7 ms·

What Do You Need?

68 points by nreece 12y ago

anigbrowl 12y ago
The Reddit discussion linked to int he comments is informative.
- yoha 12y ago
  Direct link: https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2lda53/amd_is_asking_for_feedback_from_software/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2lda53/amd_is_...
joelthelion 12y ago
Better Linux drivers. Open source and integrated into the mainline linux kernel.
- johnloeber 12y ago
  This can't be stressed enough.
- medecau 12y ago
  How about public docs so everyone can write their drivers?
  - clarry 12y ago
    Good, public docs and permissively licensed free drivers that can be used or cross-checked against by anyone.
- ushi 12y ago
  It is already mentioned in his beloved developer forum[0], but he didn't respond yet. Let's see... [0]http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306586#1306586 http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306586#1306586
- jarcane 12y ago
  Linux/BSD support is literally the reason I just bought an Nvidia card to replace my old Radeon.
- organsnyder 12y ago
  This. Right now, I stick to buying laptops with Intel graphics chipsets to incur the least pain.
bkeroack 12y ago
Enhanced compilers specifically for AMD chips, in the same spirit as Intel's ICC. Except open source, ideally, based on LLVM/GCC. I'm guessing this would let me take (more) advantage of the greater raw core count on Opteron vs Xeon. At least it would be an arguing point in favor of AMD--the only one I can see now is cost.
- e28eta 12y ago
  Sounds like you're advocating a different compiler ("based on"). Why not contribute directly to LLVM or GCC? Are there optimizations they'd need to do that are incompatible with the wider goals of the open source project? I'm assuming the projects would be happy to accept new optimizations.
JimTrudeau 12y ago
Hey everyone. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting this much passion, and it's great! I will be hauling in all the feedback and distributing to various development teams. If I get useful info that I can share on anything in particular I'll come back with it. THANK YOU.
yourad_io 12y ago
Maybe prepend an "AMD requests feedback: " to the title? Pretty vague as it stands now ["What Do You Need?" (" Concrete titles?")]
- Springtime 12y ago
  The (amd.com) in parenthesis clarified the title somewhat, for me at least.
  - yourad_io 12y ago
    I saw that as well. I was expecting a bad product pitch ("Whatcha need? Doesn't matter, don't even answer: our new $Thing does it all") (Such a cynic)
nevergetenglish 12y ago
A language for parallelism to get full power of the CPU, a lot of cores, low consumption, long life product, easy to extend and adapt, free drivers, easily adaptable for mobile.
PedroBatista 12y ago
CPU Stuff: I want an ARM CPU or at least board with an ARM CPU with full SATA support and memory sockets if possible that I can buy for less than 100$. Big wig clients are fine and everybody likes the big contracts, but you are severely underestimating the "Prosumer" market. The Raspberry Pi is NOT a passing fad. GPU Stuff: 1 - Driver support for "legacy" chipsets: I have a M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 mobo with HD4290 integrated GPU since 2010 and to my surprise when I installed Windows 8.1 on it this year, found out that AMD doesn't have any driver support for this GPU for Windows 8. Really? Are we still in the age of "that's so last week.."? 2 - Linux drivers: So I bought an Radeon 270X, Windows 8 support was fine, but Ubuntu? oh my.. Only about a month or so and after another one of failing at life I was able to install the catalyst drivers (in beta) correctly and boot it.
yuhong 12y ago
Datasheets and revision guide publicly available for all AMD chipsets.
saosebastiao 12y ago
Hardware Transactional Memory. EDITED: Sorry for the inflammatory comment. I deserved that downvote.
CmonDev 12y ago
Working with Xamarin and Microsoft to boost C# GPU and CPU programming capabilities.
carlsborg 12y ago
I own an AMD system because I wanted many cheap cores. That was the Bulldozer USP, in my opinion. And it delivers. So why not drive the ecosystem around applications that gobble up cores? Not all compute workloads need a GPU e.g.back testing trading strategies, parallel searching and sorting, iterative machine learning etc. If I were you I would also fund the creation of some industry standard benchmarks in each of these application areas that benefit from many cheap cores.

What Do You Need?

68 points by nreece 12y ago

anigbrowl 12y ago

The Reddit discussion linked to int he comments is informative.

yoha 12y ago
Direct link: https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2lda53/amd_is_asking_for_feedback_from_software/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2lda53/amd_is_...

joelthelion 12y ago

Better Linux drivers. Open source and integrated into the mainline linux kernel.

johnloeber 12y ago
This can't be stressed enough.
medecau 12y ago
How about public docs so everyone can write their drivers?
- clarry 12y ago
  Good, public docs and permissively licensed free drivers that can be used or cross-checked against by anyone.
ushi 12y ago
It is already mentioned in his beloved developer forum[0], but he didn't respond yet. Let's see... [0]http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306586#1306586 http://devgurus.amd.com/message/1306586#1306586
jarcane 12y ago
Linux/BSD support is literally the reason I just bought an Nvidia card to replace my old Radeon.
organsnyder 12y ago
This. Right now, I stick to buying laptops with Intel graphics chipsets to incur the least pain.

bkeroack 12y ago

Enhanced compilers specifically for AMD chips, in the same spirit as Intel's ICC. Except open source, ideally, based on LLVM/GCC. I'm guessing this would let me take (more) advantage of the greater raw core count on Opteron vs Xeon. At least it would be an arguing point in favor of AMD--the only one I can see now is cost.

e28eta 12y ago
Sounds like you're advocating a different compiler ("based on"). Why not contribute directly to LLVM or GCC? Are there optimizations they'd need to do that are incompatible with the wider goals of the open source project? I'm assuming the projects would be happy to accept new optimizations.

JimTrudeau 12y ago

Hey everyone. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting this much passion, and it's great! I will be hauling in all the feedback and distributing to various development teams. If I get useful info that I can share on anything in particular I'll come back with it. THANK YOU.

yourad_io 12y ago

Maybe prepend an "AMD requests feedback: " to the title? Pretty vague as it stands now ["What Do You Need?" (" Concrete titles?")]

Springtime 12y ago
The (amd.com) in parenthesis clarified the title somewhat, for me at least.
- yourad_io 12y ago
  I saw that as well. I was expecting a bad product pitch ("Whatcha need? Doesn't matter, don't even answer: our new $Thing does it all") (Such a cynic)

nevergetenglish 12y ago

A language for parallelism to get full power of the CPU, a lot of cores, low consumption, long life product, easy to extend and adapt, free drivers, easily adaptable for mobile.

PedroBatista 12y ago

CPU Stuff: I want an ARM CPU or at least board with an ARM CPU with full SATA support and memory sockets if possible that I can buy for less than 100$. Big wig clients are fine and everybody likes the big contracts, but you are severely underestimating the "Prosumer" market. The Raspberry Pi is NOT a passing fad. GPU Stuff: 1 - Driver support for "legacy" chipsets: I have a M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 mobo with HD4290 integrated GPU since 2010 and to my surprise when I installed Windows 8.1 on it this year, found out that AMD doesn't have any driver support for this GPU for Windows 8. Really? Are we still in the age of "that's so last week.."? 2 - Linux drivers: So I bought an Radeon 270X, Windows 8 support was fine, but Ubuntu? oh my.. Only about a month or so and after another one of failing at life I was able to install the catalyst drivers (in beta) correctly and boot it.

yuhong 12y ago

Datasheets and revision guide publicly available for all AMD chipsets.

saosebastiao 12y ago

Hardware Transactional Memory. EDITED: Sorry for the inflammatory comment. I deserved that downvote.

CmonDev 12y ago

Working with Xamarin and Microsoft to boost C# GPU and CPU programming capabilities.

carlsborg 12y ago

I own an AMD system because I wanted many cheap cores. That was the Bulldozer USP, in my opinion. And it delivers. So why not drive the ecosystem around applications that gobble up cores? Not all compute workloads need a GPU e.g.back testing trading strategies, parallel searching and sorting, iterative machine learning etc. If I were you I would also fund the creation of some industry standard benchmarks in each of these application areas that benefit from many cheap cores.