History
First twelve years
Advanced Micro Devices was formally incorporated by Jerry Sanders, along with seven of his colleagues fromTechnology exchange agreement with Intel
Intel had introduced the first x86 microprocessors in 1978. In 1981, IBM created its PC, and wanted Intel's x86 processors, but only under the condition that Intel also provide aAcquisition of ATI, spin-off of GlobalFoundries, and acquisition of Xilinx
On July 24, 2006, AMD announced its acquisition of the Canadian 3d graphics card company ATI Technologies. AMD paid $4.3 billion and 58 million shares of itsList of CEOs
Products
CPUs and APUs
IBM PC and the x86 architecture
In February 1982, AMD signed a contract with Intel Corporation, Intel, becoming a licensed second-source manufacturer of Intel 8086, 8086 and Intel 8088, 8088 processors. IBM wanted to use the Intel 8088 in its IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC, but its policy at the time was to require at least two sources for its chips. AMD later produced the Am286 under the same arrangement. In 1984, Intel internally decided to no longer cooperate with AMD in supplying product information in order to shore up its advantage in the marketplace, and delayed and eventually refused to convey the technical details of the Intel 80386. In 1987, AMD invoked arbitration over the issue, and Intel reacted by canceling the 1982 technological-exchange agreement altogether. After three years of testimony, AMD eventually won in arbitration in 1992, but Intel disputed this decision. Another long legal dispute followed, ending in 1994 when the Supreme Court of California sided with the arbitrator and AMD. In 1990, Intel countersued AMD, renegotiating AMD's right to use derivatives of Intel'sK5, K6, Athlon, Duron, and Sempron
AMD's first in-house x86 processor was the AMD K5, K5, launched in 1996. The "K" in its name was a reference to Kryptonite, the only substance known to harm comic book character Superman. This itself was a reference to Intel's hegemony over the market, i.e., an anthropomorphization of them as Superman. The number "5" was a reference to the fifth generation of x86 processors; rival Intel had previously introduced its line of fifth-generation x86 processors as Pentium because the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office had ruled that mere numbers could not be trademarked. In 1996, AMD purchased NexGen, specifically for the rights to their Nx series of x86-compatible processors. AMD gave the NexGen design team their own building, left them alone, and gave them time and money to rework the Nx686. The result was the AMD K6, K6 processor, introduced in 1997. Although it was based on Socket 7, variants such as K6-3/450 were faster than Intel's Pentium II (sixth-generation processor). The K7 was AMD's seventh-generation x86 processor, making its debut under the brand name Athlon on June 23, 1999. Unlike previous AMD processors, it could not be used on the same motherboards as Intel's, due to licensing issues surrounding Intel's Slot 1 connector, and instead used a Slot A connector, referenced to the DEC Alpha, Alpha processor bus. The Duron was a lower-cost and limited version of the Athlon (64KB instead of 256KB L2 cache) in a 462-pin socketed PGA (socket A) or soldered directly onto the motherboard. Sempron was released as a lower-cost Athlon XP, replacing Duron in the socket A PGA era. It has since been migrated upward to all new sockets, up to AM3. On October 9, 2001, the Athlon XP was released. On February 10, 2003, the Athlon XP with 512KB L2 Cache was released.Athlon 64, Opteron and Phenom
The K8 was a major revision of the K7 architecture, with the most notable features being the addition of a 64-bit extension to the x86 instruction set (called x86-64, AMD64, or x64), the incorporation of an on-chip memory controller, and the implementation of an extremely high-performance point-to-point interconnect called HyperTransport, as part of the Direct Connect Architecture. The technology was initially launched as the Opteron server-oriented processor on April 22, 2003. Shortly thereafter, it was incorporated into a product for desktop PCs, branded Athlon 64. On April 21, 2005, AMD released the first multi-core processor, dual-core Opteron, an x86-based server CPU. A month later, it released the Athlon 64 X2, the first desktop-based multi-core (computing), dual-core processor family. In May 2007, AMD abandoned the string "64" in its dual-core desktop product branding, becoming Athlon X2, downplaying the significance of x86-64, 64-bit computing in its processors. Further updates involved improvements to the microarchitecture, and a shift of the target market from mainstream desktop systems to value dual-core desktop systems. In 2008, AMD started to release dual-core Sempron processors exclusively in China, branded as the Sempron 2000 series, with lower HyperTransport speed and smaller L2 cache. AMD completed its dual-core product portfolio for each market segment. In September 2007, AMD released the first server Opteron AMD K10, K10 processors, followed in November by the AMD Phenom, Phenom processor for desktop. K10 processors came in dual-core, Multi-core, triple-core, and Multi-core, quad-core versions, with all cores on a single die. AMD released a new platform codenamed "AMD Spider, Spider", which utilized the new Phenom processor, as well as an R770 GPU and a 790 GX/FX chipset from the AMD 700 chipset series. However, AMD built the Spider at 65nm, which was uncompetitive with Intel's smaller and more power-efficient 45nm. In January 2009, AMD released a new processor line dubbed Phenom II, a refresh of the original AMD Phenom, Phenom built using the 45 nm process. AMD's new platform, codenamed "AMD Dragon, Dragon", utilized the new Phenom II processor, and an ATI (brand), ATI R770 GPU from the Radeon R700, R700 GPU family, as well as a 790 GX/FX chipset from the AMD 700 chipset series. The Phenom II came in dual-core, triple-core and quad-core variants, all using the same die, with cores disabled for the triple-core and dual-core versions. The Phenom II resolved issues that the original Phenom had, including a low clock speed, a small L3 cache, and a Cool'n'Quiet bug that decreased performance. The Phenom II cost less but was not performance-competitive with Intel's mid-to-high-range Core 2 Quads. The Phenom II also enhanced its predecessor's memory controller, allowing it to use DDR3 in a new native socket AM3, while maintaining backward compatibility with AM2+, the socket used for the Phenom, and allowing the use of the DDR2 SDRAM, DDR2 memory that was used with the platform. In April 2010, AMD released a new Phenom II Hexa-core (6-core) processor codenamed "Phenom X6, Thuban". This was a totally new die based on the hexa-core "Istanbul" Opteron processor. It included AMD's "turbo core" technology, which allows the processor to automatically switch from 6 cores to 3 faster cores when more pure speed is needed. The List of AMD Opteron microprocessors#Opteron 6100-series "Magny-Cours" (45 nm), Magny Cours and List of AMD Opteron microprocessors#Opteron 4100-series "Lisbon" (45 nm), Lisbon server parts were released in 2010. The Magny Cours part came in 8 to 12 cores and the Lisbon part in 4 and 6 core parts. Magny Cours is focused on performance while the Lisbon part is focused on high performance per watt. Magny Cours is an MCM (multi-chip module) with two hexa-core "Istanbul" Opteron parts. This will use a new G34 socket for dual and quad-socket processors and thus will be marketed as Opteron 61xx series processors. Lisbon uses C32 socket certified for dual-socket use or single socket use only and thus will be marketed as Opteron 41xx processors. Both will be built on a 45 nm SOI process.Fusion becomes the AMD APU
Following AMD's 2006 acquisition of Canadian graphics company ATI Technologies, an initiative codenamed ''AMD Fusion, Fusion'' was announced to integrate a CPU and GPU together on some of AMD's microprocessors, including a built in PCI Express link to accommodate separate PCI Express peripherals, eliminating the Northbridge (computing), northbridge chip from the motherboard. The initiative intended to move some of the processing originally done on the CPU (e.g. floating-point unit operations) to the GPU, which is better optimized for some calculations. The Fusion was later renamed the AMD APU (Accelerated Processing Unit). Llano was AMD's first APU built for laptops. Llano was the second APU released, targeted at the mainstream market. It incorporated a CPU and GPU on the same die, as well as northbridge functions, and used "Socket FM1" with DDR3 memory. The CPU part of the processor was based on the Phenom II "Deneb" processor. AMD suffered an unexpected decrease in revenue based on production problems for the Llano. More AMD APUs for laptops running Windows 7 and Windows 8 OS are being used commonly. These include AMD's price-point APUs, the E1 and E2, and their mainstream competitors with Intel's core i-series: The Vision A- series, the A standing for accelerated. These range from the lower-performance A4 chipset to the A6, A8, and A10. These all incorporate Next-generation Radeon graphics cards, with the A4 utilizing the base Radeon HD chip and the rest using a Radeon R4 graphics card, with the exception of the highest-model A10 (A10-7300) which uses an R6 graphics card.New microarchitectures
= High-power, high-performance Bulldozer cores
= Bulldozer was AMD's microarchitecture codename for server and desktop AMD FX processors, first released on October 12, 2011. This Zen 4, family 15h microarchitecture is the successor to the AMD 10h, family 10h (K10) microarchitecture design. Bulldozer was a clean-sheet design, not a development of earlier processors. The core was specifically aimed at 10–125 watt, W Thermal Design Power, TDP computing products. AMD claimed dramatic performance-per-watt efficiency improvements in high-performance computing (HPC) applications with Bulldozer cores. While hopes were high that Bulldozer would bring AMD to be performance-competitive with Intel once more, most benchmarks were disappointing. In some cases the new Bulldozer products were slower than the K10 models they were built to replace. The Piledriver (microarchitecture), Piledriver microarchitecture was the 2012 successor to Bulldozer, increasing clock speeds and performance relative to its predecessor. Piledriver would be released in AMD FX, APU, and Opteron product lines. Piledriver was subsequently followed by the Steamroller (microarchitecture), Steamroller microarchitecture in 2013. Used exclusively in AMD's APUs, Steamroller focused on greater parallelism. In 2015, the Excavator (microarchitecture), Excavator microarchitecture replaced Piledriver. Expected to be the last microarchitecture of the Bulldozer series, Excavator focused on improved power efficiency.= Low-power Cat cores
= The Bobcat (microarchitecture), Bobcat microarchitecture was revealed during a speech from AMD executive vice-president Henri Richard in Computex 2007 and was put into production during the first quarter of 2011. Based on the difficulty competing in the x86 market with a single core optimized for the 10–100 W range, AMD had developed a simpler core with a target range of 1–10 watts. In addition, it was believed that the core could migrate into the hand-held space if the power consumption can be reduced to less than 1 W. Jaguar (microarchitecture), Jaguar is a microarchitecture codename for Bobcat's successor, released in 2013, that is used in various APUs from AMD aimed at the low-power/low-cost market. Jaguar and its derivates would go on to be used in the custom APUs of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X. Jaguar would be later followed by the Puma (microarchitecture), Puma microarchitecture in 2014.= Arm architecture-based designs
= In 2012, AMD announced it was working on ARM architecture family, Arm products, both as a semi-custom product and server product. The initial server product was announced as the Opteron A1100 in 2014, and 8-core Cortex-A57 based ARMv8-A System on a Chip, SoC, and was expected to be followed by an APU incorporating a Graphic Core Next GPU. However, the Opteron A1100 was not released until 2016, with the delay attributed to adding software support. The A1100 was also criticized for not having support from major vendors upon its release. In 2014, AMD also announced the AMD K12, K12 custom core for release in 2016. While being ARMv8-A instruction set architecture compliant, the K12 is expected to be entirely custom designed targeting server, embedded, and semi-custom markets. While ARM architecture development continued, products based on K12 were subsequently delayed with no release planned, in preference to the development of AMD's x86-based Zen microarchitecture.Zen-based CPUs and APUs
Zen (microarchitecture), Zen is a new architecture for x86-64 based Ryzen, Ryzen series CPUs and APUs, introduced in 2017 by AMD and built from the ground up by a team led by Jim Keller (engineer), Jim Keller, beginning with his arrival in 2012, and Tape-out, taping out before his departure in September 2015. One of AMD's primary goals with Zen was an Instructions per cycle, IPC increase of at least 40%, however in February 2017 AMD announced that they had actually achieved a 52% increase. Processors made on the Zen architecture are built on the 14 nm FinFET node and have a renewed focus on single-core performance and Heterogeneous System Architecture, HSA compatibility. Previous processors from AMD were either built in the 32 nm process ("Bulldozer" and "Piledriver" CPUs) or the 28 nm process ("Steamroller" and "Excavator" APUs). Because of this, Zen is much more energy efficient. The Zen architecture is the first to encompass CPUs and APUs from AMD built for a single socket (Socket AM4). Also new for this architecture is the implementation of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) technology, something Intel has had for years on some of their processors with their proprietary Hyper-threading, Hyper-Threading implementation of SMT. This is a departure from the "Clustered multi-thread, Clustered MultiThreading" design introduced with the Bulldozer architecture. Zen also has support for DDR4 SDRAM, DDR4 memory. AMD released the Zen-based high-end Ryzen 7 "Summit Ridge" series CPUs on March 2, 2017, mid-range Ryzen 5 series CPUs on April 11, 2017, and entry level Ryzen 3 series CPUs on July 27, 2017. AMD later released the Epyc line of Zen derived server processors for 1P and 2P systems. In October 2017, AMD released Zen-based APUs as Ryzen Mobile, incorporating Graphics Core Next#GCN 5th Generation (Vega), Vega graphics cores. In January 2018 AMD has announced their new lineup plans, with Ryzen 2. AMD launched CPUs with the Zen+, 12nm Zen+ microarchitecture in April 2018, following up with the Zen 2, 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture in June 2019, including an update to the Epyc line with new processors using the Zen 2 microarchitecture in August 2019, and Zen 3 slated for release in Q3 2020. As of 2019, AMD's Ryzen processors were reported to outsell Intel's consumer desktop processors. At CES 2020 AMD announced their Ryzen Mobile 4000, as the first 7 nm x86 mobile processor, the first 7 nm 8-core (also 16-thread) high-performance mobile processor, and the first 8-core (also 16-thread) processor for ultrathin laptops. This generation is still based on the Zen 2 architecture. In October 2020 AMD announced their Zen 3 CPU. On PassMark's Single thread performance test the Ryzen 5 5600x bested all other CPUs besides the Ryzen 9 5950X. The Steam Deck, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S all use chips based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture, with proprietary tweaks and different configurations in each system's implementation than AMD sells in its own commercially available APUs.Graphics products and GPUs
ATI prior to AMD acquisition
Radeon within AMD
In 2008, the ATI division of AMD released the TeraScale (microarchitecture), TeraScale microarchitecture implementing a unified shader model. This design replaced the previous fixed-function hardware of previous graphics cards with multipurpose, programmable shaders. Initially released as part of the GPU for the Xbox 360, this technology would go on to be used in Radeon branded HD 2000 parts. Three generations of TeraScale would be designed and used in parts from 2008 to 2014.Combined GPU and CPU divisions
In a 2009 restructuring, AMD merged the CPU and GPU divisions to support the company's APUs, which fused both graphics and general purpose processing. In 2011, AMD released the successor to TeraScale, Graphics Core Next, Graphics Core Next (GCN). This new microarchitecture emphasized GPGPU compute capability in addition to graphics processing, with a particular aim of supporting heterogeneous computing on AMD's APUs. GCN's reduced instruction set computer, reduced instruction set Instruction set architecture, ISA allowed for significantly increased compute capability over TeraScale's very long instruction word ISA. Since GCN's introduction with the Radeon HD 7000 Series, HD 7970, five generations of the GCN architecture have been produced from 2008 through at least 2017.Radeon Technologies Group
In September 2015, AMD separated the graphics technology division of the company into an independent internal unit called the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) headed by Raja Koduri. This gave the graphics division of AMD autonomy in product design and marketing. The RTG then went on to create and release the AMD Polaris, Polaris and Graphics Core Next#Vega, Vega microarchitectures released in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In particular the Vega, or 5th generation Graphics Core Next, GCN, microarchitecture includes a number of major revisions to improve performance and compute capabilities. In November 2017, Raja Koduri left RTG and CEO and President Lisa Su took his position. In January 2018, it was reported that two industry veterans joined RTG, namely Mike Rayfield as senior vice president and general manager of RTG, and David Wang (executive), David Wang as senior vice president of engineering for RTG. In January 2020, AMD announced that its second generation RDNA (microarchitecture), RDNA graphics architecture was in development, with the aim of competing with the Nvidia RTX graphics products for performance leadership. In October 2020, AMD announced their new Radeon RX 6000 series, RX 6000 series series GPUs, their first high-end product based on RDNA2 and capable of handling ray-tracing natively, aiming to challenge Nvidia's RTX 3000 GPUs.Semi-custom and game console products
In 2012, AMD's then CEOOther hardware
AMD motherboard chipsets
Before the launch of Athlon 64 processors in 2003, AMD designed chipsets for their processors spanning the AMD K6, K6 and AMD K7, K7 processor generations. The chipsets include the AMD-640, AMD-751, and the AMD-761 chipsets. The situation changed in 2003 with the release of Athlon 64 processors, and AMD chose not to further design its own chipsets for its desktop processors while opening the desktop platform to allow other firms to design chipsets. This was the "Open Platform Management Architecture" with ATI Technologies, ATI, VIA Technologies, VIA and Silicon Integrated Systems, SiS developing their own chipset for Athlon 64 processors and later Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX processors, including the AMD Quad FX platform, Quad FX platform chipset from Nvidia. The initiative went further with the release of Opteron server processors as AMD stopped the design of server chipsets in 2004 after releasing the AMD-8111 chipset, and again opened the server platform for firms to develop chipsets for Opteron processors. As of today, Nvidia and Broadcom are the sole designing firms of server chipsets for Opteron processors. As the company completed the acquisition of ATI Technologies in 2006, the firm gained the ATI design team for chipsets which previously designed the Xpress 200, Radeon Xpress 200 and the Xpress 3200, Radeon Xpress 3200 chipsets. AMD then renamed the chipsets for AMD processors under AMD branding (for instance, the CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset was renamed as AMD 580 chipset series, AMD 580X CrossFire chipset). In February 2007, AMD announced the first AMD-branded chipset since 2004 with the release of the AMD AMD 690 chipset series, 690G chipset (previously under the development codename ''RS690''), targeted at mainstream Integrated Graphics Processor, IGP computing. It was the industry's first to implement a HDMI 1.2 port on motherboards, shipping for more than a million units. While ATI had aimed at releasing an Intel IGP chipset, the plan was scrapped and the inventories of AMD 690 chipset series#Radeon Xpress 1250, Radeon Xpress 1250 (codenamed ''RS600'', sold under ATI brand) was sold to two OEMs, Abit and ASRock. Although AMD stated the firm would still produce Intel chipsets, Intel had not granted the license of FSB to ATI. On November 15, 2007, AMD announced a new chipset series portfolio, the AMD 700 chipset series, AMD 7-Series chipsets, covering from the enthusiast multi-graphics segment to the value IGP segment, to replace the AMD 580 chipset series, AMD 480/570/580 chipsets and AMD 690 chipset series, AMD 690 series chipsets, marking AMD's first enthusiast multi-graphics chipset. Discrete graphics chipsets were launched on November 15, 2007, as part of the codenamed ''Spider'' desktop platform, and IGP chipsets were launched at a later time in spring 2008 as part of the codenamed ''Cartwheel'' platform. AMD returned to the server chipsets market with the AMD 800 chipset series, AMD 800S series server chipsets. It includes support for up to six Serial ATA#SATA Revision 3.0 (SATA 6Gb/s), SATA 6.0 Gbit/s ports, the C6 power state, which is featured in AMD Fusion, Fusion processors and Advanced Host Controller Interface, AHCI 1.2 with SATA port multiplier#FIS(Frame Information Structure)–based switching, FIS–based switching support. This is a chipset family supporting AMD Phenom, Phenom processors and AMD Quad FX platform, Quad FX enthusiast platform (890FX), Integrated Graphics Processor, IGP (890GX). With the advent of AMD's APUs in 2011, traditional northbridge features such as the connection to graphics and the PCI Express controller were incorporated into the APU die. Accordingly, APUs were connected to a single chip chipset, renamed the Fusion Controller Hub (FCH), which primarily provided southbridge functionality. AMD released new chipsets in 2017 to support the release of their new Ryzen products. As the Zen (microarchitecture), Zen microarchitecture already includes much of the northbridge connectivity, the AM4-based chipsets primarily varied in the number of additional PCI Express lanes, USB connections, and SATA connections available. These AM4 chipsets were designed in conjunction with ASMedia.Embedded products
= Embedded CPUs
= In February 2002, AMD acquired Alchemy Semiconductor for its Alchemy (processor), Alchemy line of MIPS architecture, MIPS processors for the hand-held and portable media player markets. On June 13, 2006, AMD officially announced that the line was to be transferred to Raza Microelectronics, Inc., a designer of MIPS processors for embedded applications. In August 2003, AMD also purchased the Geode (processor), Geode business which was originally the Cyrix MediaGX from National Semiconductor to augment its existing line of embedded x86 processor products. During the second quarter of 2004, it launched new low-power Geode NX processors based on the K7 Thoroughbred architecture with speeds of fanless processors and , and processor with fan, of Thermal Design Power, TDP 25 W. This technology is used in a variety of embedded systems (Casino slot machines and customer kiosks for instance), several Ultra Mobile PC, UMPC designs in Asia markets, as well as the One Laptop per Child, OLPC OLPC XO-1, XO-1 computer, an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world. The Geode LX processor was announced in 2005 and is said will continue to be available through 2015. AMD has also introduced x86-64, 64-bit processors into its embedded product line starting with the AMD Opteron processor. Leveraging the high throughput enabled through HyperTransport and the Direct Connect Architecture these server-class processors have been targeted at high-end telecom and storage applications. In 2007, AMD added the AMD Athlon, AMD Turion, and Mobile AMD Sempron processors to its embedded product line. Leveraging the same x86-64, 64-bit instruction set and Direct Connect Architecture as the AMD Opteron but at lower power levels, these processors were well suited to a variety of traditional embedded applications. Throughout 2007 and into 2008, AMD has continued to add both single-core Mobile AMD Sempron and AMD Athlon processors and Multi-core (computing), dual-core AMD Athlon X2 and AMD Turion processors to its embedded product line and now offers embedded x86-64, 64-bit solutions starting with 8 W TDP Mobile AMD Sempron and AMD Athlon processors for fan-less designs up to multi-processor systems leveraging multi-core AMD Opteron processors all supporting longer than standard availability. The ATI acquisition in 2006 included the Imageon and Xilleon product lines. In late 2008, the entire handheld division was sold off to Qualcomm, who have since produced the Adreno series. Also in 2008, the Xilleon division was sold to Broadcom. In April 2007, AMD announced the release of the AMD 690 chipset series#M690T, M690T integrated graphics chipset for embedded designs. This enabled AMD to offer complete processor and chipset solutions targeted at embedded applications requiring high-performance 3D and video such as emerging digital signage, kiosk, and Point of Sale applications. The M690T was followed by the AMD 690 chipset series#M690E, M690E specifically for embedded applications which removed the TV output, which required Macrovision licensing for OEMs, and enabled native support for dual Transition Minimized Differential Signaling, TMDS outputs, enabling dual independent Digital Visual Interface, DVI interfaces. In January 2011, AMD announced the AMD Embedded G-Series AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, Accelerated Processing Unit. This was the first APU for embedded applications. These were followed by updates in 2013 and 2016. In May 2012, AMD Announced the AMD Embedded R-Series AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, Accelerated Processing Unit. This family of products incorporates the Bulldozer CPU architecture, and Discrete-class Radeon HD 7000G Series graphics. This was followed by a system on a chip, system on a chip (SoC) version in 2015 which offered a faster CPU and faster graphics, with support for DDR4 SDRAM memory.= Embedded graphics
= AMD builds graphic processors for use in Embedded System, embedded systems. They can be found in anything from casinos to healthcare, with a large portion of products being used in industrial machines. These products include a complete graphics processing device in a compact multi-chip module including RAM and the GPU. ATI began offering embedded GPUs with the E2400 in 2008. Since that time AMD has released regular updates to their embedded GPU lineup in 2009, 2011, 2015, and 2016; reflecting improvements in their GPU technology.Current product lines
CPU and APU products
AMD's portfolio of CPUs and APUs * Athlon – brand of entry level CPUs (Excavator) and APUs (Ryzen) * AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, A-series – ''Excavator''-class consumer desktop and laptop APUs * AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, G-series – ''Excavator''- and ''Jaguar''-class low-power embedded APUs * Ryzen – brand of consumer CPUs and APUs * Threadripper, Ryzen Threadripper – brand of prosumer/professional CPUs * AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, R-series – ''Excavator'' class high-performance embedded APUs * Epyc – brand of server CPUs * Opteron – brand of microserver APUsGraphics products
AMD's portfolio of dedicated graphics processors *Radeon – brand for consumer line of graphics cards; the brand name originated with ATI. ** Radeon, Mobility Radeon offers power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. *Radeon Pro – Workstation Graphics card brand. Successor to the AMD FirePro, FirePro brand. * Radeon Instinct – brand of server and workstation targeted machine learning and GPGPU productsRadeon-branded products
RAM
Solid-state drives
AMD announced in 2014 it would sell Radeon branded solid-state drives manufactured by OCZ with capacities up to 480 GB and using the SATA interface.Technologies
CPU hardware
technologies found in AMD CPU/APU and other products include: * HyperTransport – a high-bandwidth, low-latency system bus used in AMD's CPU and APU products * Infinity Fabric – a derivative of HyperTransport used as the communication bus in AMD's Zen (microarchitecture), Zen microarchitectureGraphics hardware
technologies found in AMD GPU products include: * AMD Eyefinity – facilitates multi-monitor setup of up to 6 monitors per graphics card * AMD FreeSync – display synchronization based on the VESA Adaptive Sync standard * AMD TrueAudio – acceleration of audio calculations * AMD XConnect – allows the use of External GPU enclosures through Thunderbolt 3 * AMD CrossFireX, AMD CrossFire – multi-GPU technology allowing the simultaneous use of multiple GPUs * Unified Video Decoder (UVD) – acceleration of video decompression (decoding) * Video Coding Engine (VCE) – acceleration of video compression (encoding)Software
AMD has made considerable efforts towards opening its software tools above the firmware level in the past decade. For the following mentions, software not expressely stated free software, free can be assumed to be proprietary software, proprietary.Distribution
AMD Radeon Software is the default channel for official software distribution from AMD. It includes both free and proprietary software components, and supports both Microsoft Windows and Linux.Software by type
CPU
* AMD Optimizing C/C++ Compiler, AOCC is AMD's optimizing proprietary C/C++ compiler based on LLVM and available for Linux.GPU
Most notable public AMD software is on the GPU side. AMD has opened both its computer graphics, graphic and General-purpose computing on graphics processing units, compute stacks: * GPUOpen is AMD's graphics stack, which includes for example FidelityFX Super Resolution. * ROCm (Radeon Open Compute platform) is AMD's compute stack for machine learning and Supercomputer, high-performance computing, based on the LLVM, LLVM compiler technologies. Under the ROCm project, AMDgpu (Linux kernel module), AMDgpu is AMD's free and open-source graphics device driver, open source device driver supporting the Graphics Core Next, GCN and following architectures, available for Linux. This latter driver component is used both by the graphics and compute stacks.Misc
* AMD conducts open research on heterogeneous computing. * Other AMD software includes the AMD Core Math Library, and open-source software including the AMD Performance Library. * AMD contributes to Open-source software, open source projects, including working with Sun Microsystems to enhance OpenSolaris and Sun xVM on the AMD platform. AMD also maintains its own Open64 compiler distribution and contributes its changes back to the community. * In 2008, AMD released the low-level programming specifications for its GPUs, and works with the X.Org Foundation to develop drivers for AMD graphics cards. * Extensions for software parallelism (xSP), aimed at speeding up programs to enable multi-threaded and multi-core processing, announced in Technology Analyst Day 2007. One of the initiatives being discussed since August 2007 is the Light Weight Profiling (computer programming), Profiling (LWP), providing internal hardware monitor with runtimes, to observe information about executing process and help the re-design of software to be optimized with multi-core and even multi-threaded programs. Another one is the extension of Streaming SIMD Extension (SSE) instruction set, the SSE5. * Codenamed ''SIMFIRE'' – interoperability testing tool for the Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) open architecture.Production and fabrication
Previously, AMD produced its chips at company-owned Foundry (electronics), semiconductor foundries. AMD pursued a strategy of collaboration with other semiconductor manufacturers IBM and Motorola to co-develop production technologies. AMD's founder Jerry Sanders termed this the "Virtual Gorilla" strategy to compete with Intel's significantly greater investments in fabrication. In 2008, AMD spun off its chip foundries into an independent company named GlobalFoundries. This break-up of the company was attributed to the increasing costs of each process node. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi purchased the newly created company through its subsidiary Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), purchasing the final stake from AMD in 2009. With the spin-off of its foundries, AMD became aCorporate affairs
Partnerships
AMD utilizes strategic industry partnerships to further its business interests as well as to rival Intel's dominance and resources: * A partnership between AMD and Alpha Processor Inc. developed HyperTransport, a point-to-point interconnect standard which was turned over to an industry standards body for finalization. It is now used in modern motherboards that are compatible with AMD processors. * AMD also formed a strategic partnership with IBM, under which AMD gained silicon on insulator (SOI) manufacturing technology, and detailed advice on 90 nm implementation. AMD announced that the partnership would extend to 2011 for 32 nm and 22 nm fabrication-related technologies. * To facilitate processor distribution and sales, AMD is loosely partnered with end-user companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, HP, Dell, Asus, Acer (company), Acer, and Microsoft. * In 1993, AMD established a 50–50 partnership withLitigation with Intel
Guinness World Record achievement
* On August 31, 2011, in Austin, Texas, AMD achieved a Guinness World Record for the "Highest frequency of a computer processor": 8.429 GHz.Peter Clarke, EE Times.Acquisitions, mergers and investments
Corporate social responsibility
* In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated AMD the fifth most progressive of 24 consumer electronics companies.Other initiatives
* 50x15, digital inclusion, with targeted 50% of world population to be connected through Internet via affordable computers by the year of 2015. * The Green Grid, founded by AMD together with other founders, such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Sun and Microsoft, to seek lower power consumption for grids.See also
* Bill Gaede * List of AMD microprocessors * List of AMD accelerated processing unit microprocessors * List of AMD graphics processing units * List of AMD chipsets * List of ATI chipsets * 3DNow! * Cool'n'Quiet * PowerNow!Notes
References
* Rodengen, Jeffrey LExternal links
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