Accelerated Processing Units - What are they?

[caveman-jim]

AMD's new Accelerated Processing Unit concept is a fusion of the tradition x86 processor core (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU). By bringing both the CPU and GPU together, many of the latencies of CPU to GPU communication can be reduced - plus both processing arrays can access the same data without having to copy it over slow or high latency system interconnects. AMD's purchase of ATI Technologies in 2006 was with the FUSION APU concept in mind.

AMD's first APU product is aimed for the mobility and small form factor space, and uses a brand-new x86 architecture codenamed Bobcat. You can read more about Bobcat here, from Rage3D's coverage of HotChips 22 in 2010. Bobcat based APU's feature DirectX 11 graphics cores capable of GPGPU - compute processing using the massively parallel hardware inherent to AMD's GPU designs. Additionally, hardware video decoding is included for major codecs used in DVD, BluRay, BluRay 3D, DivX and Flash video. Nettop and netbook style devices based on AMD APU's offer extended battery life while preserving HD media consumption capabilities - 720P HD screens in 10" form factors are common for AMD Fusion APU netbooks and ultraportables.

APU's are also coming to the mainstream desktop space, with existing x86 technology cores from the Athlon II processor line up being combined with DirectX 11 GPU cores offering graphics capabilities well in excess of the current mainboard integrated graphics cores - and Intel's Sandy Bridge, too.

This processing power is not being used only for enhanced media consumption but also for application acceleration - AMD fusion APU's currently accelerate more than 50 popular titles, with more on the way. This is made possible by AMD's support for hardware accelerated OpenCL using their GPU technology - an open standard that any vendor can benefit from using.

Future developments of the AMD Fusion APU concepts will bring far higher graphics and media performance to the basic desktop platform, as less power will be needed to deliver higher performance through the use of AMD Accelerate Application Processing. Software companies can leverage the advantage of AMD APP by using common and open standard technologies such as Microsoft's DirectCompute 5 (part of DirectX 11) and OpenCL.

The Fusion APU concept is a fundamental shift in thinking about what components are important for delivering the best user experience with low power and low cost, as well as outright top performance.

Athlough the future is fusion, AMD's new x86 architecture codenamed Bulldozer (for high performance desktops and servers) launching this year without integrated GPU's. This is widely predicted to be different in 2012, where the new Bulldozer+ cores will be mated with SIMD arrays to create high performance enthusiast parts for gamers and workstation users to use.

Extending the APU performance will be AMD CrossfireX technology, allowing scaling for suitable workloads from the integrated APU cores onto discrete add-in board cores, too.

[OneCoolAMD]

This is really starting to interest me being a major laptop user these days.Looking at that Demo things are coming along great with the APU tech.

Of course me being the skeptic that I am I wonder how believable the demo actually is.

I want to see more

[caveman-jim]

Me, too. I'm really excited by Fusion laptops.

[Napoleonic]

I'm still confused with APU hype, what real world advantage it has compared to traditional IGP? (assume both use the same GPU)?

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Napoleonic

I'm still confused with APU hype, what real world advantage it has compared to traditional IGP? (assume both use the same GPU)?

Why would you make that assumption? It's nonsensical. But look at Brazos and the low power E-series APU's vs. a CPU + IGP setup. Way more power to get a cpu + chipset with IGP, and harder to make in small form factors like netbooks and ultra portables.

But, that aside, a couple of differences is the shared memory and the balance of TDP. For compute, the CPU cores and the GPU cores can share the same memory - CPU does work, GPU does work; there's no latency/waiting while the dataset is copied from system ram to GPU ram and back again.

For power, if you have a CPU + IGP then both of those chips have a TDP budget. For an APU, that budget is shared, so when the GPU isn't being used heavily it can be clocked down and power saved and that power allocated to the CPU side. Conversely, when GPU power is needed but not CPU power, the GPU can get Turbo'd in the APU and better performance seen.

[caveman-jim]

AMD Fusion System Architecture, the platform on which AMD APU's are used, has been rebranded to be Heterogeneous Systems Architecture

[dampflokfreund]

Originally Posted by caveman-jim

AMD Fusion System Architecture, the platform on which AMD APU's are used, has been rebranded to be Heterogeneous Systems Architecture

Huh? I thought only Kaveri has HSA?

[caveman-jim]

Please note the date and time on that post - more than 2 years ago.