Microsoft Creates then Pulls Code to Boost AMD Bulldozer

AMD has been having performance issues with its new Bulldozer CPUs, and a fix by Microsoft had to be abandoned before it could do any good. What’s the story? Read on and find out.

For the uninitiated, AMD’s Bulldozer CPU, which was supposed to be a powerhouse of a processor, came out of the gate with a stunted start, hardly competing with Intel’s existing offerings and barely outperforming its own AMD predecessors. The reason? Apparently, the CPU was uniquely designed for peak performance in “turbo” and multithreaded multiprocessing applications such as server workloads. And while the CPU crunches through non-optimized software just fine, it doesn’t represent a step up from previous-generation CPUs.

Ars Technica delved deep into the issue, and summed it up thus:

Enter: Microsoft and the hotfix:

For Microsoft to rewrite some code to take advantage of an AMD -pecific CPU is really an interesting move. However, the results were less than stellar, and in some cases, a detriment. According to VR-Zone.com:

Now that Bulldozer users are back at square one, it will be a difficult time to find out what AMD’s future strategy is. Bulldozer’s issues, coupled with AMD’s botched production of new APUs, could spell disaster for a period in time when mobile CPUs and server CPUS are at the heart of the ever-growing post-PC, cloud-enabled world. Stay tuned for AMD’s Q4 earnings, which are slated for Jan. 24, 2012. Chances are, it will paint a better picture of what AMD’s strengths and weaknesses will be going into the next year.