The concept of false advertising goes unnoticed in some countries, while in others it is reason enough to take a company to court. That's the situation AMD finds itself in today, facing a lawsuit related to the number of real cores in its FX processors under the Bulldozer architecture. The lawsuit is significantly smaller compared to other clashes we've seen, but it raises a very interesting question: What constitutes a core?
The Bulldozer design
When AMD first talked about its Bulldozer architecture, those of us who closely follow hardware noticed that something didn't quite add up. In simple terms, AMD presented Bulldozer as “modules” composed of two arithmetic-logic units associated with a floating-point unit. AMD's vision was to eliminate redundant components, simplify the design, keep costs reasonable, and increase efficiency through software optimizations. History taught us that the shot backfired on AMD, and its only relatively competitive FX family chips have a TDP of 220 watts, true nuclear reactors when compared to their direct competitors. Truth be told, the FX processors never went beyond Piledriver (the successor to Bulldozer), which left the AM3+ socket abandoned.
The lawsuit
To what was definitively a disappointment among users, now adds a complaint filed in California. The plaintiff, a certain Tom Dickey, claims that AMD inflated the number of cores in its Bulldozer processors, presenting its products to the public as eight-core chips, when in reality they had half. The most relevant detail of the lawsuit without a doubt is that it seeks through legal means to establish “what is a core”. Should we count the cores “inside” the modules, or are the modules themselves “cores” with components inside? Is a core strictly “physical,” or is it inevitable to also evaluate logical aspects?
An inevitable settlement
Most likely, AMD and the plaintiff will reach an agreement out of court if the case gains enough traction. Legal costs on the other side of the pond are exorbitant, so it is in the parties' interest to resolve the conflict as soon as possible and avoid setting any precedent. Now, we all agree that Bulldozer is a finished story for AMD. Its financial situation is critical and all the chips are placed on Zen.
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