Workstation 'renaissance' predicted

Workstation 'renaissance' predicted
ANAHEIM, Calif.— A shift to 64-bit computing is about to gain momentum which will lead to a "renaissance" in workstation design and use, the chief technologist at Advanced Micro Devices said Tuesday (June 3).

Fred Weber said the shift changes a number of software dynamics revolving around not only processor speed but memory usage, which will effect the design-automation business. At its core, it should vastly improve design times, he said.

"There's a real opportunity for a renaissance in the workstation sector," Weber said, in an interview with EE Times.

The speed of x86 processors has surpassed that of RISC machines in recently years, but RISC workstations still have a role in leading-edge design because of the relative ease with which memory handles big files thanks to the instruction width. AMD's Opteron is the first 64-bit x86 device.

Improved memory usage
"With a 32-bit system, the operating system takes up to half of the virtual address space, leaving only 2 to 3 gigabytes for the application," Weber said. "With a 64-bit system the OS moves out of the way and the application gets the complete 4 gigs of virtual address space," Weber said.

A workstation that supports 8 or 16 DIMMs (as you can with a 2P Opteron workstation) can easily support 8 and can go up to 32 GBytes of physical memory. A 64-bit OS can manage that memory well allowing a single huge 64 bit application to use it or to share the space between multiple large memory (up to 4 gigabyte) 32 bit applications, Weber said. So, this is a true workstation very different from and more powerful than even a high end desktop

With the introduction, expected late this year, of Microsoft's Win64 "you'll have a true workstation on your desk" that spans engineering and office functions. Couple that with the fact that one can design a mobile workstation now, and the workflow dynamics in engineering change significantly, Weber added.

In another sign of how engineering workflows are changing from Sun Solaris/RISC flows, Weber said AMD's K9 processor will tape out entirely on x86 processors running Linux.