←back to thread

141 points zdw | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
joelthelion ◴[] No.45665436[source]
I don't quite get it. What's so special about having 32MB of cache? Why is it called "infinity"?
replies(3): >>45665469 #>>45665483 #>>45665667 #
phire ◴[] No.45665667[source]
AMD named their memory fabric "infinity fabric" for marketing reasons. So when they developed their memory attached cache solution (which lives in the memory fabric, unlike a traditional cache), the obvious marketing name is "infinity cache"

The main advantage of a memory attached cache is that it's cheaper than a regular cache, and can even be put on a seperate die, allowing you to have much more of it.

AMDs previous memory fabric from the early 2000s was called "Hyper Transport", which has a confusing overlap with Intel's Hyper Threading, but I think AMD actually bet intel to the name by a few years.

replies(4): >>45665841 #>>45666573 #>>45673803 #>>45676022 #
1. FuriouslyAdrift ◴[] No.45673803[source]
Infinity Fabric is, in fact, the current superset of HyperTransport. HyperTransport is an IO architecture for chip to chip communication and has been used by pretty much everyone. It's also an open spec and has a consortium managing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport