14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices scored a very important design win when Sony decided to use its accelerated processing unit architecture in the PlayStation 4 Game Console. Now, AMD is thinking of expanding on that chip.
The platform used by the PS4 isn't exactly an APU. Instead, it is an SoC (system-on-chip) made of x85-64 CPU cores, a GPU and an integrated GDDR5 memory controller.
More specifically, it has eight CPU cores based on the “Jaguar” micro-architecture, a GPU designed on the Graphics CoreNext architecture, and a GDDR5 integrated memory chip with 8 GB RAM.
All things considered, the platform easily qualifies as overpowered, though it is understandable for a console like PS4 to need something of the sort.
Games played on them always have high graphics for their time, and the computing needs aren't low either.
But this raises the following question: why should something similar not be available for personal computers?
According to The Inquirer and The TechReport, Advanced Micro Devices feels that the answer to that query is “nothing.” As such, it is thinking of making a version of the SoC for PCs.
It definitely won't have an easy time of it though, since the SoC doesn't conform to any PC specifications.
The 8 GB of GDR5, for example, are used as both system and video memory. Another thing is that several of the interfaces are incompatible with PC motherboard blueprints. Sony's share of the development would have to be sheared off completely.
In fact, the unified GDDR5 IMC would have to be completely scrapped, since JEDEC has no GDDR5 DIMM specification, nor do motherboard makers have a reason to hard-wire GDDR5 memory chips on their mainboards.
Add to that the 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory and bandwidth of 176 GB/s (over 6x compared to Intel Core i7 DDR3-1600 MHz) and it would take a really strange mainboard to support everything. Using DDR3 instead would work, but performance would be crippled. AMD and Sony would be better off keeping the hardware as it is but putting it inside a desktop case instead of a PS4 frame.