AMD applied for a patent for CPU+FPGA hybrid processor

AMD has applied for a patent for a processor that integrates FPGA and CPU, an integrated circuit that allows buyers to change the circuit configuration. AMD acquired Xilinx, the maker of FPGAs, in October 2020. In the future, it can be seen that it is highly likely to focus on AI technology using FPGAs.

FPGAs are integrated circuits that allow the user to change configuration settings using a hardware description language. For these FPGAs, it was revealed that AMD was applying for a patent for a processor with multiple reprogrammable execution units that automatically loads the associated bit file and automatically executes FPGA-related special instructions when a new processor fetches a specific program.

According to the applied patent, the CPU and embedded FPGA command transfer is realized by a reprogrammable execution unit sharing a register with a processing device such as an FPU. In addition, this reprogrammable execution unit also corresponds to the half-precision floating-point FP16, which is used for AI learning and inference acceleration.

As stated earlier, AMD acquired Xilinx, the maker of FPGAs, in October 2020. Through the acquisition, AMD will be able to use FPGAs against Intel, which acquired FPGA company Altera in 2015, and for speeding up AI operations that it has been doing for several years, as well as the speed of data centers and communications base stations.

According to reports, it is pointed out that it is likely that it will still take some time for the CPU and FPGA hybrid processor to actually appear in the information about the leak of AMD Epic (EPYC), which is a data center CPU. Related information can be found here .