Someone else is taking AMD’s Big/Little path

Technically AMD is taking their path…

AMD EPYC LogoIt looks like another company took the same big/little path as AMD and it worked quite well. SemiAccurate told you a little about how AMD did it earlier, and now comes news of someone else.

As you might know, SemiAccurate is no fan of the abjectly stupid way that Intel did their big/little ARM clone in Alder Lake. Needless hardware complexity and hard ties to specific software versions mean a fragile ‘solution’. Worse yet it is much more expensive to design and manufacture than the way AMD did it. You needn’t look any farther than the die area of the fused off AVX-512 units to realize what a monumental and expensive mistake Intel made.

Shortly after writing up AMD’s much smarter path, a little bird told SemiAccurate that another household name did things the same way as AMD, or should we say AMD did it their way. Who is this mystery CPU vendor that did things the right way for the right reasons years ago, then didn’t call it out?

Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.

Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate