AMD: Fusion to be CPU and GPU agnostic

Posted on Thursday, June 16 2011 @ 16:53 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
AMD stressed at its Fusion Developers Summit that Fusion will be CPU and GPU agnostic, more info at EE Times. One possible implication of the announcement is that ARM cores may become part of the Fusion architecture.
The early examples of Fusion have been based on x86 processor and GPU cores developed internally by AMD. However, AMD is clearly heading for a higher level of abstraction and believes it can do better by letting multiple hardware and software companies join with it as it tries to enable heterogeneous computing. It is effectively turning the Fusion marketing brand into the open Fusion System Architecture with a specification that enables chipmakers to combine multiple CPUs and GPUs and preserve an efficient programming model.

The development is likely to allow ARM cores to be used as part of the Fusion architecture although Rogers did not mention ARM explicitly as he laid out the open-platform plan for Fusion.

The main thrust of Roger's keynote was that AMD wants to create an architecture whereby different combinations of CPU and GPU processor cores operate as a unified processing engine that delivers both higher performance and lower power consumption compared with today's variants.


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Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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