Zen, CUDA, and Tensor Cores, Part I: The Silicon

This is part 1 of a miniseries on today’s common consumer computing cores. It contains investigations into undisclosed hardware details. I have tried to validate the accuracy of the series by consulting hardware designers, and have done my best to paint an accurate picture of what we know — and what we don’t know — about modern core designs. Please keep in mind that many aspects of this series represent collective best guesses, not certainties.

What’s the difference between a Zen core, a CUDA core, and a Tensor core? Not vaguely — like “one is for graphics, one is for AI” and so on — but specifically, how does each “core” differ in design and operation?

In this multi-part series, we’re going to look in detail at these core types to help bridge the gap between the vague conceptual understanding most of us already have, and the in-depth knowledge we could use to make better sense of hardware behavior across core types.

Here in part 1, we’ll look at the most tangible aspect of a core: what it physically looks like. We’ll put aside the abstract flow charts and design diagrams, and look directly at the silicon itself.

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