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VGLeaks - Playstation 4 includes hUMA technology

Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
CTRL + F <anything dbz related>

One of these days, I hope to have a dedicated thread for serious console dbz power level discussion.
 
A

amstradcpc

Member
ElTorro said:
Yep, it contains a more detailed description on how to use the individual memory access pathways.

By the way, this quote here



is, as far as I understand it correctly, something the PS4 can do but the XB1 can't. At least the other leaked documents on vgleaks state that the XB1's GPU caches have to be flushed completely.
Click to expand...

Thats for the 1 bit compute volatile tag, right?.
 
C

Canis lupus

Member
darksoulsscr_016-large.jpg
Click to expand...

Pre-order restored.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
SniperHunter said:
what's the point of this again? It seems only the sony first parties will utilize these features
Click to expand...

Any title using GPGPU ought to.

The only really new thing is the apparent confirmation of a unified address space, though it was also suggested before. And all the extra detail.

As the article says, though, 'hUMA' is a brand name, and the stuff AMD ultimately defines for an ideal 'hUMA' setup may not all be in PS4 or all implemented to the same level of convenience. But two of the key points seem to be.
 
S

Skeff

Member
KakesuSora said:
What is hUMA though?
Click to expand...

Basically:

Memory used by cpu and gpu without additional copying.

Its far more complicated than that, but that's essentially what it is, every time something is copied from one place to the other it slows the system down and hUMA prevents this from happening so GPGPU in particular is far more efficient.
 
K

KidBeta

Junior Member
Skeff said:
Basically:

Memory used by cpu and gpu without additional copying.

Its far more complicated than that, but that's essentially what it is, every time something is copied from one place to the other it slows the system down and hUMA prevents this from happening so GPGPU in particular is far more efficient.
Click to expand...

This is not the whole story because the XBONE has a single address space that both the GPU and the CPU use. What the XBONE seems to be lacking is the decent way of flushing the cache of the GPU that the PS4 has, meaning that any coherent access between the CPU and GPU on the XBONE will be more expensive (assuming it has to flush its entire cache).
 
S

Skeff

Member
KidBeta said:
This is not the whole story because the XBONE has a single address space that both the GPU and the CPU use. What the XBONE seems to be lacking is the decent way of flushing the cache of the GPU that the PS4 has, meaning that any coherent access between the CPU and GPU on the XBONE will be more expensive (assuming it has to flush its entire cache).
Click to expand...

I know, but looking at the post I was quoting and answering, it seems a decent and understandable way of describing it. I was lumping the cache flushing in with the copying, which is wrong but I think we need to work on a good non-technical explanation of this for less tech savvy users.
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
SniperHunter said:
what's the point of this again? It seems only the sony first parties will utilize these features
Click to expand...
The nice thing is that most of the PS4 custom features are relatively easy to use so third parties won't have to put too much effort into utilizing it but first parties will do it sooner. Besides, giving Sony first party every advantage possible is a good enough reason anyway.
 
A

anexanhume

Member
I think the takeaway from all of this is flexibility for the developers. They can choose whether or not the CPU and GPU accesses need to be coherent to one another and whether caches need to be flushed. They're not flushing a CPU cache when the GPU is doing a GPU only write, for example. Seems to be specifically architected to avoid bottlenecks and wasted resources.
 
K

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
The hUMA wars continue on, unabated.

Seriously tho, I can't understand why people were so pressed to try and discredit AMD of all people for saying that the PS4 supports hUMA, and the XB1 doesn't. Some serious cases of e-peen waving going on.

coldfoot said:
hUMA collaboration example:
ifn3XnDqQapR1.gif
Click to expand...

Next gen is here.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
SniperHunter said:
what's the point of this again? It seems only the sony first parties will utilize these features
Click to expand...

If Dice optimizes their Frostbyte engine for the PS4 by using hUMA to speed up CPU/GPU access, each and every game built with that engine will automatically profit. That goes for every important games engine: UE4, CryEngine, Luminous, Fox Engine, etc. Since every games engine has to be rebuilt and optimized for each new console anyway, I don't see why they wouldn't implement hUMA. In fact, it's the logical thing to do because that's how the PS4 is supposed to work.
 
T

ThePowerofX

Banned
W!CKED said:
dark_sorcerer1_bqeuhgu0kou.gif
Click to expand...

How soon before we see this level of performance? The following question and answer suggests Sony have a game plan and we may have to wait 2 to 3 years.

Digital Foundry: I seem to recall you might have talked about a toolchain where code could be compiled either for CPU or GPU. Is that right or have I got that completely wrong?

Mark Cerny: Such a toolchain does exist. It's AMD's HSA [Heterogeneous System Architecture]. That's very exciting but our current strategies are about exposing the low-level aspects of the GPU to a higher-level language. We think that's where the greatest benefit is in year one.
Click to expand...

See also Mark Cerny's answer at the 15:35 mark. It seems we may have to wait for a more advanced library.
 
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