Accelerated Processing Units COSC 480 Zack Whipkey

What is an APU? An APU is a processing system that includes additional processing capability designed to accelerate one or more types of computations outside of a CPU. Appeared publicly in 2006.

So what is it today? Commonly marketed/known as : CPU and GPU on the same die/chip. Combine components (cache, interfaces) on the same silicon. FGPA (Field Programmable Gate Array) Hardware designed to perform a function/feature. Replaced ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) Re-programmable, allowing debugging and prototyping

What’s the point? In the common APU (CPU+GPU) Interfaces/resources are “combined” (on the same die), removing the bottleneck of having to travel the bus and Northbridge for GPU data. Also increases the throughput for Memory. Additionally, the GPU can perform certain calculations that would normally be handled by the CPU. This results in better performance , in addition to increased power efficiency. These are key factors in Mobile computing.

AMD’s Llano APU (Desktop)

So who’s interested? AMD Intel IBM/Sony NVidia Fusion Platform Sandy/Ivy Bridge series IBM/Sony Cell (PS3) NVidia Project Denver (ARM-based)

AMD Fusion Released in 2011 Platforms : Brazos, Lynx, Virgo (May 15th), Brazos-T (future) Brazos(Ultra-Portable ): Ontario processors have only TDP 9 W Sabine(Mobile): Dual or Quadcore, 35-45w Lynx (Desktop): Multicore, 2.5 GHZ – 3.0 Ghz, TDP 65-100W

Ontario C-60 in action (netbook)

Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge (recently released) Not quite as powerful graphically as AMD’s solution. Faster in CPU Aspect.

Others Sony/IBM’s Cell NVidia’s Project Denver Has many components not normally found on a traditional CPU die. Multiple RISC processors called SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements). Features: Job management, self-multitasking of SPEs. NVidia’s Project Denver ARM-based. On-chip NVIDIA GPU

When to use an APU Mobile Computing Low Power-usage = Longer Battery Life Affordable Casual Gaming solution, or Media workstation. Computations that can be done by GPU Allows both GPU and CPU to work together on one chip, without the need for a discrete graphics card. Bitcoin, etc. Budget Desktops (exception of higher model Intel APU’s)

When not to use a common APU Hardcore Gaming/3D Modeling/Rendering Does not perform as well as a more standard CPU and discrete graphics solution. Heavy video transcoding Same as above. Desktops that have no need for a strong GPU (office workstations that deal only with data calculations)

I want one! AMD’s Desktop (Llano) : $60-$140 2.5 GHZ Dual-core 3.0 GHZ Quad-core (unlocked) Intel’s Desktop (Ivy Bridge, new) : $200- ~$330 3.1 GHZ, 65 W Quad-core 3.5 GHZ, 77 W Quad-core Mobile AMD: C-60 Acer, $350 - A8-3550MX $800-1000 Intel: 2350M(2.3ghz) - $450 - ~$700

Where do we go from here? AMD’s Thoughts Of the Future

Questions? References http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apu-technology- explained/ http://developer.amd.com/assets/apu101.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_processing_u nit