- Saturday, 28 November 2009
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One finger in the throat and one in the rectum makes a good diagnostician - Sir William Osler
AMD holds its own IDF
WE HAVE LONG said that AMD needed an IDF-like event to spread the technical word and act as a mixer for ideas. Little did we know they had one, but it was hidden from the public gaze, until this year.
The event is called the AMD Technical Forum and Exposition (TFE), and is held every autumn in Taipei. The first three years were 'top (ish) secret', NDAs required, and in general discussed things that were not meant to be public, yet. This year, the requirements were relaxed quite a bit, so The INQUIRER went along for the show.
TFE is the brainchild of AMD Fellow and Chief Thermal Architect, Dr Gamal Refai-Ahmed. It started out several years ago as a small conference of barely 100 people, and has since grown to almost 400 with 42 partners involved. This and other efforts lead to Dr Refai-Ahmed receiving the 2008 Thermal Management Award from the ASME.
Gamal with a typical slide
Since TFE is by engineers for engineers, there was little publicity, and almost everything was to the point. This is a backhanded way of saying it was a good thing to go to. Initially, the conference centered on future thermal problems facing the chip industry, and has since moved on to other topics like power, EMI and acoustics. It is continually broadening, and is now a good way to kick off discussions on where things are going in PCs. If you look at the agenda, you can see what AMD/ATI is nervous about in the 2-3 years out time frame.
There are two key differences between TFE and IDF. First is that TFE is more forward looking, it is trying to solve problems that are years out, not near term. IDF tends to showcase current products and how to use them more than long term questions. TFE is also a method to bring people together to solve problems, not handing them close to final solutions. You could sum it up by saying that IDF is about using Intel products, TFE is more laying the groundwork for the future technologies.
The end result was a lot of hallway chats, several new and coming-soon technologies on display and, in general, the seeds of collaboration were planted. We will be bringing you a closer look at several of these technologies in the coming days, so stay tuned.
If you get the chance next year, it is an event worth going to if you are in the field. ยต
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You misspelled "INQUIRER" haha, next time look at the top of the page if you get confused!

SM Writes: I have been suitably chastised and ridiculed.
"IDF is about using Intel products, TFE is more laying the groundwork for the future technologies."
They can't showcase their products cause they've got nothing to show (except radeon 4xxx series perhaps).
And Intel also demonstrates future technologies and ideas though its not exclusively for engineers.
I'm surprised that The INQ didn't knew this "secret"...
Hence, it is about Intel products and future Intel technologies that will produce future Intel offerings...get it? IDF is not about a group of geeks trying to think of solutions...it's about delivering solutions...think of it as the product of crisp execution...a word that is foreign to AMD. AMD is a follower not a trend setter, and has no research to speak of, now get of it "dancing in the isle" goon.
He's got his hands up cos somebody got a gun on him.
AMD has for years been the innovative company with Intel playing catch up. The roles have just been reversed for the time being.
AMD a follower??? I think you have that backwards.

AMD moves to DDR while Intel pushed Rambus back in, what 98?
Intel then laters forced to move to what? Oh yeah, DDR.

AMD integrates memory controller back in 2000.
Intel is just now moving to integrated memory controller.

AMD moves to x64 while Intel pushes Itanium. Intel then forced to follow suit and move to x64

AMD moves to native multi core on single die while Intel moved to MCM. Now, Intel followed suit and moved to multicore on single die.

Hmm, who is following whom?
They're not comparable. IDF is Intels sales show, nothing more. They're there to reinforce their clients and the publics trust in Intel technologies and hopefully make them buy Intel hardware. TFE is a typical engineering seminar where the technology talk isn't aimed at selling shares, hardware or trust, instead it's about planning ahead, forming connections and discussing issues that will be necessary to deal with in the next 2-3 years.