Hardware support: AMD's Newly-patented Programmable Execution Unit (PEU) allows Customizable Instructions and Adaptable Computing

AMD's Newly-patented Programmable Execution Unit (PEU) allows Customizable Instructions and Adaptable Computing
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AMD's Newly-patented Programmable Execution Unit (PEU) allows Customizable Instructions and Adaptable Computing

Posted: 01 Jan 2021 08:09 PM PST

Here is the link to the patent. Thanks to u/freddyt55555 for the heads up on this one. I am extremely excited for this tech. Here are some highlights of the patent:

Processor includes one or more reprogrammable execution units which can be programmed to execute different types of customized instructions
When a processor loads a program, it also loads a bitfile associated with the program which programs the PEU to execute the customized instruction
Decode and dispatch unit of the CPU dispatches the specialized instructions to the PEUs
PEU shares registers with the FP and Int EUs.
PEU can accelerate Int or FP workloads as well if speedup is desired
PEU can be virtualized while still using system security features
Each PEU can be programmed differently from other PEUs in the system
PEUs can operate on data formats that are not typical FP32/FP64 (e.g. Bfloat16, FP16, Sparse FP16, whatever else they want to come up with) to accelerate machine learning, without needing to wait for new silicon to be made to process those data types.
PEUs can be reprogrammed on-the-fly (during runtime)
PEUs can be tuned to maximize performance based on the workload
PEUs can massively increase IPC by doing more complex work in a single cycle