FROM THE PS/2 TO THE
SMARTPHONE, A
PERSPECTIVE OF THE
COMPUTING REVOLUTION
FROM THE TRENCHES
Sam Huynh
Principal Member of Technical Staff
October 29, 2015
1 | Styx Review | January 23, 2013 | Confidential – Internal Only
Agenda
•
•
•
•
Who am I?
Introduction to AMD
My role inside AMD
From the PS/2 to the smartphone, a
perspective of the computing revolution from
the trenches
• Q and A
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2
Who am I?
• Born in Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam at
the end of the Vietnam War.
• Family immigrated to Seattle, Washington after the Vietnam
War
• Grew up in Seattle and eventually attended the University of
Washington
– BSEE ’94, MSEE ‘96 and Ph.D. EE ’99
• Relocated to Mountain View, CA in ‘98 and now live in Santa
Cruz, CA
• Three patents (ATI/AMD)
– Dynamic impedance compensation circuit and method
– Bit deskewing IO method and system
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– Methods and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data signals
3
Career Journey
Cascade
Design
Automation
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4
Introduction to AMD
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc was founded on May 1, 1969 and is
based in Sunnyvale, CA.
• The company designs, develops, and sells microprocessor products, such
as central processing units (CPU), accelerated processing units (APU), and
graphics processing units (GPU) for servers, desktop PCs, and mobile
devices.
– Its microprocessors for server platforms include AMD Opteron 6000, 4000, and 3000
series processors;
– APUs for mobile PC platforms consist of performance mainstream AMD A-Series APU,
the AMD E-Series APU for everyday performance, the AMD C-Series APU for HD Internet
experiences in small form factors, and the AMD Z-Series APU for Windows-based
tablets;
– CPUs for mobile PC platforms comprise the AMD Phenom II mobile processor, AMD
Turion X2 mobile processor, AMD Turion II mobile processor, AMD Turion II ultra mobile
processor, and AMD Athlon II processor.
– Discreet graphics solutions include Radeon and Radeon HD series
– AMD controller hub-based chipsets for its APUs; and graphics, video, and multimedia
products for use in desktop and notebook computers
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World wide locations
Sunnyvale, CA
Austin, TX
Toronto, Ontario
Boston, MA
Orlando, FL
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Bangalore, India
Hydrabad, India
Approximately
10,000 employees
World wide
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9 major
design
centers
world wide
6
About AMD
• The AMD mission: To be the leading designer and
integrator of innovative, tailored technology solutions that
empower people to push the boundaries of what is
possible
• Operations in 31 countries with more than 50 locations,
including more than a dozen R&D facilities, nearly two
dozen international sales offices, and assembly/test
manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and China
• Fortune 500 company
• 2014 revenues of $5.51 billion
• Main competitors:
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AMD and YOU
• Great brands join with AMD to bring their products to life
– Technology providers you know and trust, such as Acer, Apple, Asus,
Cisco, Dell, GE, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung, Sapphire,
Sony, Toshiba, Vizio, and XFX.
– These leading brands count on AMD to find innovative ways to power
the solutions they create for the different ways you work and play with
technology in your every day life.
• Named Top 100 best corporate citizens of 2013 by the
Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine
– Innovation and technology are what we do, but responsibility is who
we are.
– AMD was founded on the belief that if you put people first, products
and profits will follow.
– Today we call this culture The AMD Way.
– It means doing business in a responsible way, caring for the
environment and contributing to our communities.
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AMD Time line (1969 – 2010)
AMD Founded
5/1/1969
AMD introduced
K5; split with Intel
in 1996
Athlon 64
Introduced in
2003
AMD signs on
as second source
for x86 in 1982
1970
1980
AMD was founded in
1969 by a group of former
executives from Fairchild
Semiconductors.
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Xbox 360
in 2005
2010
2000
1990
ATI Founded
In 1985
AMD became a fabless semiconductor
company in 2009 with the spin off of foundry
operations to become Global Foundries.
Dual core 2005
ATI acquires
ArtX in 2000
ATI introduced
Radeon in 2000
AMD acquires
ATI in 2006
GameCube
In 2001
Wii in
2006
9
AMD Time line (2010 – Present)
AMD introduce
APUs in 2011
Radeon
HD8000
In 2013
Radeon Fury X
In 2015
AMD Seattle
64 bit ARM sever
in 2014
2010
2015
Wii U in
2012
Xbox one/PS4
in 2013
Carrizo introduced in 2015
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My role inside AMD
• Responsible for developing methodologies using next
generation technologies (10nm and 7nm)
• Our main mission:
– Convert source code into an actual silicon chip
– This process is known as RTL-to-GDS
• Register Transfer Level (RTL) is a form of verilog used to
describe the chip’s functionality
• Graphic Database System (GDS) is the geometrical
information released to foundries for silicon manufacturing
• Work with teams in Austin, Boston, Toronto, and India
– Create synergies for cross functional teams and inter disciplines
– Work with flex time
– Cycles (CES, E3, back to school, and Christmas)
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RTL-to-GDS
Meets frequency
specs
Input: RTL
Synthesis
Converts high
level description
language into
physical gates
Floorplanning
Organizes blocks
based on timing
and connectivity
Design Rule Check (DRC)
Layout Versus Schematic (LVS)
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Place
and
Route
Timing
closure
DRC/LVS
Makes the physical
connections
Output: GDS
to the foundry
12
FROM THE PS/2 TO THE
SMARTPHONE, A PERSPECTIVE OF
THE COMPUTING REVOLUTION
FROM THE TRENCHES
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13
How did we get from…
$3000 ($6329.11 in 2015 dollars) in
1987 with university student
discount
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Free ($0) with 2 year commitment
(in 2015)
14
This is how…
•
•
•
•
Demand: Performance, Power, and Price
Globalization
Foundry/circuit technology
Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools
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Performance, Power and Price
• Performance
– Clock frequency
– IPC (Instructions Per Cycle)
• Power
– Maintain a certain level of performance but
reduce power consumption
– Battery life
• Price
– Lower and keeps getting lower
– More features
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Globalization
• How do we improve performance, reduce
power, lower cost/price and still make money?
– Performance and power  foundry/circuit tech
– Increase market size  expand world wide
specifically China, India, Brazil, etc…
– Intellectual competition especially Taiwan, China
and India
• TSMC is the world’s largest independent semiconductor
foundry (founded in 1987)
– Effective “24 hour” operation
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Foundry/Circuit technology
• Foundry technology
– Bipolar junction transistors (BJT)  Complimentary Metal
Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
– Feature size: 3um (3000nm)  7nm
– Approximately 428x reduction in approximately 35 years
• Circuit technology
– Serial links
• ISA  EISA  PCI, AGP USB, PCIE, and SATA
– Main Memory
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BJT versus CMOS
• Advantages of CMOS over BJT
– CMOS is a better switch
– Effective zero static power
consumption
– High packing densities
– Relative easy design, integration
and manufacturing process
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Radeon from 2000 - 2015
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20
8086 - APUs
Year
Technology
Voltage
Bus width
Freq.
8086
1976
3000nm
> 5V
16 bits
5MHz – 10MHz
286
1984
1500nm
5V
16 bits
8MHz – 20MHz
368
1991
1500nm - 800nm
5V
32 bits
20MHz – 40MHz
486
1993
500nm
3.3V – 5V
32 bits
25MHz – 100MHz
5x86
1995
350nm
3.3V – 3.45V
32 bits
133MHz – 150MHz
K6
1997
350nm
2.9V – 3.3V
32 bits
166MHz – 300MHz
Athlon
1999
250nm – 130nm
1.6V – 1.8V
32 bits
500MHz – 2.33GHz
Athlon64 (first dual
core)
2003
130nm – 65nm
1.3V – 1.5V
64 bits
1GHz – 3.2GHz
Phenom (2 – 6 cores)
2007
65nm – 45nm
1.2V
64 bits
2GHz – 3.8GHz
APU (2 – 8 cores with
GPU)
2011
32nm
1.2V
64 bits
3GHz – 5GHz
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APUs
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The ARM revolution is here…
• Cloud
– Non compute intensive applications
– Media streaming and storage
– E-commerce
• Optimized for reduce cost, heat and power
– Good for light, portable devices such as
smartphones and tablets
– iPhones, iPads, and iPods use ARM
– Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors are used in
Android smartphones and tablets
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AMD introduces SEATTLE
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Age of Parallel Computing
• SISD = Single Instruction Single Data
– 8086 – 486
• SIMD = Single Instruction Multiple Data
– Graphics Processing Units (GPU) – Radeon
• MISD = Multiple Instruction Single Data
– No personal experience with this architecture
• MIMD = Multiple Instruction Multiple Data
– Multi-core CPU (Athlon, Phemon, etc…)
• APU = Accelerated Processing Unit
– Mulit-core CPU + GPU (MIMD + SIMD)
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Parallel versus Serial links
• Parallel link transmits several streams of data
simultaneously along multiple channels
(wires, etc…)
– Pros: Easier to design
– Cons: More pins (more area), limited data rate
• Serial link transmits a single stream of data
– Pros: Fewer pins (less area), higher data rate
– Cons: Design complexity
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BUS interfaces (1981 – now)
Style
Bus Width
Bit rate
ISA
Parallel
8 or 16
8/16/32 Mbytes/s
Industry Standard
Architecture
EISA
Parallel
32
33 Mbytes/s
Extended ISA
VLB
Parallel
32
100/133/166/200 Mbytes/s
Video Electronics
Standards Association
local bus
PCI
Parallel
32 or 64
133/266/533 Mbytes/s
Peripheral Component
Interconnect
AGP
Parallel
32
2133 Mbytes/s
Accelerated Graphics
Port
ATA
Parallel
16
16/33/66/100/133 Mbytes/s
PC/AT Attachment
USB
Serial
1
1.5/12/480/5000/10000 Mbits/s
Universal Serial Bus
PCIe
Serial
1
250/500/985/1969 Mbytes/s
PCI express
SATA
Serial
1
1.5/3.0/6.0 Gbits/s
Serial ATA
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DRAMs (Dynamic random access
memory)
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DRAM density
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Today’s tools to build tomorrow’s
technologies
• Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools
– Cadence (Virtuoso), Synopsys (PrimeTime),
Mentor Graphics (Calibre), etc…
• Linux (approximately 2003 to present)
– Enabled cheap PCs (~$2K) to replace specialized
expensive servers (~$20K)
– Get a lot more compute for the same price
• Multi-threading (approximately 2007 to
present)
– Took advantage of multiple cores
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All that leads to this…
1994
$2000 ($3236.25 in 2015 dollars)
2015
(< $250 laptop)
Single core
DDR DRAM
CPU
AGP
SDR DRAM
VLB
Northbridge
CPU
(2 - 8 cores)
Graphics
NB
SB
Southbridge
PCIe
PCI
KB
M
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other
ATA
Network
KB
M
USB
SATA
32
2012
2013
2013
2005
2006
2006
2001
1996
1991
2000
1985
2001
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1994
33
The Revolution continues…
• Mobility/Density  Lower Power
Consumption
• Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)
versus Complex Instruction Set Computing
(CISC)
– RISC (Alpha, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC)
– CISC (x86, Motorola 68K)
• Clock gating/Power gating – stopping the
clock/turning off the power when idling
• Foundry Technology – reduce static leakage
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Conclusion
• The Revolution continues
• Companies that can adapt and evolve
continues to survive (AMD)
• Because you demand more performance, less
power, lower prices
• The electronics industry responds with
innovations in technology
• And AMD puts it all together and brings those
products to you.
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Q&A
• Open forum – questions and answers
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36