AMD + SoC + ARM

The previous post was about AMDs current bugdet-line mobile processors. Before that, I posted (in Norwegian) about their plans for future mobile solutions.

They are basing their new budget-line / mobile processors on the "Jaguar" microarchitecture (the pre-decessing C- and E-series are "Brazos" based), and will sport 64-bit dual- or quad-core ("Bobcat" x86-cores) with integrated Radeon 8000 graphics (80-core GPU), significantly outperforming any "Atom"-chips with integrated graphics from Intel.

The new "AMD Embedded G-series System-on-Chip" sets will be made in two versions (or architectures): x86 and ARM. Determining which architecture a chip is based on, is as easy as looking at the CPU-logo; the ARM-version will have an "A" in the lower right corner of the logo and the x86-version will have an "X" (as shown in the picture below).

AMDs "Embedded G-series SoC" seems to be direct competition against Intels "Atom" budget-line. CPU-vendor competitiveness is, as we all know (at least the one's paying attention), a good thing :-P

It will be exciting to see how the combination ARM+Radeon will operate and behave performance-wise :-) since I've been an avid embedded (ARM ) fan for years, it'll also be quite interesting to see AMD play with both CISC- and RISC-based designs in the same series.

AMD press-release:
http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-embedded-gseries-2013apr23.aspx

AMD, SoC og ARM.

AMDs nye satsing på bærbare enheter heter "AMD Embedded G-series System-on-Chip" (kort: SoC), basert på AMDs nye Jaguar mikroarkitektur.

AMDs pressemelding:
http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-embedded-gseries-2013apr23.aspx

Det er nok den nye strømgjerrige serien som skal konkurrere direkte med Intels "Atom"-serie (benyttet i NAS-bokser, nettbrett, mini-laptoper, osv.).

Brikkene skal lages i to arkitekturer: ARM og x86. Om brikken er ARM- eller x86-basert ses nede i høyre hjørne av logoen hvor det blir trykt en "A" for ARM, og en "X" for x86 (bildet ovenfor viser en x86-basert brikke). De vil også komme med to eller fire kjerner som vil kjøre på en klokkefrekvens mellom 1 til 2 GHz. Grafikkmessig stiller AMD seg bedre enn Intel. Disse brikkene har integrert GPU basert på Radeon 8000 som i følge AMD gir opptil 5 ganger bedre grafikkytelse enn tilsvarende "Atom"-prosessorer fra Intel.

Personlig liker jeg veldig at AMD leker med å blande CISC / RISC i en brikke-serie, og det vil bli voldsomt spennende å se hvordan brikke-kombinasjonen ARM / Radeon vil oppføre seg i bruk.

Hardware.no-artikkel:
http://www.hardware.no/artikler/dette-er-amds-nye-atom-konkurrent/132867

UNIX, 40 YEARS!

UNIX, the monster monolith... 4 decades old, which really deserves attention and praise because, it is the only surviving old-school OS that has been in use, every day, ever since it's creation...

Since it's early days, where it was mainly developed to be a multi-user environment for mainframes (BIG super-computers, commonly found in universities and big IT companies), and by 1975, it had been chosen to be the base for the Internet backbone because of it's "presentation of several interesting capabilities".

The 80s saw the arrival of the microcomputer chip, which led to the creation of the PC, and started a porting- and rewrite-project at Berkeley University, of UNIX-code to the common-affordable x86 instruction-set. These efforts culminated in the creation of several software-distributions for Personal Computers at different universities in the U.S., more commonly known as "BSDs", which is an acronym for "Berkeley* Software Distribution".

To name a couple of the popular ones available today: FreeBSD, DesktopBSD, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD, OpenBSD, etc...

I would also like to point out my UNIX post from January 2008 ;)

* it is also known as "Berkeley UNIX"