AMD innovates and makes brilliant progress

 AMD closed out last year with great success. Its processor architectures have undergone true revolutions since 2017. Furthermore, the recent $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx allows AMD to innovate even further. AMD has announced in one of its patents the addition of FPGA components to its processors. The company, led by Lisa Su, is also restructuring to support the growth achieved in 2020.

FPGA component integration

FPGA elements into processors for efficient acceleration of certain functionalities and for the execution of other tasks. The patent is titled "Method and Apparatus for Efficient Programmable Instructions in Computer Systems."

FPGAs are very fast hardware components that can be configured to execute specific instructions. They differ from CPUs, which are more generic components available for processing various types of instructions. AMD is therefore not lagging behind Intel, which acquired Altera in 2015. Altera is indeed in the FPGA field. Intel chose it for this reason, but also to meet certain customer needs in the server sector. Intel had thus designed specific Xeon servers capable of handling high workloads. AMD could therefore produce equivalent servers and break into the FPGA market.

AMD's patent describes a CPU equipped with FPGA components that can process operations in shared resources, such as floating-point and integer read registers, alongside x86 cores. In this scenario, a processor could be upgraded on the fly to support certain features without requiring a complete hardware or architectural overhaul. As a result, specific instructions could be handled directly by these FPGAs, bypassing the CPU. This would free up the processor for other tasks. These FPGA components could be placed in the x86 CPU core slots or externally, connecting to the processor via a dedicated circuit such as Infinity Fabric. Currently, this is still a patent, which prevents us from confirming its application to future AMD CPUs. Nevertheless, these details provide insight into potential developments AMD is planning for these computing components.

The new AMD motherboard based on AGESA 1.1.9.0

On the firmware front, AMD has announced the arrival of AGESA 1.1.9.0 . This new firmware will be integrated into new motherboards between January and February of this year. It was developed primarily for the new Ryzen 5000 series processors . It notably improves support for the Windows S0i3 power supply and the system's deep sleep state for greater energy efficiency. It also enables better system stability with the FCLK (Fabric Clock). This update supports motherboards with passive cooling, such as the X570. This could lead to support for various motherboard models without active cooling, such as the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero.

AMD is restructuring internally

Furthermore, following AMD's phenomenal success over the past year, the company has just announced several promotions and restructurings . These are aimed at enabling the company to maintain its momentum and progress in the years to come. Two executives have been promoted to the position of executive vice president. In addition to these two internal promotions, three new senior vice presidents have been appointed. These restructurings were implemented to support the company's growth and follow the recent integration of Xilinx . This acquisition, it should be noted, was announced in October 2020 and will be finalized this year. Darren Grasby becomes executive vice president and chief sales officer. His role will be to optimize sales of AMD products and the customer experience. Devinder Kumar now holds the position of executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer. His role includes strengthening the company's financial position. Grasby and Kumar will therefore receive $620,000 per year, excluding bonuses, based on their SEC filings. This represents an annual increase of $100,000 plus bonuses related to achieving targets.

Three people now hold the position of "Senior Vice President":

• Martin Ashton has been appointed Senior Vice President of Graphics Architecture and Intellectual Property (IP) at Radeon Technologies. His primary responsibility is to develop graphics and IP architectures for gaming, data centers, and mobile products.
• Mark Fuselier has been appointed Senior Vice President of Technology and Product Engineering. He will be responsible for engineering processes to effectively meet the unprecedented demands of AMD products.
• Sam Naffziger, meanwhile, has been promoted to the position of "Senior Vice President, Corporate Fellow and Technology Architect." His primary mission is to ensure the competitiveness and efficiency of AMD's next-generation products.

Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, confirmed that these restructurings would allow AMD to sustain the strong growth achieved in recent years for 2021 and beyond. Other individuals within the company also received salary increases, including Mark Papermaster, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). His annual salary increased from $625,000 to $675,000. His bonuses can now reach 125% of his base salary, up from 100% previously. Bergman, Executive Vice President of the Computers and Graphics Business Group, also received this bonus increase.

In short, nothing seems to be able to stop AMD's rapid growth. Intel and Nvidia had better watch out!