AMD is saying this to push their own upcoming products which feature hUMA.
I wonder what the real world advantage will be? Nicer textures? Or high-res textures that load faster? Or just an overall performance advantage because dealing with textures will be more efficient? I can't tell for sure from the article.
Ah, wait, the link has more:
"hUMA is a cache coherent system, meaning that the CPU and GPU will always see a consistent view of data in memory. If one processor makes a change then the other processor will see that changed data, even if the old value was being cached."
and an explanation from another user:
"PS4 will have hUMA wich means that you no longer need a distinction between CPU partition and GPU partition. Both processors can use the same pieces of data at the same time. You don't need to copy stuff and this allows for completely new algorithms that utilize CPU and GPU at the same time. This is interesting since a GPU is very strong, but extremely dumb. A CPU is extremely smart, but very weak. Since you can utilize both processors at the same time for a single task you have a system that is extremely smart and extremely strong at the same time.
It will allow for an extreme boost for many, many algorithms and parts of algorithms. On top of that it will allow for completely new classes of algorithms. This is a game changer."
Interesting stuff. I wonder how much of an effect we'll see.
