Through the searching glass: A new patent filed by AMD suggests that they consider Intel and Arm following the hybrid computer path. But amusingly, the rather generic patent describes a very well-known product …
Hybrid computing is when one processing device uses two (or more) different architectures for optimal purposes. In this case AMD wants to create a more powerful efficient laptop CPU / APU without sacrificing features. For that, they use a “high-performance processor” that does everything quickly and a “low-function processor” that does a small number of things very efficiently, all within a single CPU / APU.
The patent mostly deals with the basics of hybrid computing: ‘when the high-performance processor is underutilized, the heterogeneous processor system translates to a lower power mode by switching the execution of a thread to the low-performance processor. This execution switch involves data migration … “and then,” … when the low-performance processor is overused, the heterogeneous processor system switches to a higher power mode by switching the execution of a thread […]. ”
Intel’s Lakefield architecture does almost the same thing. It uses four 10nm Tremont cores as the low-end processor and one 22nm Sunny Cover processor as the high-end processor. Arm’s octa-core processors used in smartphones devote four cores to high-performance tasks, while the other four manage background apps and connectivity and such.
One new area of AMD’s patent is its discussion of various implementations. Two alternative configurations are suggested by the patent. In the first, physical storage common to both Processors is used for communication between the two. In the second, a virtual link is created in the cache. Here is an example process where the low-end processor (the first processor) sends an instruction to the high-performance processor (the second processor) with the first configuration:
First processor executes a thread in low power mode → first processor detects thread test to use unsupported function → first processor stops threading → first processor gives switch to second processor and saves thread status → second processor restores thread status from location of shared memory and start execution
A scenario like this can occur when the user causes the processor to decode a video stream, for example, upon arrival on the Twitch homepage. Note that the high-performance processor was already (or could have been) active in this scenario; scroll to wait to deal with the complex tasks sent by the low-function processor.
Patents do not recognize a company’s willingness to enter a market, and a rather airy patent like this wis does not confirm attributes of future products. On the whole, however, it is very interesting to see that AMD is following the mobile market with increasing popularity and taking the fight to Intel in yet another sector.
