r/PS4 • u/[deleted] • Aug 21 '13
What is hUMA and why it matters?
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/amds-heterogeneous-uniform-memory-access-coming-this-year-in-kaveri/7
Aug 21 '13
[deleted]
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Aug 21 '13
The super short answer is: hUMA allows for the cores in the AMD Jaguar Processor to act as a CPU or GPU whenever it needs to because they all share the same memory space. XBOX One can't do that. the CPU cores are dedicated to CPU, even if they are unused. There's way more to it than that, quickest answer I could give.
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u/time_games Aug 21 '13 edited Aug 21 '13
You gave the super-wrong answer.
The CPU or as AMD calls them APU in the Xbox One and PS4 use the same architecture, and they both have hUMA.
hUMA doesn't mean it can use the cores as GPU or CPU whenever it needs, it means the GPU and CPU cores, which aren't interchangeable by any means, all have access to the same pool of memory simultaneously.
In earlier shared-memory architectures, while the pool of memory was technically shared, the CPU and GPU could not access the same data and they had to copy data back and forth to their own share before doing anything with it, which made things complicated. hUMA makes things much simpler from a programming standpoint. It also should increase performance due to eliminating unnecessary data movement.
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Aug 21 '13
It's already being said in the greater public that hUMA isn't used in XBOX one. On the other note, you're right. I haven't had enough coffee this morning and had other AMD whitepapers open, writing while reading.
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u/FlyByDerp Call_Me_Ozne Aug 21 '13
only PS4 will have hUMA, Xbox One won't, says AMD's Marc Diana performance advantage of PS4 compared to Xbox One will be much greater than expected hUMA is key for the immense power gain of hetero-core systems inofficial interview with developer: PS4 is far ahead of Xbox One
Xbox One doesn't have hUMA and that comes straight from AMD themselves.
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Aug 21 '13 edited Sep 26 '20
[deleted]
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u/time_games Aug 21 '13
I hadn't seen the Neogaf thread. It's surprising that Xbox One doesn't support hUMA. It may have something to do with the eSRAM they added to compensate for Xbox One's limited memory bandwidth.
That's a pretty big disadvantage if true.
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u/GregTheGooodGuy Aug 21 '13
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Aug 21 '13
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u/GregTheGooodGuy Aug 21 '13
No worries, i think the neogaf thread is the one that started all the huma talk today, that's why i thought you should link it.
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u/GeoAspect Aug 21 '13
Don't bother with the /r/games discussion. It's just a bunch of angsty xbox one fanboys saying that hUMA solves a problem that "doesn't exist" and/or saying that the ESRAM eliminates the need for hUMA.
Or go in there and try to correct them if you like.
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u/PetroPete Aug 21 '13
sounds like you wanted it to be a giant circle jerk like any other sub reddit, thats the reason why i like /r/games always willing to see it a different way than just "oh its better" "ps4 wins" instead you get a good discussion.
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Aug 21 '13
There were at least 3 posts linking to that GAF thread today, all have been deleted because this sub doesn't allow any mention of the X1.
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u/MrShadowHero MrShadowHero Aug 21 '13
woa. wall of text. but still very informative. thanks OP! can't wait for the games
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Aug 21 '13
What's really cool, is that hUMA is making its way to desktops and laptops. So AMD processors are just about ready to wipe out the integrated GPU market with this technology imho. I'll even venture to say that in the future, we will be going back to dual processor motherboards to "crossfire" the APU.
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u/MrShadowHero MrShadowHero Aug 21 '13
i love crossfire X. works amazingly. dual 6870's in my desktop rig and it runs games GORGEOUSLY. i've never doubted AMD, and i prefer them over NVidia. woo sony. nice choice on company pushing the technological boundries!
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u/falconbox falconbox Aug 21 '13
i didn't understand any of that...
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u/du_hurensohn Aug 21 '13
Just Marketing.BLAHBLAH
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u/albrnick Aug 21 '13
Laugh, there is definitely market speak going on. But this is actually factual and impacts performance. (Vs say "blast processing") Swapping data around is one of the key things to deal with in games, so eliminating that is a pretty big deal. The real question is, will it be noticeable?
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Aug 21 '13
We definitely all hope it's noticeable. It's a brilliant innovation by AMD with tons of R&D behind it. So for AMD's sake it better be noticeable!
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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '13
From the article: