Tag: Zen

AMD Zen

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Click on tweet for video of event:

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/zen-cpu
http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/zen-processor-core-2016aug18.aspx
https://community.amd.com/thread/204259

AMD Demonstrates Breakthrough Performance of Next-Generation “Zen” Processor Core

[…] At an event last night in San Francisco, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) provided additional architectural details and a first look at the performance of its next-generation, high-performance “Zen” processor core. AMD demonstrated the “Zen” core achieving a 40% generational improvement in instructions per clock, delivering a landmark increase in processor performance. During the event, AMD demonstrated an 8-core, 16-thread “Summit Ridge” desktop processor (featuring AMD’s “Zen” core) outperforming a similarly configured 8-core, 16-thread Intel “Broadwell-E” processor1 when running the multi-threaded Blender rendering software with both CPUs set to the same clock speed. AMD also conducted the first public demonstration of its upcoming 32-core, 64-thread “Zen”-based server processor, codenamed “Naples,” in a dual processor server running the Windows® Server operating system. […]

 

AMD, Zen, and coreboot

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

There is speculation about AMD support of coreboot on Zen systems:

http://techfrag.com/2016/01/11/exclusive-amd-wont-support-coreboot-for-new-zen-processors/

“However, one thing we’re still confused about is whether the next-gen platform will support Coreboot as an optional open-source firmware to replace the proprietary UEFI/BIOS.”

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Zen-Will-It-Coreboot

“More worrying about the prospects for Coreboot on future hardware is that since the end of 2014, AMD stopped providing open-source AGESA code. AGESA releases by AMD are now binary-only, with this being the bootstrap protocol needed to initialize AMD processor cores, memory, and HyperTransport. Binary AGESA is similar to Intel not opening up their firmware support packages.”

From an email-based interview I did with AMD’s firmware engineer, I get the impression that AMD has chosen UEFI as it’s main firmware, and coreboot is part of the AMD embedded team’s options:

AMD clarifies firmware strategy

“AMD’s evolution from legacy BIOS to UEFI has happened over the last ten years in sync with the schedules of our industry partners (IBV’s, OEM’s) and their code bases.  We’re not seeing any demand for legacy BIOS enablement anymore, so we no longer focus any effort there.  Coreboot is the only remaining legacy code base we enable.  Coreboot enablement is provided by AMD’s embedded group for a market-appropriate subset of our chips.”