

AMD is working on K12, brand-new x86 and ARM cores - AnthonyMouse
http://techreport.com/review/26418/amd-reveals-k12-new-arm-and-x86-cores-are-coming
Update: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techreport.com&#x2F;review&#x2F;26418&#x2F;amd-reveals-k12-new-arm-and-x86-cores-are-coming
======
higherpurpose
> AMD has given the ARM core the code-name K12. I'm not sure whether that name
> also applies to the x86 core.

I hope not. They would be doing themselves a _disservice_ by trying to confuse
their customers by calling 2 very different chips the same (which they're
already doing with their upcoming ARM server chips). Don't try to "hide" the
ARM cores behind the x86 chip brand, like you're ashamed of them. OWN them. Be
proud of them and what they can deliver for the power/performance/cost (and if
there's nothing to be proud of, then why bother making them?)

~~~
duskwuff
Similar, in a sense, to the mistake Microsoft made (IMO) by naming two very
different products "Microsoft Surface".

~~~
MichaelGG
Three, if you include the table PC.

~~~
duskwuff
Right; I specifically mean the anemic ARM-based "Surface" versus the similar-
looking, but much beefier x86-based "Surface Pro".

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rodgerd
Interesting to see the common socket proprosal - this harks back to the days
when AMD's x86 chips were sharing a slot with the DEC Alpha (although I'm not
aware of anyone ever making a motherboard that could host either processor).

~~~
spitfire
I had one which, with a bios change was supposed to be able to run an Alpha.

Fun fact, the board - the Asus K7M, came out at a time when Intel was putting
pressure on vendors not to support the (brand spanking new) AMD Athlon. The
vendors were so scared that the first few shipments of K7M boards came in
plain white boxes, without a reference to the manufacturer anywhere in site.
Not even the fine print.

~~~
Already__Taken
This must still go on. Someone brought me a Samsung laptop an its processor
made no mention of AMD anywhere. even in the pc management. It just reports as
a quad core cpu.

~~~
szatkus
My sister had that one. I had to use CPU-Z to find out its "true" identity
(Jaguar core) :)

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jevinskie
Here is the updated story: [http://techreport.com/review/26418/amd-
reveals-k12-new-arm-a...](http://techreport.com/review/26418/amd-
reveals-k12-new-arm-and-x86-cores-are-coming)

~~~
dang
Thanks. We changed the url.

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msandford
This might well be the beginning of the end for x86 as we know it. The power
advantages of ARM in the server space may not be as significant as in the
mobile space but that doesn't mean they're minuscule.

There's a lot of code out there which already compiles to multiple
architectures so that's one less objection. The rise of the open-source
movement (and source-based distribution) have enabled this to happen on a wide
scale.

Since the barriers to entry for a new architecture have fallen (and AMD
intends to lower them further) it wouldn't surprise me if in a decade x86 is
as much of a novelty as ARM was decade ago.

~~~
taspeotis
> There's a lot of code out there which already compiles to multiple
> architectures so that's one less objection

Yeah and there's a lot of code out there which has already been compiled to
x86, the vendor has gone out of business, and isn't getting compiled again.

~~~
tormeh
Like what? Games? Contrary to enthusiast opinion, games have a pretty short
life for most people. Doubt that will be a problem. What kind of enterprise is
going to run software without a maintainer? I can't come up with anything else
than games for which this is a relevant scenario.

~~~
megablast
You are kidding right? There are loads of old systems that have not been
updated, running on MS-Dos or Windows 3.1 systems, stuck in some cupboard in a
factory, necessary for continued operation. Stuff that 100 people have ever
heard of before.

~~~
tormeh
Yeah, I know about those. There are industrial control computers that still
run on Intel 386 (the original). But once those guys run out of spare parts
they won't just upgrade the processor.

~~~
userbinator
Intersil still makes an _8088_ , and it's quite expensive too:
[http://www.intersil.com/content/intersil/en/products/space-a...](http://www.intersil.com/content/intersil/en/products/space-
and-harsh-environment/-883/microprocessors-and-peripherals/80C88-883.html)

As the URL suggests, there are applications where an existing, well-
characterised CPU is highly preferred over a relatively new one where some
previously unknown errata could have catastrophic results.

~~~
Someone
It doesn't even have to be errata. That timing loop someone wrote decades ago
might run too fast now. Even if it determines its loop counter at startup, it
may fail because it assumes 16 bits is enough for the counter.

Conversely, some instructions may have gotten slower over time. For example, I
doubt intel worries much about the performance of the original 8087 floating
point operations anymore, so they could move them into microcode or even make
them illegal instructions, to be emulated in software (I don't they do at the
moment because the overhead of decoding the original 8086 instructions is low,
but if x86 stays around for a few decades, at some time, I think they will
consider doing the latter)

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happycube
They can't replace Bulldozer fast enough.

~~~
tormeh
The second generation had pretty good value for money. It's a bit long in the
tooth now, but you make it sound like it was bad when it came out.

~~~
Symmetry
Sure, AMD had to price them so that they were competitive. From a consumer
standpoint there were good potential reasons to buy them. From AMD's
perspective, those were big chunks of silicon being sold for far less money
than what Intel was able to charge for something that cost as much to
manufacture. I doubt they made back their development expenses on them, though
thankfully AMD had a lot of other products that worked out better.

~~~
kjs3
I don't disagree, but my lab is full of st00pid cheap 8-core 8250 and 8350
chips running VMWare. I paid a fraction of what other folks paid for 4 core
i7, and for my use case, I get lots more out of it. YMMV.

~~~
rwmj
They are definitely cheap. I just built a 32 core cluster for £1200:
[http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/caseless-
virtualization...](http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/caseless-
virtualization-cluster-part-5/#content)

~~~
kjs3
That's fucking awesome. I'm an amateur.

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DiabloD3
Let me shove 60 of these into 4U, 10gbit to each blade, redundant switches in
the chassis itself with multiple 40gbit uplinks, and give each blade m.2 slots
instead of 2.5" drive slots, and let me shove 64gb of memory into each blade.

If AMD can't get a vendor to build these this year, I don't see a future for
AMD.

Yes, and I'm aware this is probably 6000w peak into 4U.

Edit: You can downvote me all you want, but this is what Intel is already
planning on rolling out through Dell and HP in the 2015 time frame. This much
has already been reported on links that hit HN's front page.

~~~
sliverstorm
Maybe they would put them in something like this?

[http://www.seamicro.com/sm15000](http://www.seamicro.com/sm15000)

They get 256 low-power Atom cores in there, that's about 100 chips per 4U?

~~~
DiabloD3
I find AMD's ownership of Seamicro confusing, especially since they still sell
Intel CPUs. Also, those are not server Atoms and very old.

Most likely what future systems will look like will be clones of HP's Moonshot
chassis (which that is a clone of Sun's Thumper, doing blades instead of
HDDs).

