Sony Is Working On AMD Ryzen LLVM Compiler Improvements - Possibly For The PlayStation 5

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Sony Is Working On AMD Ryzen LLVM Compiler Improvements - Possibly For The PlayStation 5

One of Sony's compiler experts has taken to working on some tuning for the AMD Ryzen "znver1" microarchitecture support within the LLVM compiler stack. This begs the question why Sony is working on Ryzen improvements if not for a future product...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sony-LLVM-Ryzen-Improvements

[TemplarGR]

This is nice. I suppose Valve is going for a console competitor too next gen. If they really do release a console, Linux desktop eventually will dominate the whole world. And you can take that to the bank, LOL.

[wizard69]

Interesting to say the least but isnt Zen version one old hat. This especially if the next playstation is 2 years away? Maybe they have something else planned.

[boxie]

Interesting to say the least but isnt Zen version one old hat. This especially if the next playstation is 2 years away? Maybe they have something else planned.

maybe, but it can't hurt to get your head around the LLVM compiler stuff right now. especially if they are planning on putting out some dev machines based on the existing AMD APU/GPU lineup in the near future.

[rajcina12]

I think that Zen 2 won't be fundamentally different from Zen 1, more like an evolution, so most of the optimisations (i.e. assumptions about the HW) will carry over to the new architecture without much modification. So even two years down the line Sony can benefit from the work it does now.

[Nille_kungen]

Interesting to say the least but isnt Zen version one old hat. This especially if the next playstation is 2 years away? Maybe they have something else planned.

I don't think zen 2 will differ much from zen 1 so this work can probably be reused.
I think it will be most about different nodes and the positive changes a node change brings.

[Luke_Wolf]

This is nice. I suppose Valve is going for a console competitor too next gen. If they really do release a console, Linux desktop eventually will dominate the whole world. And you can take that to the bank, LOL.

I'd like to believe, but deep down in my heart I know they won't. For one reason and one reason only. They're Valve, and so if they do launch hardware again they're going to quarter ass the launch again because they didn't even go so far as half assing it. Which is the main reason the previous batch of steam machines went nowhere.

[discordian]

I'd like to believe, but deep down in my heart I know they won't. For one reason and one reason only. They're Valve, and so if they do launch hardware again they're going to quarter ass the launch again because they didn't even go so far as half assing it. Which is the main reason the previous batch of steam machines went nowhere.

quarter assing is enough to get all the gaming and linux outlets to spout free praise and advertising. Valve hasnt been anything but a marketing outlet since Portal2 dropped.

[coder]

Interesting to say the least but isnt Zen version one old hat.

No, the consoles take existing CPU & GPU cores (with tweaks) and build them into a new APU. From start to having shiny consoles on the shelves, the process probably takes at least two years. Zen 2 likely missed the window, meaning it's likely they used zen 1.

If the PS5-buying public is lucky, they at least used the 2000 series, which is architecturally identical to the 1000's.

[prazola]

Interesting to say the least but isnt Zen version one old hat. This especially if the next playstation is 2 years away? Maybe they have something else planned.

The architecture is the same and I think if you optimize for zen1 you optimize for zen+ and zen2. But even a 4c/8t 3GHz zen1 would be more than enough to double the performance of the actual units.