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AMD Fusion To Add To x86 ISA

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-is-it-cold dept.

Giants2.0 writes "Ars Technica has a brief article detailing some of the prospects of AMD's attempt to fuse the CPU and GPU, including the fact that AMD's Fusion will modify the x86 ISA. From the article, 'To support CPU/GPU integration at either level of complexity (i.e. the modular core level or something deeper), AMD has already stated that they'll need to add a graphics-specific extension to the x86 ISA. Indeed, a future GPU-oriented ISA extension may form part of the reason for the company's recently announced "close to metal"TM (CTM) initiative.'"

9 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah that's the future by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    ISA is definitely the future to interface a CPU and a GPU, but I keep hearing about this VLB technology that's even hotter!

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  2. Showing my age by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess I'm showing my age. As soon as I saw "ISA" I immediately thought, "Why the HELL are they thinking about bringing this back?

    :(

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    1. Re:Showing my age by njchick · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not your age. It's just a problem of the current TLA namespace. Another reason to switch to XTLA (extended three letter acronyms).

  3. Hm, an ISA extension for 3D graphics... by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... maybe they should call it 3DNow or something?

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  4. Re:ISA? by lagfest · · Score: 1, Funny

    I don't think it means, what you think it means.

  5. Nuclear power by erice · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sorry. I can't help it.

    Every time I see an article about AMD's "Fusion", I think
    "Everyone knows that the power consumption of modern cpu's has gotten out of hand. Still, you gotta give AMD credit for having the guts to propose the obvious solution: An on chip fusion reactor"

  6. AMD's Fusion by smoker2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now with 5 cores ! (and a seperate core for those tricky areas)

  7. The Wheel of Reincarnation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    rolls round and round, round and round

    http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/W/wheel-of-reincar nation.html

  8. nforce? anyone? by sam0vi · · Score: 2, Funny

    To me this sounds like some nforce-Mega-integration thing. I dont like it because when i think about it i think about: Drivers?! Maybe for the PS$ or something

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