AMD Hints at Possible ARM Partnership
AMD will be holding its first software developers conference, the AMD Fusion Developer Summit, from June 13 to 16.
The event will take place in Bellevue, WA, which is Microsoft's neighborhood and the home of a huge software developer community. Plus, AMD told us, the weather is "heavenly" at this time of the year in the Seattle area, which made it an overall better place for this event than Silicon Valley.
Consider it to be AMD's version of a software IDF, even if AMD says that the conference will be all about content and won't have the marketing slant of IDF and there will not be any celebrity appearances, which would mean that AMD will not be competing with Intel over Will.i.am. The purpose of the event is, we were told, to educate developers how to take advantage of AMD's hardware, which would be primarily its APUs. However, AMD also said that it would be releasing some information about its next-gen GPUs and how they can interact with software. The really interesting part of this conference is the fact that AMD sends out announcements highlight one of the big keynote speakers, ARM's Jem Davies. The press release as well as press calls make sure that the fact that ARM will be at this event does not go unnoticed.
We obviously wondered whether AMD would do this just to rub Intel's nose in a partnership with a rival or whether they may be more. You don't get any answers, if you don't ask. So we asked. AMD's John Taylor responded with the general note that AMD is always looking in possible new technologies, while noting that AMD already developed MIPS-based products in the past, which we took as a note that it really does not have to be always x86 for AMD. Taylor stressed, however, that AMD's focus will remain x86.
Could AMD be developing ARM-based designs to compete in tablets, netbooks and smartphones? Absolutely. The official version for the reason of Davies speaking at the event is a focus on open acceleration standards such as OpenCL, but that would be rather thin. We believe that there is much more that will be announced. Imagine ARM-based AMD GPUs and the company's competitive position against Intel: Spicy!
If you plan on attending, you can get a ticket for $300. AMD expects about 500 to 600 developers to sign up.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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dogman_1234 do you have to be a developer? I would like to attend to get some insight as for their ARM idea and also a future career at AMD.Reply -
sabot00 x4dmSo does this mean that AMD is just giving up?Of course not, it could mean they are seeing what they think is writing on the walls and wanted to abandon x86, keep in that AMD's ultimate vision, the Fusion processor will not be a Phenom + GPU, it would have homogeneous dual-capability cores. So basically 1 core could do both CPU and GPU work.Reply
This also means the future completed fusion could probably work well with both ARM and x86. -
sudeshc AMD is gr8 in all other CPU markets except ARM thats where ARM comes into picture, imagine AMD+ARM Intel will be in trouble and also Samsung will be trouble.Reply -
jkflipflop98 . . . or they've realized that they're never going to catch the lead dog and they're trying something new.Reply -
Marco925 jkflipflop98. . . or they've realized that they're never going to catch the lead dog and they're trying something new.or they're using their heads and branching out to other profitable areas.Reply -
Ragnar-Kon Marco925or they're using their heads and branching out to other profitable areas.+1Reply
Would be stupid to pretend that ARM isn't going to be a huge player in the future. Especially in the mobile market. I honestly wouldn't mind if ARM takes over x86 in the desktop market, but ARM will need a lot of work for that to happen. -
DjEaZy ... i would glad to have an iPhone with radeon in it... tegra ir an ARM/nVidia chip... so why not a ARM/ATi?Reply -
fyasko x4dmSo does this mean that AMD is just giving up? no it means AMD has to do what intel doesn't in order to thrive. "get in where you fit in!" - snoop doggReply