AMD Piledriver Family 15h is a microarchitecture developed by

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

as the second-generation successor to

Bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...

. It targets desktop, mobile and server markets. It is used for the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (formerly Fusion),

AMD FX AMD FX was a series of high-end AMD microprocessors for personal computers which debuted in 2011, claimed as AMD's first native 8-core desktop processor. The line was introduced with the Bulldozer microarchitecture at launch (codename Zambezi), ...

, and the

Opteron Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''Sledg ...

line of processors. The changes over Bulldozer are incremental. Piledriver uses the same "module" design. Its main improvements are to

branch prediction In computer architecture, a branch predictor is a digital circuit that tries to guess which way a branch (e.g., an if–then–else structure) will go before this is known definitively. The purpose of the branch predictor is to improve the flow ...

and FPU/integer scheduling, along with a switch to hard-edge flip-flops to improve

power consumption Electric energy consumption is the form of energy consumption that uses electrical energy. Electric energy consumption is the actual energy demand made on existing electricity supply for transportation, residential, industrial, commercial, and ot ...

. This resulted in

clock speed In computing, the clock rate or clock speed typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses, which are used to synchronize the operations of its components, and is used as an indicator of the pro ...

gains of 8–10% and a performance increase of around 15% with similar power characteristics. FX-9590 is around 40% faster than Bulldozer-based FX-8150, mostly because of higher clock speed. Products based on Piledriver were first released on 15 May 2012 with the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), code-named Trinity, series of mobile products. APUs aimed at desktops followed in early October 2012 with Piledriver-based FX-series CPUs released later in the month.

server processors based upon Piledriver were announced in early December 2012.

Design

Piledriver includes improvements over the original ''Bulldozer'' microarchitecture: * Clustered Multi-Thread * Higher clock rates *

Instructions per clock In computer architecture, instructions per cycle (IPC), commonly called instructions per clock is one aspect of a processor's performance: the average number of instructions executed for each clock cycle. It is the multiplicative inverse of cycl ...

(IPC) improvements * Lower power consumption and temperatures * Turbo Core 3.0 * Faster integrated

memory controller The memory controller is a digital circuit that manages the flow of data going to and from the computer's main memory. A memory controller can be a separate chip or integrated into another chip, such as being placed on the same die or as an int ...

(IMC) * Fixed hardware divider * Improved

and prefetching * Perceptron branch predictor * Improved

floating-point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can b ...

and integer scheduling * Support for

Advanced Vector Extensions Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) are extensions to the x86 instruction set architecture for microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). They were proposed by Intel in March 2008 and first supported by Intel with the Sandy Bri ...

(AVX) 1.1,

FMA3 The FMA instruction set is an extension to the 128 and 256-bit Streaming SIMD Extensions instructions in the x86 microprocessor instruction set to perform fused multiply–add (FMA) operations."FMA3 and FMA4 are not instruction sets, they are i ...

BMI1 Polycomb complex protein BMI-1 also known as polycomb group RING finger protein 4 (PCGF4) or RING finger protein 51 (RNF51) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BMI1'' gene (B cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus integration ...

and TBM * Larger L1

translation lookaside buffer A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) is a memory cache that stores the recent translations of virtual memory to physical memory. It is used to reduce the time taken to access a user memory location. It can be called an address-translation cache. ...

s (TLB) and L2 efficiency improvements * Switch to hard-edge flip-flops, allowing a decrease in power consumption * Cyclos resonant clock mesh (RCM) technology * 17–220 W

thermal design power The thermal design power (TDP), sometimes called thermal design point, is the maximum amount of heat generated by a computer chip or component (often a CPU, GPU or system on a chip) that the cooling system in a computer is designed to dissipate ...

(TDP)

Features

CPUs

CPU features table

APUs

APU features table

Processors

Desktop

The K suffix denotes an unlocked A-series processor. All FX-series processors are unlocked unless otherwise specified.

Mobile

Server

Some Opteron 32 nm processors.

History

Komodo platform

Leaked roadmaps showed Piledriver CPUs featuring up to ten cores as part of the Komodo platform. Komodo was to launch in 2012 on the FM2 socket, but this never happened. AMD kept the AM3+ socket for the FX series and put the Piledriver-based APUs on FM2.

FX-series, Athlon and Opteron

In 2010 AMD revealed that the 2nd generation was scheduled for 2012; AMD referred to this generation as ''Enhanced Bulldozer''. This later generation of Bulldozer core was codenamed ''Piledriver''. * ''Vishera'' FX-series CPU – Desktop ''Performance'' market (''Volan'' platform): This FX-series aimed at 95–220 W TDP features 4, 6 and 8 ''Piledriver'' core CPU models; with Turbo Core 3.0 while using the existing

Socket AM3+ AM3+ is a modification of the AM3 Socket, released in mid-2011, designed for CPUs which use the AMD Bulldozer microarchitecture and retains compatibility with AM3 processors. The Vishera line of AMD CPUs also all use Socket AM3+. It is the last A ...

format and 900 series motherboard chipsets of the 1st generation FX-series ''Zambezi'' processor. The 2nd generation FX-series was released on 23 October 2012 with the FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 CPU models. The FX-8350 featured slightly improved power consumption and was found to be approximately 15% more powerful than the fastest ''Bulldozer'' CPU. The 2nd generation FX-series was praised for its affordability. The FX 8320 was recognized as a price/performance winner, often matching Intel's i7 2600 at half the cost. The ''Vishera'' CPUs competed well when compared to similarly priced Intel ''Ivy Bridge'' CPUs in multi-core-aware applications and somewhat underperform in overall efficiency and in tasks where most CPU cores were not fully utilized such as single-threaded applications and a number of games. On June 11, 2013, AMD announced two additional FX-series eight ''Piledriver'' core CPUs, the FX-9590 and FX-9370, running at a maximum turbo speed of 5.0 GHz and 4.7 GHz respectively, making AMD the first company to ever release a 5 GHz CPU commercially. AMD specify that the 9xxx series processors require "robust liquid cooling" due to their high Thermal Design Power (TDP) * ''Trinity'' & ''Richland'' Athlon series CPU – Desktop ''Budget'' market: Socket FM2 Athlon X4 730, 740, 750K and 760k CPU models feature the four ''Piledriver'' core ''Trinity'' microarchitecture but lack on-chip integrated graphics. Athlon X2 340 is dual core model. Socket FM2 ''Richland'' based Athlon X4 760K and Athlon X2 370K CPUs, both with no

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

and four and dual cores respectively were expected. For the server market, three versions were stated to be under development: * ''Web serving, Web hosting, and Microserver platform (1 CPU)'' market: Opteron 3200-series (''Zurich''; 4 or 8 cores) was to be replaced by ''Delhi'' (4 or 8 cores) using the

format from the Desktop FX-series line. The memory controller was to support dual-channel DDR3 memory configuration. * ''Cost/energy efficient server (1 to 2 CPUs)'' market: Opteron 4200-series (''Valencia''; 6 or 8 cores) was to be replaced by ''Seoul'' (6 or 8 cores). ''Seoul'' would continue to use the

Socket C32 Socket C32 is a zero insertion force land grid array CPU socket designed by AMD for their single-CPU and dual-CPU Opteron 4000 series server CPUs. It is the successor to Socket AM3 for single-CPU servers and the successor for Socket F for l ...

format. The memory controller would support dual-channel DDR3 memory configuration. * ''Enterprise/mainstream server (2 to 4 CPUs)'' market: Opteron 6200-series (''Interlagos''; 4, 8, 12, and 16 cores) was to be replaced by ''Abu Dhabi'' (4, 8, 12, and 16 cores)). ''Abu Dhabi'' will continue to use the

Socket G34 Socket G34 is a land grid array CPU socket designed by AMD to support AMD's multi-chip module Opteron 6000-series server processors. G34 was launched on March 29, 2010, alongside the initial grouping of Opteron 6100 processors designed for it. S ...

. The memory controller would support quad-channel DDR3 memory configuration.

APU lines

* ''Trinity'' A-series APU – Desktop ''Budget'' and ''Mainstream'' market (''Virgo'' platform): The ''

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

''-based ''Llano''

Socket FM1 Socket FM1 is a CPU socket for desktop computers used by AMD early A-series APUs ("Llano") processors and Llano-derived Athlon II processors. It was released in July 2011. Its direct successors are Socket FM2 (September 2012) and Socket FM2+ (Janu ...

Fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

'' APU line replacements are the 2 and 4 ''Piledriver'' core Socket FM2 ''Trinity'' ''Fusion'' APUs. The A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, A6-5400K and A4-5300 APU models were released on 2 October 2012. ''Trinity'' processor model numbers ending with the letter "K" denote processors with an unlocked

CPU multiplier In computing, the clock multiplier (or CPU multiplier or bus/core ratio) sets the ratio of an internal CPU clock rate to the externally supplied clock. A CPU with a 10x multiplier will thus see 10 internal cycles (produced by PLL-based frequency ...

. The ''Trinity'' APU line was praised for its superior integrated graphics performance but underperformed comparable Intel CPU models in most computationally intensive tasks. * ''Trinity'' A-series APU – Notebook ''Mainstream'' and ''Performance'' market (''Comal'' platform): Notebook computers featuring ''Trinity'' APUs shipped as early as June 2012. The mobile ''Trinity'' series features four APUs: A10-4600M, A8-4500M, A6-4400M and A4-4300M. In March 2013, AMD announced two more mobile models: A8-4557M and A10-4657M. In January 2013, AMD officially introduced a new series of

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petru ...

codenamed ''Richland''. The series features six new APUs in total. The fastest model, the A10-6800K, featured two ''Piledriver'' modules operating at 4.1 GHz and 4.4 GHz in turbo mode and an integrated HD 8670D GPU with 384 stream processors operating at 844 MHz. Only the A10-6800K has official DDR3-2133 memory support. The A10-6800K offered approximately 5% performance improvements in performance applications and 3D games over its A10-5800K ''Trinity'' based predecessor, largely due to ''Richland's'' higher clock speeds and higher overclocking potential than Trinity. On March 12, 2013, AMD officially introduced four ''Richland'' mobile APUs. On June 4, 2013, AMD officially announced six ''Richland'' desktop APUs.

Performance

In January 2012, Microsoft released two hotfixes (2646060 and 2645594) for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 that significantly improved the performance of Clustered Multi-Thread based AMD CPUs by improving thread scheduling. Windows 8 supports CMT-based CPUs out of the box by addressing each core as logical cores and modules as physical cores.

References

{{AMD processor roadmap AMD x86 microprocessors AMD microarchitectures X86 microarchitectures