[Libre-soc-dev] maybe get ryzen 7950x for faster compilation and avx512

[Jacob Lifshay]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 09:24 Timothy Pearson <tpearson at raptorengineering.com>
wrote:

> Why would you want to use non-free hardware (AMD PSP, a "ring -3" closed
> source signed binary) to work on a libre chip?  More importantly, why would
> libre-soc want to use its resources to purchase this type of non-free
> hardware for its developers?
>

3 reasons:
* POWER9 would need to be around 2x the cost to get comparable
multi-threaded performance (the 18-core cpu just by itself is more than the
price of the whole amd-based upgrade, that's not even counting the
motherboard or ram or new ssd for server)
* the 7950x waay outdoes the POWER9 in single threaded performance (very
important for silicon layout, hardware simulation, formal proofs, etc.
where we can be running code for multiple hours, taking 1/2 the time can
save a huge amount of time)
* avx512 would be very useful to be able to compare against.

Jacob