Roadmap: From graphics to general purpose applications

If you have been using computers for some time, then you may be aware of those sci-fi applications that have been described by visionaries such as Bill Gates over the past two, three decades. While those applications usually were promised to be available within a few years, we have learned to take these promises with a grain of salt: Speech recognition isn't really as reliable as it should be; you still have to very creative when using search engines and consumer-style face recognition has been a no-show so far.

Interestingly, GPUs have been gaining lots processing capability since about 2002, a trend that went by almost unnoticed: GPUs adopted an increasingly parallel processing model, resulting in massive, and largely untapped floating point horsepower. Today, two or three graphics cards are enough to achieve one Teraflop/s performance - the same level of performance that would require about 30 current dual-core server processors (CPUs).

According to AMD, this growing horsepower potential could come in handy for "general purpose" applications running on Fusion processors. Perhaps not the first generation of the family, but the second and third generation of processors, could be able to take advantage of optimized software code and exploit the general purpose potential of a GPU. AMD expects this third Fusion generation to be available in the 2011-2013 timeframe.

With the limitation of processing only graphics, Fusion will not remain a mobile processor. Fusion is planned to quickly penetrate other markets, such as the mainstream desktop, the enthusiast desktop, servers and high-performance computing. AMD even believes that Fusion could go into consumer electronics market as the software stack for devices such as DTVs becomes more complex and requires x86 processors instead of embedded CPUs.

Based on a multicore model, the Fusion family carries the potential to spread out into many different processors within each market segment, each of which could carry different number of CPU and graphics cores. AMD explained that the "one size fits all" processors may be over with Fusion - conceivably, the ability to combine almost any number of CPUs with any number of GPUs and perhaps other special purpose processors on one die could be a recipe to create a hugely confusing product portfolio. However, AMD representatives told TG Daily that it is unlikely that there will be more processor models for each market segment than there are today - and suggested that finding a processor with a certain purpose in the future may actually be easier than it is today. Rather than promoting Gigahertz, the company will switch to promoting the features of a processor - or the "experience" the buyer can expect from a certain processor.

The way to Fusion has several roadblocks that have to be cleared. Among them is the fact that while graphics cards have the quantitative processing power, they lack qualitative processing capability. Most GPUs are based on 32-bit processing (single precision), which is not enough: A wrong pixel here and there isn't a big deal in games, but it certainly matters in other applications - for example when financial models are calculated. Double precision capability (64-bit) will be one of the minimum requirements when GPUs are deployed to run general purpose applications.

And then there is the software challenge.

Changing the mindset of developers

The big question mark behind Fusion really is: How do you get developers excited about this processor concept and how do you create an incentive for them to create applications that run on a GPU? Without the hardware, there appears to be no reason for developers to invest into something they do not know. Vice versa, a Fusion processor that offers just integrated graphics and does not have general purpose software that takes advantage of the GPU horsepower, makes about as much sense as a Ferrari that is driven in 25 mph zones.

Clearly, the CPU+GPU chips need to be exposed to applications and there will be a massive effort required to master this challenge: In the end, AMD is asking for expertise in two different styles of programming - one that addresses the sequential processing needs in the traditional CPU and one that creates massively parallel applications. Considering the fact that three years after the introduction of Athlon 64 we are still waiting for the (consumer) mass-market 64-bit applications and considering the fact that multithreaded applications for dual-core processors have turned out to be a monumental task for many developers, there is some doubt how quickly we will see widely available software that runs on a general purpose GPUs.

Common sense suggests that, in a best case scenario, Fusion will need a mass-market killer application from the likes of Google or Microsoft to showcase its potential. AMD, however, believes that there is also the potential for a newcomer in this market - a developer with fresh ideas for applications we aren't imagining today. For a start, the company showcased a simple, but very fast face recognition software that, at least in a demo scenario appeared to be working well already. The company also ran a small application that was able to combine complex image rendering, movement recognition and physics: A captured imaged was captured by a web camera, rendered into a bitmap and then dissolved into thousands of separate elements. Users in front of the web camera were then able to push an object through the sea of particles simply by moving their hand from top to bottom as well as from front to back. The particles were physics-enabled and reacted to collisions in a natural way,

Physics combined with movement recognition and ... ... face recognition on a GPU.

The big question remains: What happens, if this new type of software won't be available when Fusion arrives? AMD says that, in the end, Fusion will remain a processor with traditional CPU and GPU features. And if it really comes down to it, it will run your graphics anyway - just like any other CPU and a separate integrated graphics solution. That is not really a satisfying scenario, but it is sort of a safety net for what could be considered one of the riskiest product decisions AMD has ever made.

Obviously, we do hope that someone will take advantage of this processing horsepower and come up with software that is more user-aware and can interact with humans in a more human-like way: Ultimately, this technology puts those fancy applications within reach: Face recognition, speech recognition that relies on audio-processing and translating lip movements as well as image search engines that can deal with search terms such as "find all images with uncle tom" - and actually come up with reasonable search results.

Read on the next page: Torrenza, manufacturing and conclusion