I would love to see some details on how they plan to get their IPC raised by 40%
That is a bold claim!
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If you see the jump Intel made by switching to HT you wouldn't think it to be a bold claim. Look at the first gen i7 compared to it's predecessor. So, AMD added SMT, 3D transistors, improved caching, etc. But yeah, more details would be much appreciated. I can't wait to see a diagram breaking down the architecture layout.
I'm not surprised of the jump, I've been waiting for AMD to make such a jump so they could try to keep up with Intel's horsepower.
Is HT hyperthreading? Why would that help AMD, when Bulldozer already does hyperthreading?
Bulldozer is "Clustered Mutithreading". HyperThreading from Intel is SMT (Simultaneous multithreading)
Zen I believe will be SMT not CMT.
To expand on this - the Bulldozer FPU is supposed to be SMT, but the integer cores are single threaded; two integer cores share an FPU, making a 'module'.
This is apparently the same scheme that DEC used with one of the Alphas. It's interesting that as respected as (I think) the Alpha was, both Intel (Netburst) and AMD (CMT) tried to adapt aspects of the design and it seems that in both cases it hurt their respective businesses.
There was a similar distinction between the SPARC T1/T2s and the UltraSPARCs.
Step 1 of that plan was hiring Jim Keller.
Didn't they lower IPC with Bulldozer?
Yep, but they got back to more less K10 level with Steamroller.