For so many years, DIY circles have been talking about 'DIY is dead' or even 'PC is dead'. The reason is that everyone has no incentive to upgrade new hardware. Consumers complain that manufacturers are pushing new products and are not sincere. Performance squeezes toothpaste. Manufacturers also feel aggrieved. The market is constantly declining. Does it cost money to develop new products?
AMD, Intel's 'nuclear war' kicks off, 28-core, 32-core desktop CPU
In the keynote speech of Taipei Computer Show, Intel unexpectedly announced the existence of 28-core desktop processors. The scene also demonstrated the test of CINBENCH R15. It can run 28 cores at 5GHz at full speed. This move shocked the world. , To know that the current Intel consumer processor is only up to 18 cores, full-core Rui frequency only 3.4GHz.
Only one day later, AMD announced the announcement of the second-generation Threadripper processor, 12nm LP process, and Zen+ architecture at the June 6 launch. At the same time, the number of cores increased to 32 cores and 64 threads, surpassing Intel's previous day's display. The 28-core 56-thread processor becomes the new desktop processor king.
The number of processor cores has suddenly increased to 28-32 cores. In addition to a significant increase in performance, TDP power consumption has also been accompanied. AMD's 32-core processor has a TDP power consumption of 250 W and Intel's 28-core processor. To 300W TDP, CPU power suddenly exceeds the current high-end graphics card, to know that NVIDIA home GTX 1080 Ti graphics card TDP power consumption but also 250W, CPU power consumption is now higher than GPU TDP power, which makes the nuclear bomb mad How is it?
Joke is a joke. AMD, Intel’s nuclear war this year is not only simple to bring several high-performance processors. Since AMD had Ryzen’s magic weapon, they have had a chance to change the current decline in the processor market. Intel Whether you like it or not, it will not be possible to keep the desktop processor on a quad-core as it has done in the past decade. This nuclear war may change the future of processor development and it will be the third time in X86 history.
X86 processor shuffles for the first time: Pentium comes out, the end of the pack
Players familiar with the history of PC know that what we are talking about today is the standard established by IBM in the 1980s. The operating system is provided by Microsoft, first DOS, then Windows, and the processor is Intel 8088. This is also the Wintel Alliance. The origin of
When Intel pushed the X86 processor more than Intel, IBM needed multiple vendors to guarantee the supply. Intel licensed the X86 processor to AMD. This was the reason why AMD entered the X86 processor. What everyone did not know was that Outside the two, there are also many third-party X86 processors, including Motorola, Cyrix, National Semiconductor, and later VIA VIA, etc. These companies were able to copy Intel's X86 processors and they were similar in name to Intel products. For example, Cyrix has introduced 4x86, 5x86, 6x86 processors, etc. The performance is better than that of Intel products, the price is lower, the pins are compatible, so it is very popular in the market.
The X86 market in the late 1980s and early 1990s can be said to have blossomed. X86-compatible processors from companies such as AMD and Cyrix have suffered from Intel's higher performance and lower prices. Intel finally ended the naming of x86 in 1993. Way, introduced the Pentium Pentium processor brand.
With the new P5 architecture, the frequency can reach 66MHz, leading the performance of other companies and opening up the gap between other manufacturers. Since then, other companies except AMD on the X86 market have gradually withdrawn, and they are not like AMD. Intel is so focused on X86 processors, motorcycles, national semiconductors and other companies are playing the ticket nature, there are other business support, so the X86 market after the Pentium brand came out after experiencing the first reshuffle, the main remaining AMD, Intel two regular army .
X86 processor shuffles for the second time: Core comes out and AMD is marginalized
In the years after the Pentium came out, AMD and Intel have been biting tight. Although the share is still the largest in Intel, AMD was technically the winner of each other, Intel, Pentium II, Pentium III. AMD can also occasionally lead Intel processors with the K5, K6, K6-2 architecture.
In 2000, Intel introduced the Pentium 4 processor. At the beginning, the P4 processor was welcomed by PC makers and consumers. However, after AMD launched the Thunderbird Core Athlon processor, the performance advantage gradually emerged, and P4 began to fail. By 2003, when AMD launched the K8 Sledgehammer, it was the first 64-bit architecture that Intel had lost. In addition, Intel forced Rambus memory to ignore the mainstream DDR memory, and everyone in the P4 generation also saw it.
However, AMD's landscape did not last long. Although Intel failed in P4, their counterattack was also very fast. Intel quickly turned around and launched the Core architecture. The era of 'dead meat' came. The high-performance, low-power P6 microarchitecture helped Intel. Recover lost ground, and AMD K10 after K8, bulldozers on the successor to the architecture, sinking so far.
After Intel won the Core architecture, it did not stop. Tick-Tock strategy was then introduced. The process was upgraded every two years. The architecture was upgraded every two years. Every year, a new generation of processors emerged, from 45nm to Penryn ( The first generation of Core architecture products has continued to the 14nm process Broadwell.
In the past 10 years, AMD has been left and right like Intel in the P4 era, unable to cope with Intel's offense. After the bulldozer architecture processor failure, AMD actually stopped the new architecture processor products in 2012 and developed a new generation. Zen architecture.
X86 processor shuffles for the third time: The arrival of the era of ultra-multi-core processors
Why do we think that AMD and Intel are rushing to launch 28 cores this year, and 32-core processors are so important, or even the third time in the history of X86? It's really because the desktop processor hasn't made any noticeable progress in the past 10 years, like a backwater, The whole DIY industry and even the PC industry are developing slowly.
Today's semiconductor process technology is gradually approaching the physical limit. After 10nm, process upgrades become more and more difficult. It is not possible to expect a significant increase in processor frequency. There is not much room for single-core IPC performance. In recent years, everyone said that Intel upgrades. Squeezing toothpaste, they are also bitter, but being indifferent to multicore is Intel's mistake.
Mainstream processors have been stuck at the 4-core level for many years. Intel has a lack of competitive momentum. Second, it believes that desktop applications are not good enough for multi-core support and do not use so many cores at all. This theory seems very reasonable. However, it is actually chicken or egg problem first. Desktop applications are not good enough for multi-core support because desktop mainstream processors have only 2 cores and 4 cores for many years. AMD and Intel do not advance multi-core processors to the desktop in advance. In the market, how can software manufacturers take the initiative to optimize their applications? Only hardware first, software optimization can follow, instead of waiting for software optimization, Intel will push multi-core processors.
This principle has been staged once on the X64 instruction set. Intel's 64-bit instruction set is much earlier than AMD, but why was AMD ahead of schedule, because Intel believes that the desktop market push 64 is useless. The result missed the opportunity. Intel now has such a mentality on ultra-multi-core processors. Fortunately, AMD has once again awakened this time. Ryzen began to popularize eight-core 16-thread processors on the desktop, and the high-end market pushed for 16-core processors. This year it is 32-core processors. Now that Intel has started, the desktop market has begun to push multi-core processors. Although it is only a fever-class market, there will be 8-core 16-thread processors in the mainstream market, and 10 cores will be launched in the future. , 12 nuclear is also a matter of course.
Just like the X64-bit instruction set, there will not be too many desktop applications, games support, but with hardware platforms, systems and software, game manufacturers It is possible to optimize the super multi-core processor before it can be truly applied. Without AMD, Intel takes the lead and the era of multi-core optimization has no chance.
