Comments Locked

21 Comments

Back to Article

  • jasonelmore - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link

    So what does this mean?

    Will china make a x86 cpu using AMD's cores? and are they allowed to sell it to consumers?

    Also, is sony stupid enough to fragment their user-base.
  • yannigr2 - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    Intel's Sofia is x86.
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8061/this-is-huge-in...

    Intel was targeting mobile devices, so they made a deal with China about small x86 cores.
    AMD is targeting servers, so they made a deal with China about big x86 cores.

    Both agreements will make many Americans unhappy, on the other hand both agreements will do Intel good, even if Intel doesn't like this deal, because they will help the x86 platform to maintain a market share against ARM in the China market.
  • BurntMyBacon - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    I thought they had to go to Intel one way or the other to get permission to develop a chip compatible with the x86 ISA. There seem to be some details missing here. Is this THATIC paying AMD for x86 IP and then designing their own chip? Seems to run afoul of Intel's licensing scheme and they have made an issue of this in the past. Alternately, this could be THATIC paying AMD to design the chip, perhaps with some of their IP, and then paying a licensing and royalty fee to allow them to fabricate it at Global Foundries (who are already allowed to fabricate x86). This would be a lot like the route Microsoft went with the XBOX 360 (XBOX One?).
  • yannigr2 - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    About Sony. The fragmentation will not affect the consumers much. Both consoles are PCs, and games will be published for both consoles at the same time. Old games could get a premium patch to run on the newer model with better visuals or performance. Last year we had PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox 1. Next year we will have PS4 and PS4K(?), Xbox 1 and Xbox 1.5(?). So two models in the market from both companies. One cheap, one more expensive. But this time all consoles will be x86 PCs with AMD hardware inside, making the production of games much easier and cheaper.
  • Michael Bay - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    The maint marketing thrust with consoles for endusers and developers was always, ALWAYS simplicity. You buy this box and then only games.
    Now there are two boxes, so consumer is standing in the aisles dumbfounded, and developer has to test and adjust content for two systems.

    Then there will be more boxes.
  • nikon133 - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Well... many gamers were complaining that consoles are getting long in the tooth, and dragging whole gaming industry down.

    Looks like now we'll have complains that consoles are not good investment anymore because they will have shorter shelf life. Hard to please everyone :)

    But seriously. PS4 will be at least 3 years old when PS4+ actually gets released. It will be also cheaper that 4+ and with lots of existing games that will not offer any benefits to 4+ users. Well, maybe more stable frame-rate. Anyway, I think it will keep selling, and a lot of time will pass before 4+ reaches 4's user base... and in that time, I would expect devs to focus on console with larger user base.

    I expect original PS4 to have at least 6 years of being "alpha" console from devs' point of view. 4+ owners will b neglected, at least for couple of years - they will be getting higher frame-rates and eventually higher output res (when original PS4 is forced to fall back to 900p or 720p in order to keep framerate) but I will be surprised to see any deeper differences - as in, redone assets, higher res textures, more detailed geometry and such. Also, Sony requires that games play identically - so no extra content for 4+.
  • Wreckage - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    Looks like their graphics division is dragging them down. Those are some pretty steep losses.
  • at80eighty - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    their losses are like Viagra for you
  • Wreckage - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    I should see a doctor because it's lasting more than 4 quarters ;-p
  • at80eighty - Saturday, April 23, 2016 - link

    ok, i will admit, that was actually funny
  • nikon133 - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Best comeback in quite some time ;)
  • Tuishimi - Saturday, May 14, 2016 - link

    lol!!
  • Kjella - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    That division is all traditional CPU/APU/GPUs and it's the CPU business that is most in trouble. They need Zen more than they need Polaris.
  • Michael Bay - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    Their problem is, world at large doesn`t need Zen. Consumer CPUs as a whole have entered this dreaded era of commodization, and Intel was there first.
  • Senti - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    World definitely needs good Zen because Intel monopoly only continues to make things worse for not so lively consumer CPU market.
  • WaitingForNehalem - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    This. Hardware is a complete commodity nowadays.
  • Michael Bay - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    So even US government doesn`t deem AMD processor designs important enough to warrant stopping such deal from happening.
  • Demiurge - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    They didn't seem to stop the several incarnations of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianhe-I. Why should they stop this particular deal? It is far less significant IMO
  • beck2050 - Monday, April 25, 2016 - link

    They lost 100 million and revenue down 20 % for the year. The licensing agreement only maxes out if targets are hit and AMD has had a long history of failing to meet projections. Next couple of quarters are critical.
  • CiccioB - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    It makes sense that as the consoles mature, sales will trail off, but AMD did well to get inside both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on this round of consoles, since both have been selling well compared to the previous generation.

    This is non-sense.
    AMD did well for being a monopoly in console CPU/GPU supplier but getting (almost) zero gain out of that deal?
    It this being good? It seems they just played at dumping concurrency but getting no gain at the end. I wonder if either nvidia o Intel just could no make a better HW than that AMD provided given a bunch more dollars, since the selling price is so low.

    It may be that MS/Sony came with a request: who can provide a CPU/GPU solution for 10 buck a piece? And only AMD responded without questioning about just how low was the margin.
  • nikon133 - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Well... new PS4+ doesn't look bad, if rumors are true. GPU power is about doubled, 36 vs. 18 compute units and 10 - 15% faster clock. I've read somewhere that GPU is based on R9 2900. For a console that is not aiming to compete with high-end gaming PCs, that's quite decent. I think boost will be very handy for PlaystationVR gear.

    CPU getting only mild boost, from 1.6GHz to 2.1GHz. No info on any other improvements. I was hoping for 2.5GHz or more, but OK.

    25% faster RAM, 218GB/s vs 176GB/s. That's in line with CPU increase.

    New BD player capable to play 4K Blurays.

    No info on price, but I expect it to have original PS4 release price of US$399, with "old" PS4 dropping down...$299? More? Less?

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now