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AMD and ARM Team Up

Posted by Soulskill on from the dynamic-duo dept.

Vigile writes "Today AMD is making an announcement that is the first step in a drastic transition for the company by integrating an ARM Cortex A5 processor on the same die with upcoming Fusion APUs. Starting in late 2013, all AMD APUs (processors that are combinations of x86 cores and Radeon SIMD arrays) will also integrate an ARM Cortex A5 processor to handle security for online transactions, banking, identity protection and DRM integration. The A5 is the smallest Cortex processor available, and that would make sense to use it in a full APU so it will not take up more than 10-15 square mm of die space. This marks the first time AMD has licensed ARM technology and while many people were speculating a pure ARM+Radeon hybrid, this move today is being described as the 'first step' for AMD down a new road of dexterity as an IP-focused technology company with their GPU technology as 'the crown jewel.' So while today's announcement might focus on using ARM processors for security purposes, the future likely holds much more these two partners."

5 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Fan-fucking-tastic. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So AMD and ARM team up, and the product of their blissful union is an on-die TPM?

    Thanks for nothing, guys.

    1. Re:Fan-fucking-tastic. by TimothyDavis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the problems that AMD is facing is that OEMs use their CPUs in a value system - where across the board features are cut. This hurts AMD because many of these systems lack TPMs, which pretty much blocks them from many enterprise deployments, as Bitlocker and DirectAccess pretty much require a TPM. By creating a soft TPM, AMD is working around the BOM cost of a hardware TPM.

  2. I don't like the sound of this. by BanHammor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, they have these universal processing units, and the ARM part of them is doing fuckall but DRM? I can't exactly say "yay".

  3. Re:They should be called AAA. by Jeng · · Score: 4, Insightful

    what's a phone book?

    It's that lump of wood pulp that is left on your doorstep once a year. It is completely filled with advertisements and phone numbers, but no reviews at all.

    --
    Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  4. Re:OMG TPM by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I simply can not imagine why anybody would intentionally buy a modern computer without these wonderful capabilities.

    Ever since TPM was created, we're always just a few bits and bytes away from having it leveraged against us, by them.
    And by "us" I mean "the computer users."
    By "them" I mean "the hardware manufacturers and software/media companies."

    Example: The newest motherboards don't need the ability to disable trusted boot. Heck, it'd have been easier to not include it!
    We're more or less at the mercy of a small number of companies and their design decisions.
    Worse, we have no real power other than social pressure.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!