Tipster @Underfox3 discovered what appears to be an AMD patent for a hybrid computing CPU architecture. The patent, filed with the US Office of Patents last July describes a "heterogenous processor system" that includes a "lower-feature second processor."
This wording and the drawing sheet attached are very similar to ARM's description of big.LITTLE. While big.LITTLE refers specifically to hybrid computing models leveraging different classes of ARM CPU core, the concept is fundamentally the same as what AMD's evidently doing here.The "high feature processor" and the "low feature processor" have their own L1 Cache, but share access to high-speed L2.
The "low feature processor" implements a sub-set of the ISA features and operates at a lower power/performance level than the "high feature processor." It would be interesting to see exactly how AMD implements this in the x86 space.
Would we see something like BIG.little where full-fledged Zen cores are paired with low-power "little cores?" And would we see this approach on desktop or would it be exclusive to mobility devices like notebooks?
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