Cheesy Marketing Names for Cool Tech, AMD Velocity Ensures New Designs Every 12 Months

AMD’s first APUs drop in 2011, but what happens in 2012? Intel is committed to new microprocessor architectures every 2 years as a part of its tick-tock strategy. AMD’s GPU-inspired equivalent is called Velocity.

About every year we get a new GPU architecture, whether it’s a strict doubling of execution resources or something more significant, it happens like clockwork assuming TSMC isn’t fabbing the chips. AMD Velocity just states that, in turn, every year we’ll get a brand new chip that integrates this new GPU architecture. The CPU side may or may not change, but with yearly design cycles we could see regular improvements on that end as well.

Velocity also means that even if it’s difficult getting more performance out of a CPU architecture, AMD can always rely on a beefed up GPU core to give users a reason to upgrade.

This is all going to get real interesting once we have some good GPU compute applications to run on these things. For GPU compute apps, every year could be another Conroe, with ~20% performance gains just from the GPU improvements.

We just need the apps to support it. And no NVIDIA, what we have today isn’t enough.

AMD's 2010 - 2011 Desktop Roadmap The Notebook Roadmap
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  • JonnyDough - Thursday, November 19, 2009 - link

    Agreed. More information = better. Giving a detailed look at the competition first for a back-of-mind comparison is a good thing. These readers must be a bit slow if they can't look past the first page.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, November 19, 2009 - link

    Agreed. More information = better. Giving a detailed look at the competition first for a back-of-mind comparison is a good thing. These readers must be a bit slow if they can't look past the first page.
  • yyrkoon - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    Oh, and anand . . .removing a post by someone because you do not agree with what they have said, despite whatever they say about you is not professional behavior.

    I also did not agree with what he said, but he has the right to voice his opinion too, no matter how misguided. Best to just ignore such people. You know, like how you ignore me, when I am being (overly?)critical . . .
  • DotNetGuru - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    Jeeez, get over yourself guy.
    I understand that this was a roadmap overview type story, but it still seems appropriate to balance that with the real question of whether all this even matters when Intel will be 1 to 2 years ahead. I'm sorry you don't like the facts, but this is AT. Perhaps you should try some religion to protect you from reality instead of reading AT for the next couple years until Intel lets AMD catch up.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    I didn't remove anyone's post :) I believe that's our new Report Post feature working as it's intended :) If a certain number of readers submit reports on a particular post the post is automatically hidden. We implemented that after the silliness that happened with some of the reviews earlier this fall.

    I have no problems with people voicing their opinion, it only becomes a problem if we end up with the majority of comments in an article thread being dominated by someone not contributing anything to the discussion.

    The new site will help fix a lot of this with post rating and auto hiding, we just needed a stopgap measure until then since we've had issues with a few folks.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • leexgx - Thursday, November 12, 2009 - link

    whatnot an Vote system better in that case (like dailytech)

    he must of posted something really annoying or self inserted post, for more then 5-10 users to press report post
  • yyrkoon - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    Anand . . . perhaps the AMD 2010 priority slide is the one you should have led off with.

    If you want a bit of free advice . . . when it comes to roadmaps, or non comparison type reviews. I think it would be best if you just stuck to one item at a time. The reason why should be obvious. We, your readers do not give a rats behind what Intel is doing, when we are reading about an AMD thing. Write an Intel thing later if you must, but leave it out of the AMD article.

    Now, I myself like Intel, and AMD in equal measure. So, there is no bias in my case. Well, I take that back. I am biased. I am biased towards the parts/technology that suite me the best in a given time frame.

    I for one have in the past given you guys a hard time about being biases towards one company or another. But for the most part, I was just giving a tough time. This time, you surely did it to yourself, and if you did not know what you did was wrong here, you should have.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    Honestly, I did it simply to give readers background. Not everyone keeps up on codenames, I figured the image would augment the text. I didn't have an issue with it being up until it started to derail the discussion thread in the comments. I want this comment section to be useful, it ceases to be that if the discussion isn't on topic.

    Personally I don't believe you can read about one company (AMD or Intel) without referencing the other where it makes sense. Ignoring Sandy Bridge and Intel's roadmap while talking about AMD's roadmap for the next two years seems to leave out a major part of the story.

    I appreciate the feedback though, I'll keep image order in mind for next time :)

    Thanks for the comments :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • yyrkoon - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link

    I personally do not keep up on code names, and to be perfectly honest. I do not care about either AMD's, or Intels roadmaps. Why ? Its not here and now, and things often change, or are just a serious let down by the time they arrive.

    Now, with the above said, I still enjoy reading about technology. But if I am reading about say AMD, I do not want the name "Intel" interjected 50 times. I just want the scoop on AMD, and their current technology. If you want to voice your opinion, fine, do it at the end of the article, or in a separate article all together. I can make my own judgement calls.

    With all of the above said. You guys at Anandtech do get to talk to the different companies about the various technologies that you write about. This also means that you're more than likely better informed than the rest of us technology Joe's. So I would like to hear your thought absolutely. But not at the expense of another topic. Isolation; keep it separate.
  • JonnyDough - Thursday, November 19, 2009 - link

    If you don't care about roadmaps why even click the link to read the article? I didn't bother reading the rest of your comment.

    I for one care about both. Its interesting to see what tech is supposed to be coming to us. I keep an ear out for specific CPUs, so I know what to compare in the future should I do a build.

    I don't know why everyone is whining about the article. Its for our benefit. Free information is free information. I really don't get why people are complaining about the order of pictures and whatnot. Everything said in the article was factual, or stated as opinion. IMO Anand, you did a great job.

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