diablo]

It's not only "gaming" where BD takes a beating. It gets pretty much dominated across the board.

Have we looked at the same Benchmarks? Because the ones I have seen you notice that one very heavy CPU workloads involving many heavy threads, Bulldozers beats the i7.
Its a server product, and people seem to forget that.

and take a look at their stock price

Ehm, no. Stock prices are not a measurement of anything, its just a matter of raw speculation based on raw speculation.
The way I see it, its capitalism at its finest: They fire people instead of cutting the managments and the stock holders payouts.

[blackshard]

Apparently the current Linux patches floating around already cause a 10-20% gain in most places.

Vista7 vs. the Vista8 preview looks more like a stalemate to me. Few if any optimizations so far on that side.

While dreaming maybe. Not in real scenario: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...aliasing&num=1

[locovaca]

Have we looked at the same Benchmarks? Because the ones I have seen you notice that one very heavy CPU workloads involving many heavy threads, Bulldozers beats the i7.
Its a server product, and people seem to forget that.

Except it's being marketed as a non-server product, and people seem to forget that.