ATI and AMD Announce Fusion CPU+GPU

Gizmodo.com ^ | October 25, 2006 | Jason Chen

[Zakeet]

It's been three months since AMD and ATI made the nasty, and what do they have to show for it besides a big mess and the broken hearts of nVidia and Intel? Something called the "Fusion", a CPU/GPU hybrid chip.

Thanks to their respective expertise, ATI and AMD can come together and make a CPU that's capable of handling many GPU tasks. Instead of offloading graphical functions to the card, which then has to be piped back to the CPU for additional computation, many things can be done "in house", saving time and making your apps faster. These Fusion CPU/GPUs aren't going to be available until late 2008/early 2009, so whatever you purchase now should be safe from obsolescence until then.

[Zakeet]

More benefits from free enterprise.

[Socratic]

Two words: Hoo Ray

[rom]

I've always said Intel really squandered a major opportunity to move the GPU to the CPU. Much like the transition from the FPU from the ISA bus to the Motherboard to the CPU itself.

We perform a lot of computing tasks on the GPU that require some interaction with the massive Virtual Memory/Processor memory array that most of the application data resides in. Notably physics and scene graph stuff.

Having all of this on the GPU requires a lot of awkward code.

I've not been fans of ATi but if they can pull this off, this devout "nVidia first" dev house will probably be standardizing coding on some of these Fusion CPUs.

[fhlh]

first amd move the memory controller from the motherboard to the chip and now, with the help of ati, they have placed the graphics on there too... talk about eliminating bottlenecks :)

[Echo Talon]

in related news...

ati.com is now ati.amd.com

[sono]

Cool!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From :

AMD completes ATI merger, plans marriage of CPU, GPU chips

**************************

Its 'Fusion' project is due out in 2009

Peter Sayer   Today’s Top Stories    or 

October 25, 2006 (IDG News Service) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plans to make chips integrating its x86 processor with a graphics chip on a single piece of silicon by early 2009. The announcement came today as AMD completed its $5.4 billion merger with graphics chip manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc.

The project, code-named Fusion, will lead to chips for a broad range of applications, from laptops to servers, AMD said.

PC manufacturers can already put a graphics processor next to the main processor on a PC's motherboard rather than adding a dedicated graphics card in a PCI slot. That allows them to reduce the cost -- and size -- of their computers.

Packaging the main processor and graphics processor on one chip will take that integration further and lead to a jump in power efficiency, AMD said. The Fusion chips could even show up in consumer electronics gadgets and products for emerging markets, where low cost and low power consumption are often important.

AMD won't shut the door on developers of coprocessors such as physics accelerators or high-end graphics chips for gamers: The Fusion chips will continue to support such external devices over the PCI Express bus, the company said.

Although AMD said it will take until late 2008 or early 2009 to build the Fusion chips, other fruits of its merger with ATI will show up sooner.

After 2007, AMD plans to deliver versions of its Turion 64 mobile processor that are more closely integrated with an external graphics processor, resulting in extended battery life for notebook computers, the company said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Wonder what they are going to do about the All in Wonder Graphics cards....I have a coupld and was thinking about getting one for a PCI Express MB.

[Echo Talon]

I hear they were scrapping the All-in-wonder line... I have 2 all-in-wonders and I'm using one right now an AIW X800XT

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I was looking at an X1300 AIW for $149 but I already have 2 9600AIW but not happy with them, or the motherboard,,....or the software,...not sure which.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Can't seem to record longer than 30 minutes...

[Echo Talon]

Can't seem to record longer than 30 minutes...

are you using the ATI software? make sure you have it set to secord for the set amount of time 30 minutes is the "default", ALSO what file system are you using? I cant remember the file size but their are limitations win Fat32 and NTFS I forget the size but NTFS's size is larger, im sure your problem is with the ATI software "defaulting" to 30 minutes

[Echo Talon]

are you trying to record TV for longer then 30minutes is that the problem?

[Echo Talon]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yes,....it doesn't just quit ,...it knocks the whole system down...

But I am going to do some more work on it all with a different system and use MS Multimedia 2005 and not load the ATI Catalyst , different motherboard and AIW card,...might get to it tomorrow,,,,

[Echo Talon]

how much memory do you have? that other AIW card should be fine.... I would get that working before purchasing a new one.

What do you have the file be saved as?(how high of resolution?)

[Echo Talon]

I have a AIW 7200, socket A(462), 1.33ghz Athlon, 512MB ram,WinXP that will record for more than 30 min.. you have something else wrong... do you have the via drivers installed?

[Echo Talon]

oops, sorry i got you confused with somone else... what motherboard do you have? do you have the AGP driver installed?

[Echo Talon]

I was looking at an X1300 AIW for $149

ATI Radeon X1300 256MB 128-bit VIVO PCI Express x16 All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition Video Card - Retail $119.99 or $89.99 after mail in rebate

[Echo Talon]

or this one BUT ITS OPEN BOX(OEM), NICE PRICE but not sure about the cables and such...? maybe call and ask about them?

ATI 100-714800 All-In-Wonder Radeon X1900 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM $190.64

thats a really good price BUT, not sure where to get the cords , or if the stuff you curently have would be compatible with it... maybe you could call newegg and they could answer questions about what comes with it or where to get the extra stuffs