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Secrets of Steamroller: Digging deep into AMD's next-gen core
- By Joel Hruska on March 3, 2014 at 12:01 pm
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AMD's Steamroller core, found in Kaveri APUs, is an interesting duck. It's the first chip to ship with HSA support, the first CPU core that can be paired with a GCN-based graphics core, and it promised significant improvements in performance-per-clock that were then largely offset by a lower clock speed. Our investigation shows that the situation isn't that simple, however — there are some areas, particularly on the APU side of the equation, where Steamroller is far better than its predecessor. This article is a low-level investigation into where the chip improved, where it fell short, and what AMD might do going forward.
Since it launched in 2011, Bulldozer's perennial problem has been the disconnect between the sorts of gains AMD seemed to be promising and the real-world gains that actually materialized. AMD's slides, if you recall, promised enormous gains:
A 30% improvement in total operations delivered per cycle. 20% reduction in missed branches. Instruction cache misses reduced by 30%. This last is critically important in a chip with a long pipeline; branch mispredicts kill CPU performance. But the truly puzzling thing about Steamroller is this: Despite a great many improvements, the core still seems handicapped, held back from its full potential.
Let's try and find out why.
Test setup
All of our tests were conducted with an Asus A88X Pro motherboard, 8GB of DDR3-2133, a Samsung 840 Pro SSD, and Windows 8.1. We tested the A10-7850K against the Piledriver/Richland-based A10-6800K. AMD's previous APU is also a quad-core design, but has higher clock speeds balanced against an older GPU core and second-generation CPU core.
Turbo Mode was disabled for these tests; the A10-7850K and A10-6800K were both locked to a 4.2GHz clock speed. This is a significant overclock compared to the A10-7850K's turbo speed of 4.0GHz, but it's a down clock for the A10-6800K, which normally runs at 4.4GHz Turbo. Both integrated memory controllers and northbridges were run at their default clock speeds (1.8GHz for the Northbridge (Sandra reports that this results in a memory controller clock speed of 3.6GHz).
We'll start our investion with a look at the cache performance of the two chips. This is one area where AMD has historically struggled, so let's see if Steamroller improves the equation. We'd like to thank CPU analyst and programmer Agner Fog for his assistance in testing and identifying ongoing bottlenecks in the Steamroller microarchitecture. Agner has written multiple guides to optimizing x86 processors, built an open-source set of benchmarks for testing specific characteristics (available on his website) and compiled detailed latency charts and edge case information for both Intel and AMD chips.
Next page: Benchmarking the cache structure and throughput
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pelov lov
Great article, Joel. I love Agner's stuff, but I've found that most novices have a hard time reading it and interpreting the insights. You've done a good job with respect to making it more readable :)
I definitely agree with you regarding the long term viability of this architecture as it pertains to the fab side and what processes are available for AMD. AMD's pipeline is still 25% longer in the Bulldozer derivatives than it was in K10/K10.5, and reaching the clock speeds required to compensate for that is going to be increasingly more difficult. Even the move to bulk silicon has impacted AMD in this sense, but it was nevertheless required in order to not inflate the die size and still improve GPU performance by a considerable amount.
I do think that a mention to AMD's poor main memory write speeds would have been nice. This, as well as the serious memory bottleneck for the GPU, are the biggest aspects hamstringing AMD's APU performance as opposed to general CPU performance which you've outlined above well — though it likely plays a part, too.
Didn't AMD claim they would add a micro op cache, something that was similar to what Intel did with Sandy Bridge?
The multi-threaded performance gains are pretty close to the theoretical 20% tax that was imposed on the microarchitecture with pre-Steamroller derivatives that shared their decoder. I'm interested in what the gains are when comparing Win8 compared to Win7 and the supposed 'smarter thread scheduler'. I'd think the gains would be more significant than the ~1-2% we saw on Piledriver.
Although AMD may address the single-threaded//single-core-in-a-module bottlenecks with Excavator, I don't see them considerably improving the branch prediction penalties nor the cache latencies — which, though improved compared to Piledriver, are still significantly slower than Intel's architectures. Addressing either of these would probably mean AMD's changes to Excavator would be so drastic, lengthy, and costly that dumping it outright might be the better option.
At this point, I feel like we'd see more from Carrizo as an APU if AMD addressed the memory bandwidth issues and cache speeds / latencies. A fast LLC could not only improve GPU performance by a large amount by alleviating main memory bottlenecks, a unified cache for both ends of the APU would help tremendously with HSA/OpenCL applications. It would inflate the cost, sure, but AMD has already inflated the cost of their APUs due to the reliance on high speed DDR3, particularly as we're on the cusp of transitioning past it and the economies of scale tip toward DDR4 and other more exotic memory architectures.
Joel Hruska
AMD did indeed add a micro-loop cache (I discuss it in this story). It holds about 40 micro-ops. Agner says it does offer a performance increase in very small loops.
The question of what's still wrong with Steamroller is an interesting one, and it's extremely difficult to answer. Is it combined fetch? Is it cache contention in L1? Is it branch prediction?
The multi-threading penalty on Steamroller compared to Thuban is now 10% as opposed to 20%. That was a big cleanup, and I'm guessing this is where the dual decode helps the most.
But we see significant performance slowdowns even when main memory isn't really being touched. The reason I suspect Fetch may be the issue is because there are so few scenarios in which Steamroller is really *fast.* If I recall from Anandtech's deep dive, some of the simple-but-branchy code showed significant speed-ups against Magny-Cours (this was back in the BD days)..
The one hope for a significantly improved Carrizo is that AMD has had years to get to the bottom of these problems and the next generation chip is still on 28nm and still using the same GPU. Hopefully that means more money and time spent on cleaning up the CPU.
I maintain that this is vital to improving HSA. If the CPU is, on average, 60% as fast as an Intel core, and HSA improves performance 3x, then you have a performance of 0.6x Intel and 1.8x Intel.
If the workload is 50% HSA-enabled code, the final speed-up overall is just 1.2x Intel.
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regarding to this excellent Bulldozer analyze http://www.ilsistemista.net/index.php/hardware-analysis/24-bulldozer-vs-sandy-bridge-vs-k10-comparison-whats-wrong-with-amd-bulldozer.html?start=6
I would like to know if L1 store bandwidth vs FPU compute capability was improved with Steamroller or not ?
Joel Hruska
I don't know how Ilsistemista calculated its figures, so I can't give you clock-for-clock analysis. Steamroller is capable of two reads or one read / one write per cycle. Agner does note that "Steamroller is much better, with a throughput of one 256-bit store per 2 clock cycles if aligned, 4 clock cycles if unaligned."
And the L1 bandwidth in our tests is much improved.
However to the best of my knowledge, there's still just a single port.
thanks, by the way great article Joel !
Joel Hruska
Oh, to answer your other comment:
I agree that we're past the point where adding more cores to the APU makes much sense. It's time to explore improving latencies and bandwidth through other means. But AMD is all about holding down the cost on its cores, and there's no "cheap" way to do this.
Ideally, we'd see a Carrizo that improves performance, performance per watt, *and* offers either a quad-channel interface or a GDDR5 unified option. A whopping chunk of LLC is the other option, but without better cache latencies, I don't think slapping a big chunk of EDRAM on the die will be a huge help.
pelov lov
I must have missed the micro op cache reference on my first read through.
Yea, the cache latency issues are the first thing to come to mind when looking at AMD's BD architecture. A unified LLC would still suffer from the same throughput and latency problems.
Opting to stay at 28nm was a cost-saving decision, but it says more about what they expect their silicon to cost; a high performing chip that warrants a higher price tag is out of the question, imo. Whatever carrizo brings won't be substantial.
The alternative to what AMD's single threaded bottleneck is could be simpler: nothing. the first revision or two generally bring the bigge st improvements. This is now revision #4, or 5 if you count the 45nm delay. It's definitely plausible that AMD has already milked the BD architectureand the relatively meager improvements in steamroller point to the architecture hitting its ceiling.
Joel Hruska
I don't recall a 45nm delay for BD. The chip was announced in 2008 for a 2011 target on 32nm from the start.
Here's my guess — and it *is* a guess. Consider that Bulldozer made a lot of various bets, some of them quite badly. So now AMD has a problem: It needs this core to be an APU, and it needs better scaling. Cue Piledriver, which is already ramping as BD ships out the door.
With PD, AMD clearly grabbed a *subset* of things they thought they could fix. Almost all of PD's changes are aimed at improving scaling and power consumption, very few IPC changes. That's because implementing PD also means a new GPU and new APU fabric improvements.
Then the Krishna / Wichita ports to GF fail. AMD has to rebuild these parts on TSMC's gate-first 28nm.
Skip to Steamroller. Now AMD is doing a new CPU, a new APU fabric, a new GPU design (GCN is new to GlobalFoundries) on a new process node, AND it's doing all of this while simultaneously ramping Xbox One and PS4.
At some point here it decides to ramp an ARM core, too.
That's a LOT of irons in the fire.
Now we look ahead to Carrizo. No new process. No fundamentally new GPU core. No simultaneous ramp of two new consoles. No first-gen ARM core ramp. No attempting to scramble and port chips to TSMC when they were supposed to be built at GF.
I think it's possible — perhaps not *likely*, but possible — to look at Carrizo and say that this is AMD's first chance to take a breath and do more than a quick-and-dirty patch job on the core.
Very good article. Nice understandable tests. Keep it up!.
Then the Krishna / Wichita ports to GF fail. AMD has to rebuild these parts on TSMC's gate-first 28nm.
TSMC and Intel have been Gate Last always.
It was GF, SMSG and other members that was Gate First at 32nm as well as 28nm..
At 20nm GF and SMSG would go Gate Last against IBM which will continue to be Gate First.
Joel Hruska
You're quite right. Typo on my part. Should be fixed.
pelov lov
I should clarify that AMD sampled BD in 2010, and upon receiving the silicon in hand they realized that the simulations had gone awry somewhere.
I can definitely understand the argument you're making, but I'm not sure just how much smaller AMD's plate really is. There's buzz regarding some TSMC production going to GloFo to chew up a decent amount of wafers (and consequently avoid yet another one-time payment — now for the second time), as well as their ARM server stuff, new GPUs, and whatever they have cooking for the cat family. The rush job with Kabini/Temash certainly points to your statements being true. The first iteration of the Jaguar cores had no real working turbo despite being frugal with respect to power consumption. Beema and Mullins are, at least according to AMD, going to bring about a 2x increase in perf-per-watt, and that's with only small revisions to the architecture but a working turbo core and firmware (think Richland) to maximize for TDP headroom.
If they can achieve a 2x perf-per-watt improvement with just a small tweak to the existing silicon on the same process node, the future of the big core//module is in even bigger doubt. To get Excavator anywhere near Haswell will require a much bigger investment and way more time.
Agreed. Kabini and Temash seemed to be somewhat rushed product for the market that they are targeting.
Now regarding the wafer move from TSMC to GF, Devinder Kumar did confirm that Console chips are planned to move from TSMC to GF in 2014 in this Goldman Sachs event
(needs free registration). Look for the 20 minute mark…
Joel Hruska
Interesting point. This could be the 28nm shift I talked about in an earlier story.
carol argo
Without going to full detail ,does this mean all the fix ms did for jaguar is for naught?in the end the issue lied deeper?if this apply ms won't be happy
Joel Hruska
MS didn't fix anything for Jaguar.
The shared scheduler improvements baked into Windows 8 as opposed to Windows 7 only improves performance by 1-2%.
I've always taken an issue with the thread scheduling patches that MS released. Manual hand-tuned thread scheduling can improve performance by huge margins:
Joel Hruska
No, it doesn't. All Scott did there is the same thing I did for my own Bulldozer tests. He forced tests to run one module per thread. The function of the scheduling tweaks is to make certain that cores properly adjust to Turbo Mode frequencies and to assign threads more accurately. It's not the same as forcing one module per thread.
There's nothing to be suspicious of. I promise you, if AMD thought those fixes unfair, they'd have told us so, at length.
Wow… So the first post *did* make it? I swear I thought it got dropped again by Disqus. This is getting weird…
Huh. I always assumed that the Microsoft patches would do just that: force single threads to run on one module per instead of on tightly grouped clusters. It's definitely what I was lead to believe at the time. I'm sure they had a good reason, but why couldn't they intelligently schedule threads by forcing them to run one per module? A 20 percent increase in perfomance in certain niche situations is nothing to scoff at.
Joel Hruska
God only knows — but I've got a theory. ;)
Let's look at Bulldozer. First this: http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/CB-Scaling1.png
Now add to that graph the following: Full-core performance in CB11.5 was 5.9.
So on an eight-core FX-8350, you had an increase from 3.52 to 5.9. Adding 2x the cores got you 1.67x the performance, a ratio of 83% scaling. But critically — running in eight-core mode was *still* faster than four core.
Here's what this means: The only benchmarks that could show a benefit from this kind of scheduling were benchmarks that had four threads *exactly*. If a test could scale to eight threads, or if you ran multiple lightly-threaded workloads, you lost that benefit.
This is particularly relevant with respect to APUs. Because APUs are only quad-cores, the only applications that could gain *those* benefits were dual-threaded.
pelov lov
You're ignoring Bulldozer's biggest achilles heel: power consumption. MS and AMD only tweaked the logarithm so it's a bit smarter, but it won't wake up an entire module for a single integer core. That's just wasteful.
Remember that Bulldozer only looks more impressive as you scale up in integer-laden thread count; and usually past 6 due to the 20% decoder-sharing tax. Past 4 threads, which is what's important on BD anyway, the way you sort via thread scheduler makes less of a difference. There are other things to keep in mind, like common workloads and resources, etc., that also play a huge part. It's not as simple as 1 thread per module until you get to 5. It's way more complex than that.
I've always been suspicious of those fixes. Hand tuned thread scheduling paints a completely different story:
Thanks for the article Joel. Appreciate making technical articles like this readable to masses!
Given how AMD still hasn't really brought the fundamental Bulldozer architecture up to speed after all this time somewhat makes me less and less optimistic that AMD will go much farther with this architecture. Don't get me wrong: I love the Bulldozer architecture and for me it's perhaps the most interesting CPU architecture ever etched on silicon, x86 or not. I'm using an FX-8350 myself and I absolutely love it, being the chip geek that I am.
The thing is, AMD has had enough time (although perhaps not enough money) to work out the possible things that could be wrong with this architecture. If they can't fix IPC, I guess they should stop trying to make IPC higher and instead find out what's killing the chip's speed. Perhaps there's just a part of the design that's falling out of line at higher clocks? If they can clock Excavator 50% higher while sucking the same or less amount of juice it would end all of AMD's woes.
If they are, however, intent on making IPC higher, I think they should take a long, hard look at the execution units as well as the caches. The two ALUs and two AGUs are simply too narrow especially for a 'big core' design which, even worse, has to contend with Intel's very wide architecture. They can feed the execution units as much as they want but those ALUs and AGUs will probably just choke on all those data. AMD needs to make the core wider. As for cache, why can't AMD make the caches faster? Make them 8-way instead of just 2- or 3-way?
As for branch prediction, AMD's mechanism probably isn't as advanced as Intel's, which has some of the best predictors in the industry, but I believe AMD's current predictors aren't really bad either. Now we know Bulldozer's main pipe is 25% longer than the previous architecture, which was the K10/K10.5, and which had a 12-stage main pipeline. That would mean Bulldozer has a 15-stage pipe. Long, but not THAT long. There are rumors that the fundamental Core 2 architecture (which I reckon is still the foundation for today's Ivies and Haswells) has 17 stages, so Bulldozer's pipe isn't really very long by today's standards as most people may have been led to believe. Even low-power ARM cores have around 12-15 stages, IIRC. This means a mispredict won't flush more instructions as Core 2 would, and trying to get back on track by pulling in the right instructions to keep things going would play a more critical role. Here, the caches and prefetchers could very well hamper the chip more than a bad predictor would. So, going back, the caches need work. I would think the predictor is fine.
I really hope AMD will continue improving the fundamental Bulldozer architecture beyond Excavator. Unfortunately, AMD has not disclosed anything about a possible successor to Excavator. Will they continue tweaking the design? Or are they working on a new architecture, however unlikely that would be given their and the target market's situation? Or perhaps they're tweaking the Jaguar core for bigger things? Time will tell.
Joel Hruska
Bulldozer's pipeline is 20 stages long. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5057/the-bulldozer-aftermath-delving-even-deeper/2
As Anand notes, while this is long, you're still correct — it's not *that* long compared to other modern chips.
As for what's holding back the clock? That's process node. I did some comparisons between the A10-6800K and the A10-7850K, scaling voltage proportionally for both chips across 1.2 – 4.8GHz.
The hiccup in A10-6800K scaling is caused by not needing a voltage tap at one point. You can see that the 7850K's power consumption jumps much more quickly above the 3.5GHz mark. At 4.4GHz, the A10-7850K consumes 158W compared to 148W for Richland at 4.8GHz.
(That's system power draw).
What really helps Intel, or so the theory goes, is the loop buffer. Unless it's the loop buffer and the branch fusion. Or the branch fusion, the loop buffer, and the ALUs. ;)
carol argo
Having a32 kb l1 cache 8 way tend to help I expect .but this on my old i5 2500k !I suspect if push come to shove ,Intel will have ddr4 variant released !given they le 45% faster t'en AMD ,Intel is probably more intent on arm,mobile is pretty much arm,and now they re aiming for server!
Joel Hruska
Carol, it's just not clear that the L1 cache is the primary bottleneck.
Thanks for the Anandtech link. Very interesting read. I must have missed that one almost two years ago. As for energy efficiency/clock scaling, it's just too bad how GF isn't able to give AMD better clocks and better energy efficiency. The 28SHP process is clearly a compromise between switching speed and density, and if GF has a process that's more tuned for switching speed, I wish AMD would use it to bring out a CPU-only 8-core FX to succeed Vishera. In the end, except for some niche applications, I just don't think APUs are a good idea. You always need to compromise to put both the CPU and GPU on one piece of silicon when you can always separate them to avoid compromises in terms of process tech (switching speed and density), cooling, TDP ceiling, etc., while the advantages of putting them together are hard to see and are probably just as realizable if you build the two components separately and put them on separate packages. Prices aren't really much lower either. In the end, AMD is convincing no one but themselves that APUs are the future, except for some niche applications such as HTPCs where space is at a premium.
Joel Hruska
I actually disagree with you on this — let me make a case to you for why.
1) Everyone believes heterogeneous computing is the future.
The only reason you aren't reading about this much in the consumer space is because Intel and Nvidia have focused their work in the HPC market. Nonetheless, look at Apple with its speciality sensors on the iPhone 5S, or Google's work on the Moto X. The idea here is the same — you have a CPU core surrounded by specialty cores.
The reason for this is because mobile and HPC actually face many of the same problems. They both need to move data for a minimum of power. They both need to be extremely efficient. Heat is a major concern in both areas. Environments are tightly constrained.
So AMD's decision to push HSA in an APU form factor? That's where the entire market is going. That doesn't mean the entire market is going to buy AMD's *solution*, mind you — but AMD is correct about this.
2). "Why buy HSA when you can buy a great Intel core?"
This is a very valid argument, given that AMD's CPU technology lags so far behind Intel. The key to understanding it, however, is understanding that the desktop and even laptop form factors are essentially dead. Not dead in terms of sales volume — but dead in terms of being the products that drive the market.
The market is being driven by innovations in *handheld.* In those environments, where power is at a premium, an HSA-style solution has two principle advantages over a non-HSA solution.
A). Power consumption scales at the cube of voltage * clock speed. This is why Intel, when it built GT3 for Haswell, went wide+slow rather than small + super-fast. A wide array of slower-clocked chips will always have power advantages over high-speed quad-cores.
B). Doing the work on-GPU moves the heat elsewhere. Hot-spot formation is the bane of modern computing. If the CPU can spin a workload off to a different component for execution, the CPU can down-clock and dump heat.
In a conventional desktop, you say: "No one gives a shit." And you're right. But in a 5W form factor, if I can spin the data across the core to heat up the *other* side of the die, I can run the CPU at full speed for three seconds longer the next time I have a workload to do.
If the average workload is 6 seconds long, I've just delivered a substantial speed-up to the user.
3). The "great CPU core" and "Great HSA implementation are not mutually exclusive."
People tend to look at this argument in Intel-vs-AMD terms. And that's understandable, given their historic competition and the way AMD markets HSA. But if we step back and think about HSA the standard, rather than HSA-the-AMD-solution, there's no intrinsic reason you can't have both.
If AMD is successful, the situation will mirror what we saw in 64-bit. By the time HSA is widespread, by the time support is baked into the operating system, Intel will have its own implementation.
pelov lov
To Joel's point,
You've probably heard of some of these terms but weren't aware they represented the same thing. Joel's description of heat dissipation being aided by transistors being spaced efficiently with respect to workload so as to stave off power consumption has a popular term amongst the tech crowd that you may have heard of: dark silicon. Having parts of the die 'off' while other parts are 'on' helps improve performance and decrease power consumption (as heat increases power consumption [mostly] linearly)
He's spot on regarding heterogeneous computing and architectures. The success of Teslas and even Knight's Corner (and Intel's Larrabee strategy) are all pointing to the same end goal – one where workloads are handled by 'specialty' cores, which can be numerous and FPU crunchers (GPUs) or many smaller integer cores along with wide vector units (Xeons/MIC). The term 'fixed function unit' is one that's floated about in describing specific parts of silicon that are designed for a specific task. Intel's QuickSync is a small part within the on-die GPU that handles video encoding/transcode and only within specific formats and for certain OSes/applications.
The success of HSA as a general term for heterogeneous architectures is independent of AMD's Kaveri and APU architectures. Yes, AMD are the ones currently spearheading the endeavor, but whether they sink or float won't ultimately affect the (inevitable) success of such an approach. We're very much moving in a direction where the old notions of 'This is a GPU' and 'This is a CPU' are completely muddied. Workloads are complex, and so are microarchitectures.
Joel Hruska
AMD uses the terms Latency Compute Unit and Throughput Compute Unit. I'm not sure that's great phraseology, but it speaks to the differentiation.
Joel Hruska
Oh, to hit your other point: I'm a big fan of the "tweaking Jaguar" argument, but that doesn't change the fact that Excavator comes first. Whatever happens to Jaguar in the long-term, it happens *after* Excavator.
I think improving Excavator is important — very important — even if the long-term future looks nothing like BD-derived chips.
Oh yes, improving Excavator is very important, that's for sure. Jaguar is important for AMD to hit lower power devices, but if they wanna stay in the big core business, they either have to bring the fundamental Bulldozer architecture up to speed, resurrect K10, or come up with an entirely new design, which is probably the most risky. At this point, the first two options seem like their best bets. What's really strange is how AMD is so silent as to what comes after Excavator. Do they just throw their hands up and say, That's it! We're out of ideas! We can't make Excavator any faster! We're done!"?
Joel Hruska
I have maintained since January that I think AMD's next "big core" architecture is a blend of Jaguar and XV.
Things to keep from BD:
Branch prediction.
AVX2 support. (256-bit registers coming in XV)
The shared FPU unit seems to work fairly well.
The HSA work.
The improved APU fabric.
The loop buffer.
Things to bring over from Jaguar:
The high efficiency / low bottleneck core.
Excellent use of die space.
Good integer performance for a core of its type.
Possibly other bits related to micro-op fusion and cache design.
I expect that the "follow-up" blends these designs.
The private FPU unit in Jaguar seems fine either, with a far better latency profile. From a bandwidth aggregation standpoint, the FPU can enjoy full load and store bandwidth by not sharing it, or either one has to make the register file and internal to be able to sustain loads from and stores to both cores. In Bulldozer, the rate of six 128-bit operations to DCs per cycle can never be sustained, though one may question if there is real world application that needs them.
Joel Hruska
That's an interesting point. I have not compared Kabini and Kaveri in pure FPU code clock-for-clock, though all of these comparisons are somewhat hampered by the damned half-speed L2 cache on Kabini.
*shakes fist*
If I remember correctly, for Cinebench the ray tracing benchmark, you would see Kabini outperform Richland at the same clock with the same amount of cores. I'm not sure of others. Please note that Jaguar has the same theoretical SSE read performance but the double of BD's SSE write performance for every pair of cores, where the performance here is defined as *just* the bandwidth between register file and load-store unit.
While many average forum posters always argue that the reason behind a shared FP unit in Bulldozer is about heterogeneous computing, as one can see its eventually-workable pilot solution was just launched two months ago, the assumed causality doesn't sound legit. I would say it was made shared just because of the expectation of better power & area efficiency, as described in the IEEE paper; more importantly, the assumed 1st target of the architecture was cloud and virtualization – VM is the strong point of Bulldozer, and likely the only one. What a pity.
So why I type the damn long paragraph above is that… eh, I just want to point out even if we have a super throughput engine next to a bucket of CPU cores, the CPU cores' FPU can still be useful by its fast and more branch-friendly nature, and the whole picture is far more complicated than "integer on CPU, floating-point on GPU". For instance, in ray tracing one may build the acceleration structure on the CPU cores with the use of SSE/AVX instructions, while making the traversal and rendering happen on GPU. So sharing an FPU would be fine, but hardly in the name of hetero-computing.
A Nice wrap-up of potential HSA use: http://www.mpsoc-forum.org/previous/2013/slides/8-Hegde.pdf
Joel Hruska
Thank God, someone else understands this.
AMD talked about using the GPU as FPU once upon a time, and everyone lost their minds.
The shared FPU unit was a way to save on *die* space, since most code (80% by AMD estimates) was integer, and since they weren't focused on trying to win the few areas dominated by FPU code.
Far too many people are convinced that either:
1). Bulldozer was part of a cunning AMD plan to make HSA work and is, in some poorly-defined way, "required" for HSA's success.
2). Bulldozer is a transitory stage before GPUs take over 90% of FPU and integer computing (and again, part of AMD's cunning master plan).
Not really "few" if we consider multimedia, productivity (CAD/design/engineering), enterprise applications and supercomputing are often partially friendly with more computing power in less cores, yet some of them particularly still require strong core performance to drive the app's UI/main logic. But somehow the industry is moving towards low-power cores for stuff that is typically I/O bounded, and this hurts BD even more as it can't differentiate from these solutions to an edge nor compete in higher-end uses.
Cores aren't the entire problem, anyway. The particulars of the memory hierarchy also contributes a lot of cuts.
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Ok this is plausible and glad to hear an alternative. Of course they knew it would take a long time to get to the HSA ideal and there were plenty of risks along the way. So they just lower the ratio of FPUs to IUs to 1/2 to maybe lower power and improve area efficiency in the meantime, hoping that everything is improved enough around it to not feel the reduction in FP performance? And maybe HSA kicks in later and all problems are eased? Could be. I really have no insight to area efficiency and the evolving fab situations myself. That seems to be a real moving target to which AMD has to repeatedly react.
By the way, I don't see any specific mention of floating point units on CPU in the linked PDF, at least that I could find. I don't know if you meant it that way anyway, but it was interesting to see, thanks.
The keyword is cloud and virtualization, which AMD is now attacking in another way namely "ARM from the bottom"…
You shall research for each application's algorithm individually. The slides was likely intended to give an illustration to developers and perhaps analysts only. It tells one that he/she may distribute the tasks in those ways, but the implementation is up to the developers themselves, isn't it?
pelov lov
Another way to put this with respect to fab processes and the GPU side of the die:
Bulldozer and its derivatives (Steamroller included) are built primarily for SOI and its leniency towards the top end of the frequency-voltage curve. To perform to its full potential, the microarchitecture requires clock speeds around mid-4ghz.
The GPU block is very dense and low frequency. GCN as a GPU architecture is very transistor heavy but also high perf-per-watt, even at the low end. A bulk process is mandatory in order to stuff a well performing GPU onto an APU.
The reason AMD chose SHP and not an SOI process (or even FD-SOI) for 28nm (or 22nm) was one of cost (bulk costs less), GPU performance (requires bulk), die size (bulk is way more dense), and also practical as they chose what was available to them and will be for the foreseeable future.
And to reiterate Joel's point regarding 'scaling down' a microarchitecture: it's considerably more difficult to take a big core and shrink it to a more frugal size. Likewise, it's also far more difficult to adapt a lengthier pipeline core built upon SOI to a wider architecture with higher IPC and lower clock speeds. It's likely more feasible for AMD to adapt Jaguar, a core already designed for being power efficient and on a bulk process, to go wider than it is for them to contort Bulldozer into some sort of hybrid that it was never meant to be.
Asdacap Cap
I keep on thinking about the 8-way L1 cache which it seems that everyone think that more 'way' is faster. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm not mistaken (and I took a course on this), a lower 'way' associative cache is faster than a more 'way' cache, but it will have a significant increase of complexity for a particular size and thus, expensive. So I think the rational of using a 3-way L1 associative cache here is to increase L1 cache without increasing complexity, but it sacrifice performance. Thats why L2 cache has more 'way' than L1 cache. Because its slower and bigger. 2 way associative cache is like a performance balance between size and speed for L1 cache.
Joel Hruska
Intel's L1 cache has 4x more bandwidth than AMDs and the same latency. Increasing the way helps reduce misses; making it larger decreases the impact of cache contention.
Marcus Mendez
good work. one of your best articles.
Fantastic article, Joel, really well done.
It would be nice if Excavator has shorter pipelines, especially since the clocks will be dropping even more due to HDL being implemented. From what I understand, HDL will mainly be applied to the FPU and the caches. Lower clocks + higher ipc/ips will make more sense, especially seeing as how Kaveri performs best at 3.5ghz and below in terms of perf/watt, voltages, etc.
Joel Hruska
I could be wrong on this, but I can't recall any instance of a company ever shortening a pipeline without building an entire new uarch. Doesn't mean it can't be done, obviously. But I get the feeling that it's very difficult.
My understanding of L1 caches is that pushing out the set associativity and the size on Steamroller's L1 was non-trivial. I don't think it's an accident that companies like AMD and Intel tend to use *very* stable L1 configurations — even when they muck with L2.
AMD's 16K data cache and 96K shared I-cache is a radical jump for one generation.
Interesting page in this PDF about cache size, set associativity, and hit rate. http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/fa10/cse240a/pdf/08/CSE240A-MBT-L15-Cache.ppt.pdf
Page 18.
Jane Archer
So two independent threads on two separate modules interfere catastrophically with one another's cache performance. This is the kind of unforgivable atrocity that dogs every aspect of AMD's work.
The excuse, of course, will be 'coherence'. AMD will claim that the need to ensure separate memory systems are not sharing identical logical addresses (which requires ultra-slow hardware checks to keep memory values consistent between the two systems) over-rides the need for performance.
Proper HSA/hUMA architectures DEMAND that the programmer is given explicit control over memory use and memory mapping, so the programmer can ensure that different performance threads never share the same memory resources, allowing the ultra-slow memory coherence checks to be disabled.
At this time, everyone knows that the curse with every generation of Bulldozer is dreadful memory/cache performance in real world situations. What's the point of multi-core, if each core trips up the others?
The massive leap in transistors per core for almost no real world performance gain shames the latest Bulldozer cores. AMD would be currently better off with smaller cores/faster clocked cores/more cores.
But AMD is worse than this. Its crippled 4-core FX chips and 2-core APU parts are artificially damaged by AMD to run far, far slower (per core) than the core count suggests. Just as the 'Athlon' variants of the Phenom2 range ran vastly slower than their clock speed implied, compared the the equivalent Phenom2 part, AMD spends more time thinking of ways to damage internal memory bandwidth on 'cheaper' parts than it does trying to fix the hardware 'bugs'.
Take the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Games that run fine on supposed equivalent PC hardware run far worse on the SoC parts that AMD designed for these consoles. And these SoC parts, that combine AMD CPU cores and GPU cores, rely entirely on the efficiency of AMD memory buses and caches.
It is a pity AMD cannot sack all of its GPU software (driver) people and all of its CPU memory-bus/cache engineers and start over in both departments.
Joel Hruska
You've drawn some inappropriate conclusions here.
1). The performance impact when two threads run in different modules exists, but it's impact on performance is unknown. Bulldozer scaled about 80% as well as a conventional multi-core chip. Steamroller scales 90% as well. Therefore, whatever the explanation for this errata, it cannot be responsible for more than 10% of the scaling penalty.
2). I can think of no reason why cache coherence would be the explanation for this issue. It exists on all Bulldozer-derived chips, including those without an L3 and those without HSA support. It exists on chips without an APU fabric. Since the penalty is identical in all cases and exists even on cores without a shared L3, there's no explanation for it.
L2 cache performance is not impacted. Only L1.
3). "But AMD is worse than this. Its crippled 4-core FX chips and 2-core APU parts are artificially damaged by AMD to run far, far slower (per core) than the core count suggests."
You are alleging that AMD has deliberately crippled its CPUs at a time when it literally had NO other products to bring to market. This strains credulity to the breaking point.
4). "AMD spends more time thinking of ways to damage internal memory bandwidth on 'cheaper' parts than it does trying to fix the hardware 'bugs"
[citation needed]
5). "Games that run fine on supposed equivalent PC hardware run far worse on the SoC parts that AMD designed for these consoles."
There are no PC equivalents to the SoCs for those two consoles.
In fact, the opposite is true. I have tried to run BF4 on a Kabini SoC. It cannot maintain 20 FPS at low detail at 1024×768. Yet this game is very playable on both the Xbox One and PS4.
pelov lov
Agner specifically pointed out the low way associativity cache, and consequently the cache hierarchy, as one of the likely issues with AMD's performance woes. Sub-par memory design plagues AMD from cache to IMC/DDR3 controller. The increase in L1instruction$ by 50% and increasing associativity by 50% hasn't done much to address bottlenecks.
The dreadfully slow L2$ and large L2$ size are still major issues, I feel. I just don't see AMD getting Excavator up to snuff without a complete rework of the entire cache system as well as addressing pipeline length. While they're at it, perhaps Jim Keller can throw out their crappy integrated memory controller as well :P
They do deserve some credit here though, as AMD felt the performance drop (20%) was worth the die space they saved. Now the move to bulk makes that die area less costly, but it definitely made sense as you scaled up in core count (relatively) cheaply on Interlagos and Warsaw. It was the single-threaded performance and perf-per-watt that was the problem, not necessarily the dip in performance due to shared resources.
IPC was meant to stand still from K10, but, yea, there was a definite regression of 10-15% in single-core IPC. Initially clock speeds didn't make up for that, but Vishera addressed that somewhat. Steamroller was meant to further decrease that 20% decoder tax. And to their credit, they have done that. But there are obviously some serious issues that plague the Bulldozer architecture.
I just don't see the point of the architecture at all in the current computing ecosystem. High core count architectures are better served by tiny cores with uberfast interconnect (ARM, Atom, Jaguar) due to better perf-per-watt, while the consumer space hasn't really budged past 4 threads, and certainly not the 10+ AMD had planned to release last year (Terramar and Sepang were 10 and 20). Perf-per-watt at quad cores is the focus, and AMD's Bulldozer architecture performs woefully in this segment. You're spot on in that it definitely does not scale down in core count very well. Wider + SMT is much more practical
pelov lov
Agner specifically pointed out the low way associativity cache, and consequently the cache hierarchy, as one of the likely issues with AMD's performance woes. Sub-par memory design plagues AMD from cache to IMC/DDR3 controller. The increase in L1instruction$ by 50% and increasing associativity by 50% hasn't done much to address bottlenecks.
The dreadfully slow L2$ and large L2$ size are still major issues, I feel. I just don't see AMD getting Excavator up to snuff without a complete rework of the entire cache system as well as addressing pipeline length. While they're at it, perhaps Jim Keller can throw out their crappy integrated memory controller as well :P
They do deserve some credit here though, as AMD felt the performance drop (20%) was worth the die space they saved. Now the move to bulk makes that die area less costly, but it definitely made sense as you scaled up in core count (relatively) cheaply on Interlagos and Warsaw. It was the single-threaded performance and perf-per-watt that was the problem, not necessarily the dip in performance due to shared resources.
IPC was meant to stand still from K10, but, yea, there was a definite regression of 10-15% in single-core IPC. Initially clock speeds didn't make up for that, but Vishera addressed that somewhat. Steamroller was meant to further decrease that 20% decoder tax. And to their credit, they have done that. But there are obviously some serious issues that plague the Bulldozer architecture.
I just don't see the point of the architecture at all in the current computing ecosystem. High core count architectures are better served by tiny cores with uberfast interconnect (ARM, Atom, Jaguar) due to better perf-per-watt, while the consumer space hasn't really budged past 4 threads, and certainly not the 10+ AMD had planned to release last year (Terramar and Sepang were 10 and 20). Perf-per-watt at quad cores is the focus, and AMD's Bulldozer architecture performs woefully in this segment. You're spot on in that it definitely does not scale down in core count very well. Wider + SMT is much more practical
Joel Hruska
One reason I'm not sure what to make of the cache contention issue is that AMD has issued a whitepaper claiming that it's not the problem it might seem to be at first glance.
All Agner's tests run under Linux. According to that white paper, cache contention shouldn't occur in Windows. We know, from other tests, that cache contention *does* occur under Windows — or, at the very least, we know that L1 hit rates drop when two threads run on the same module.
But this raises a question I don't have an answer for: Specifically, is this a case where a problem is different under Windows than it is under Linux? Are the lower hit rates caused by cache contention? By problems with fetch? Are they related to the odd drop in L1 throughput when two threads on different *modules* are running?
This is where my insight into the core hits a brick wall. I'm not enough of a programmer to suss out the details on this.
AMD told Anandtech that they figured out the cause of the high cache latencies already, but that it wouldn't be fixed in Steamroller. Maybe that means they get fixed in Excavator.
I wish I knew a way to decouple the question of ALU efficiency from the question of cache latency, but I'd need some extremely specific tests to do that.
pelov lov
I believe that same Anandtech article specifically referred to the L3 latency rather than L1/L2, and likely is intertwined with hypertransport (due to write buffer on L3 and the way hypertransport works in AMD systems). The L3 was left alone as AMD had dumped the high performance Opteron roadmap altogether. Addressing L3 latency in their APUs is a bit unnecessary :P
Joel Hruska
L1 latency isn't really far off Intel. It's the L2 latency that's terrible. And while the Anand article specifically discusses L3, I was using it as an example for how AMD has had time enough to puzzle out the problems for the current situation.
I hope you people do know that the money you're giving to intel also goes to Israel for it's opression of the region. We are indirectly supporting israel's terror and opression. Intel is being dominated by the same zionists that hold the american people in a stranglehold. The same ones that assasinated John f. Kennedy. The same ones that planned and executed the terror attacks on New York.
To act a little more human instead of supporting the worst enemy of the americans we should better buy AMD's products.
Joel Hruska
There seems to be a lot of hatred for long pipeline architectures and I feel that that hatred is a bit misplaced. Yes, both BD and Netburst were terrible designs, but for different reasons and with different goals in mind from the designers' perspectives.
Bulldozer actually isn't a "long pipeline" design relative to others. In fact, it isn't much longer than modern Intel architectures. Bulldozer has about a 20-ish stage pipe* where Prescott had over 30**. While the old Pentiums were definitely designed from the ground up as a consumer chip, BD wasn't. The whole long-pipeline Intel processor era was targeted moresoe toward the consumer crowd with a concentrated effort on selling the chips to clueless customers based off of clockspeed, while the Xeons of the time had a more efficient, slower clocked architecture. Bulldozer, on the other hand, was designed primarily as a server chip***, with the long pipelines -I'm assuming- being thought of more as a way of scaling for lower TDPs at lower clocks and more cores than pushing the clockspeeds as high as possible on super-high TDPs like the FX series has with the same architecture.
In the world outside of X86, though, long pipelines have actually shown to be relatively successful. The POWER6 was not only a long-pipe architecture, but also an in-order processor and still managed to perform better than previous POWER5+ systems just by clockspeed alone while consuming similar amounts of energy****. This is one of those situations where tradeoffs are made and pay off and where having a relatively closed off ecosystem can have an advantage and software can mesh perfectly with hardware.
I suppose what I'm trying to get at here is this: stop commenting on tech forums and under articles saying that AMD needs to "shorten their pipelines". The pipeline isn't the issue here. The issue here is a multifaceted one that is a manifestation of several different problems at once that no one comprehensively understands at this point; not even AMD themselves. Given the limited resources and many fires in the iron that AMD has ATM, redesigning the most complex circuits on a chip when the same performance increases can be had by improving branch prediction and cache latency is idiotic at best.
A side note to Joel: I like your suggestion that AMD drop the BD family in favor of scaling up the big cats arches, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Long story short, I think that they are confident in Excavator being a winner and that such drastic measures aren't needed.
***http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/29/hardocp_readers_ask_amd_bulldozer_questions/#.UxVs44Whbhc (second question)
****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER6 (Near POWER6+ description)
Joel Hruska
Disqus ate my response to this. *sigh*
So, the principle reason for getting off a long pipeline has nothing to do with "Long pipelines are always bad." It's because AMD is continually yanking in clock speeds, which obviates one of the principle *strengths* of a long pipeline.
If AMD has to pull Carrizo's clock speed down to 3.5GHz, then it needs a 13-15% IPC boost to compensate. That's 2x what we saw with STR. It's a very high threshold. And that's just to hold things steady.
That's why I think Carrizo can be a big winner on power and performance-per-watt, but still may not move the dial much.
Yes, good article. I think your on to something. I like AMD micro architectures names and all, but maybe they should change Excavator to Front Loader or Loader. Could be a better fit for what they need in the next APU.
If you're going to show threading then put a Vishera FX-8350 up there against the i7 Series.
Joel Hruska
Why? What's the point of showing the FX family getting hammered?
The FX-8350 is only barely competitive with the quad-core, non-HT Intel variants. The point of this comparison was to show Steamroller against Piledriver in their quad-core configurations.
I really admire your friend Agner and I hope you keep working with him. Great article!
I'd rather have an Intel CPU.


text:
Built it and they will come, but only if they can find it.
Time Off
October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
A little after 10 p.m. one night last March, I was hosing down my waders outside the drying room at Terra del Fuego's elegant Maria Behety Lodge when Brian Yamamoto came rolling in. Yamamoto, a dentist from Fairbanks, carried his 15-foot Snowbee spey rod and sported a smile as wide as the Argentine pampas.
October 1, 2008
To a car driver deprived of his view of the road ahead, an SUV hogging the left lane is hardly a welcome sight. The longer it sits there, the more deeply the car driver ponders its often wasteful bulk, its appetite for gasoline and how brilliant it would be to confine these bloated conveyances to their own clogged stream over there on the far right. Who could possibly love an SUV?
October 1, 2008
While booking a stay in a luxury Hawaiian hotel isn't hard, finding one that will fly you there on a private jet might be. The Royal Lahaina Resort on Maui and the Royal Kona Resort on the Big Island offer to do just that, via a new service called POSH Private Jet Holidays.
October 1, 2008
Looking to get a jet card, buy a new or used jet, find the coolest cabin amenities, set up a flight department, talk to aviation lenders and insurance agents or learn the latest news about the industry as it takes place? The National Business Aviation Association's annual Convention and Exhibition-which rolls into Orlando, Fla., October 6 to 8-is the place to go.
October 1, 2008
"All of Croatia is beautiful," Slobodan Vrdoljak corrected me jovially. He is the man to contact for people flying by private jet to Zadar, on the country's Dalmatian coast. (See "Zadar Airport," on page 38.) Having only recently arrived here, we were lounging with him in the airport coffee shop.
August 1, 2008
Relaxing on the golf course is only one attraction of the inaugural Golf and Wine Academy, which will be held October 16 through 19 in California's Livermore Valley, a 45-minute drive from San Francisco.
August 1, 2008
Things are simple at the Tom Fazio-designed Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, N.C. Forget about tee times, swimming pool or tennis. The par-72 core routing is unencumbered by housing or development. The private club is readily walkable and has a fine caddie program.
August 1, 2008
Many places make the dubious claim of being the "sport-fishing capital" of this or that species of game fish, but for trophy rainbow trout there's an obvious champion with no competitor: Alaska. And no billboards making the proclamation are required. Anyway, there aren't many roads where you're going-mostly just paths through the alders made by the largest brown bears on Earth.
August 1, 2008
Aircraft and car builders over the years have mined the alphabet and assayed certain letters as precious metal-GT, R, S, X and Z come to mind-but one five-letter word still stands alone as the medal for power in a pint-size package. Turbo.
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-business aviation entrepreneur Nick Popovich
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Why a lot of things can be discussed hither and tither, and why it is entirerly possible, that Williams is very happy with Rubens, and I would agree with the statement that he has a good season so far, it is worth to remember some facts.
Williams ,including the race in Spa, had 84 points last year, if we apply this years point system (82 if we take into account that at one race only half the points where awarded), this compares with 40 points in 2010 to date.
So, if we apply your reasoning, that would mean they are more in the doldrums this year, then they where at the same time last year.
Why I do agree and think, that Rubens is a very nice guy and a good driver, he is not the messias, who has turned Williams fortunes around single handed.
You also forgot to mention, that his great testing and development skills, did not bear much fruits during his Honda years.
His form and results improved after Brawn joint Honda and ultimately when it became Brawn GP.
So maybe his development skills, should be seen in the correct context, and as a whole, and not just if they suit your agenda.
I have no problem with your disliking and your opinion of Schumacher, not at all - but please let´s keep the facts right.
Some of the arguments you use, are a bit far fetched IMHO, and do not help your case.
Good points, thanks for your response.
While I do not have the time to calculate Williams' points from last season that late at night (12.40 AM here in New York) it amazes me that Williams were so much better last year, or rather, they are so much worse this year.
Another reason, why the change of points systems is quite confusing and makes historical comparability that much harder. Isn't there a website that just shows all the points standings under all the points systems? I think I have come across one some time ago. Thanks if you can provide the link.
Of course, that argument that you make can be also extended to Mercedes GP. With Merc money on board, and with the always capable Michael, it is not easy to understand why Mercedes GP is underperforming to that degree as compared to Brawn GP.
So the success last year was all down to the double diffuser, and the lack of success this year is all down to reduced workforce and budget?
Ah, there is one factor - Rosberg was driving for Williams last year and scored that much more points than Rubens this year.
And in 2010, the same Rosberg is distancing Michael in most races - so maybe Nico is not such a bad driver after all and Michael has lost less performance than it appears?


text:
Spectacular Home in Spain: Punta Brava 2 Residence
Designed by Studio DNA Barcelona Architects, Punta Brava 2 Residence is located in Costa Brava, Catalonia, Spain. This amazingly beautiful residence is overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and according to the architects it was designed to enjoy nature, the fantastic sea views and sunsets. For more pictures click here.


text:
King enters not guilty plea in case of missing girlWritten by Staff Reports | | email@example.com
Steven W. King appeared in court Aug. 15, where he pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice related to the June disappearance of 1-year-old Elaina Steinfurth.
King's pretrial hearing was pushed back to Sept. 5 and a trial date was set for Sept. 16. His defense asked for more time to review new evidence and Judge Ruth Ann Franks granted the request.
King's ex-girlfriend Angela Steinfurth, also charged with obstruction of justice, appeared in court Aug. 14. Her pretrial hearing was moved to Sept. 4 for the same reason. No trial date was set.
Elaina was reported missing June 2 when her father Terry Steinfurth Jr. came to pick up his daughter between noon and 1 p.m. at a home on Federal Street. An argument ensued when Angela refused to give him Elaina, according to several witnesses.
Almost an hour after the start of the argument, Angela went in to get Elaina but came out "crying and screaming" that Elaina was gone, according to Terry Steinfurth Sr., Elaina's grandfather.
The family began searching the area for Elaina. They called the police when she could not be found.


text:
Get 2 PAR 16 Pinspots in one cash-saving bundle!
The Odyssey PAR 16 pinspot is a bright point-of-light fixture that's plug-and-play. The PAR can uses a standard AC plug and a standard screw-base lamp up to 50W. Too small for a gel frame, you simply cut a gel sheet and slide it in the front housing.


text:
Sometimes in the rush-a-round,
hurry-up day,
Reassurances and hugs are kept at bay,
Pursuing our goals and checking
our lists,
There are schedules to meet - a timeline exists!
No time for listening, loving, or
Save it for later, we might be saying,
When the day is done and the time
is right,
But not while I'm busy, tomorrow I might...
...take time to sit and hug a child,
Or hold my lover's hand awhile,
Or listen and lend a willing ear,
To a friend who needs to know I'm "there,"
Yes, tomorrow's a better time
for me,
For today I'm so busy, can't you see.
Life's fleeting chances we
often neglect,
Those golden moments when one can connect,
Tomorrow's a promise that may
never come,
Yet, on that treadmill we continue to run,
Chasing the future, success at
all costs,
A past full of nows eternally lost.
Copyright ©2000 Virginia Carlson
Except where
otherwise noted, all poetry on this website is the copyrighted work of Virginia
Carlson at "picsandpoems.com." Please see my Terms
of Use.
Copyright © 2000-2001 picsandpoems.com. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
Back to top.
Even if you never played football, you've probably heard the term Hell Week. This is generally the first official week of football practice, which takes place before the start of school so the coaches can put the hammer down and not have to worry about whether or not the players can walk to class when they're done. It's essentially designed to condense preseason conditioning into one weeklong period. Beachbody's latest workout program, INSANITY: THE ASYLUM, follows this example. Except instead of Hell Week, you're in for Hell Month, which promises to have you ready for a season of pretty much anything.
"This is not INSANITY®," says Shaun while pushing the team through THE ASYLUM's Vertical Plyo. He uses a tone that suggests INSANITY is some form of lightweight aerobic work rather than the most intense cardio program burned to DVD thus far. And, true enough, THE ASYLUM isn't INSANITY; it's a sequel to that program, and it's designed to take things to the next level. But THE ASYLUM actually isn't harder so much as it's different. So let's take a deeper look at THE ASYLUM so you can decide whether it's the right program for you.
Beachbody® is promoting INSANITY: THE ASYLUM as sports conditioning, which the guide defines as "speed, coordination, balance, agility, and power." And while these performance traits will certainly enhance your contribution to the company basketball team, they'll also help you improve in other aspects of your life. When you move better, life becomes easier. Sports are just games that highlight human function, so nonspecific athletic training is simply exercise that helps you perform various life tasks more effectively.
If you're an athlete, or even were just an active child, you're going to feel a bit like a kid in a candy store doing this program. For someone like me, who played a lot of different sports growing up, it brings back memories galore, often involving sports I'd forgotten I'd ever done. The entire program feels a bit like playing, or, as Shaun says, as if you're part of Team ASYLUM and all practicing together for the big game.
On one of my blog reviews of INSANITY: THE ASYLUM, I was asked the difference between sports training and sports conditioning. The simple answer is that sports training is systematic, and sports conditioning is getting in shape for your season as quickly as possible. Back on the Hell Month theme, THE ASYLUM is designed to whip you into shape fast, so it pulls from many different training systems, meshing them together to form what seems almost like a mad scientist's version of cross-training—"Frankentraining," if you will.
I'll back up and define the so-called Frankentraining a bit further. I often explain to customers, when comparing P90X® and INSANITY, that the X is like training for a season of INSANITY. The X is a longer, more systematic training approach that can be tailored a number of different ways to target strengths, weaknesses, and goals. INSANITY comes at you like a challenge and never lets up—more like a sports season.
THE ASYLUM is for when the season is about to start and you have to get ready as fast as possible—when there's no time to systematically tear you down and build you back up. It has to happen now, so you want to target strength, speed, coordination, flexibility, and stamina all at once. You heard the coach: It's Hell Month. There's no time to mess around. Let's get busy!
Seven workouts, only six of which are actually part of the official program, though. However, as INSANITY grads know, the Athletic Performance Assessment (or Fit Test) isn't exactly a day off. Here's a quick breakdown of the programs that are included in INSANITY: THE ASYLUM.
Speed & Agility: Shaun used to refer to this as an active recovery workout, which we changed because this is the first workout you do and we didn't want people running away scared. It's a hard workout—very hard—but Speed & Agility targets proprioceptive awareness (neuromuscular patterns) and speed instead of explosive strength, so in a technical sense, Shaun's definition of "active recovery" is accurate. As any of you who've actually been through a Hell Week will remember, there were parts of practice that were obviously for strength improvements, like where you hit each other (or sleds, or dummies) with a lot of force. Then there were parts, usually during "breaks," when you did speed and agility drills that were often more painful than hitting those tackling dummies. This workout is about those "breaks." And because its target is speed, you'll most likely feel, like me, that there's no end to how much you can improve.
Back to Core: One of the most interesting core workouts you'll ever do, Back to Core targets your abs by working everything but your abs. Having nice-looking abs is a function of having a strong core, low body fat, and good posture. Does it work? Check out the pic of Shaun.
Strength: A full-body strength routine that's varied and interesting. I think it's summed up pretty well on my blog:
"Asylum Strength will get more use than anything in my Beachbody arsenal. For someone like me who does a lot of mountain sports—or, really, any weekend warrior whose sport provides a lot of cardiovascular fitness—it's a perfect complement."
Vertical Plyo: See "this is not INSANITY" above—this workout is absolutely brutal. You'll either spend most of your time in the air or on the ground doing push-ups, which is how Shaun penalizes the team when their form begins to falter.
Game Day: A massive sports day, where you do sports-specific movements 'til failure, from a veritable summer camp of options. If it weren't so painful, it would seem like nothing but fun.
Overtime: Uh-oh, you've got another quarter to go. To be used after any workout for a bonus round. Some of the more explosive movements in the program happen here, so you have to want it—bad.
Relief: A thorough stretching routine that's meant to be done when you have the time after any workout. It promises to be the best 20 minutes of your day.
As the Men's Wearhouse® guy says, "You're going to like the way you look®." A lot of people have already noticed that Shaun looks more ripped than he did during INSANITY. The thing about sports training is that body composition changes happen naturally. You're not bodybuilding, per se; you're just making your body more athletic. And the human body, in order to function well, tends to add muscle to places that look natural, balanced, and attractive. There's a reason why the most popular ancient statues are of athletes.
My reviews have tended to make people nervous about starting the program. And in reality, maybe you should be. INSANITY: THE ASYLUM is clearly a graduate program. Without a good fitness base, you'll be better off using one of our introductory programs, like Power 90®, ChaLEAN Extreme®, Slim in 6®, or Hip Hop Abs®. Whichever one of these motivates you to move is going to give you better results than something you can't do well. But on the other hand, if you've completed one of these programs in style, and completed any graduate program (P90X, INSANITY, TurboFire®) at all, you're ready to get into THE ASYLUM and mix it up. It's hard. Very hard. But the difficulty isn't a world apart, either. And if you do buy it and it feels like too much, I've made a preparatory 1-month schedule on my blog: http://steve-edwards.blogspot.com/2011/04/asylum-prep-course.html
Hell Week was accepted, and perhaps even enjoyed, because it was preparing you to get better at a game. And THE ASYLUM is all about the game: the game of life. The only thing that might make anyone think I need to be locked up is that it's given me a glimpse back at my youth. In closing, I'll leave you with an anecdote about "youthening," as they say in Camelot. You can tell me if I'm insane.
My summers as a kid were spent outside. My parents and pretty much the entire neighborhood would throw their kids out of the house with instructions not to come back in until dark. Without video games or money, we were pretty much left to make up stuff to do with what was in our garages. A day consisted of a football game, maybe some tennis, or some pick-up basketball. Sometimes we headed down the street to the school and jumped over hurdles or kicked field goals, or maybe we headed to the park for a swim. Afternoons would often feature a Little League® baseball game, after which I'd often stay late to work on my hitting or pitching. Summer days would end after dinner, with all of us feeling blissfully tired, doing our best to stay awake through The Brady Bunch.
My favorite moment doing THE ASYLUM so far was late in the Game Day workout where you're "playing" baseball. Baseball players haven't always been a paragon of athleticism, but on those all-sports days during my childhood, it felt plenty active. THE ASYLUM's baseball movements are decidedly tiring, and as I was delivering one of my many "pitches" in my garage during a snowstorm, I had an acute sense memory of a long-past summer evening. I felt the same warm fatigue those long days would provide. I could actually smell the grass, feel the setting sun on my shoulders, and hear my dad telling me to arch my back or keep my elbow up. So, OK, maybe that is a little insane. But that's an ASYLUM I won't mind visiting.
Related Articles
"5 Fun Summer Beach and Water Sports for Fitness"
"6 Ways to Fire Up Your Metabolism"
"How Fitness Changed Tony Horton's Life"
Questions about your workout program, diet, the latest newsletter, or anything wellness related? Chat with Steve Edwards, the overseer of Beachbody's fitness and diet development (who also serves as your Fitness Advisor on the Message Boards), in the Beachbody Chat Room on Monday, May 9th, at 3:00 PM ET, 12:00 PM PT.
If you'd like to ask a question or comment on this newsletter article, click here to add a comment in the newsletter review section or you can email us at email@example.com.
Check out our Fitness Advisor's responses to your comments in Steve Edwards' Mailbag on the Message Boards. If you'd like to receive Steve Edwards' Mailbag by email, click here to subscribe to Steve's Health and Fitness Newsletter. And if you'd like to know more about Steve's views on fitness, nutrition, and outdoor sports, read his blog, The Straight Dope, recently named one of the Top 50 blogs covering the sports industry by the Masters in Sports Administration.
The notion of extracting the oil from food has been around for thousands of years. Long before it even occurred to anyone that oil and vinegar are two great tastes that taste great together, people began pressing oil from fruit, seeds, legumes, and grains. What we've learned since then is that certain oils allow us to augment our diets in ways that are both healthy and delicious. The specific oils we're looking at in this article are olive, avocado, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, sesame, coconut (really!), peanut, and corn oils.
Each of these nine oils contains both mono- and polyunsaturated fats. In addition to helping to lower cholesterol and possibly helping prevent medical conditions like heart disease, they contain beneficial ingredients like vitamin E and some omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, and also help other essential vitamins get to where they can do the most good for your body. Furthermore, both mono- and polyunsaturated fats have been shown to lower disease risk in general.1
Some of these oils are becoming increasingly more available in a variety of different forms. You've probably heard of virgin or extra-virgin olive oil, and if you like to frequent tiny gourmet-type boutiques that offer indulgences for your tastebuds, it's likely that you've seen the words "cold-pressed" on many a fancy label. This refers to oils that have been pressed very carefully at low temperatures to ensure the most taste and the highest nutritional content. Conversely, refined versions of these oils have been derived from second or third pressings, then usually processed at a higher temperature—these will have lighter, more neutral flavors, a slightly longer shelf life, and just generally a lot less good stuff.
Here are some ways to get the best use of whichever oil you choose. Don't forget, the cold-pressed and extra-virgin varieties will be more expensive and are offered in smaller bottles, as they have shorter shelf lives. Also, lower cooking temperatures ensure more retention of the very things that make these oils good for you when used wisely. You should always avoid the smoke point, or temperature at which all oils begin to burn. When oils reach the smoke point, this means most if not all of the beneficial elements have been burned away. Besides, it'll probably make whatever you're cooking taste terrible, not to mention how bad all that smoke is for your lungs.
As for serving sizes and or RDAs of these oils, remember that they are all fat. Always use them sparingly—a tablespoon of any of these oils is approximately 100 to 120 calories, with about 14 grams of fat.
Related Articles
"10 Reasons to Eat Organically—and Locally"
"Soy: Magic Bean or Tragic Bean?"
"The Best Fats for Getting Lean"
Shaun T has been taking INSANITY to a whole new level of commitment. By combining drills from all Shaun's favorite sports disciplines, INSANITY: THE ASYLUM is going to make you Dig Deeper® than you ever have before.
From the INSANITY: THE ASYLUM nutrition plan, here's an easy-to-prepare recipe that'll take care of all your daily omega-3 needs, with healthy fats from tuna and avocados to keep you feeling full and fit.
Place avocado, lime juice, salt, and cayenne in a mixing bowl and use a fork to mash into a paste. Drain tuna well and add to bowl; mix well. Pile mixed greens on a plate and top with tuna/avocado mixture. Finish with sprouts and tomato. Makes 1 serving.
Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes
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Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Disney StarsBy
Squeaky clean, wholesome goodness. For almost a century, that's been Disney's brand. But the young girls working for the Mouse have the most terrible habit of not getting the memo.
Case in point? Miley Cyrus (aka "Hannah Montana"), who went from teenage cutie to dominatrix sex kitten in little more than a calendar year.
There's also Demi Lovato, who backed out of her hit Disney show after provocative photos surfaced online of her kissing another girl.
And now Selena Gomez has gotten in the game, with her newest flick, Spring Breakers, featuring The Wizards of Waverly star doing both drugs and engaging in threesomes with her female co-stars.
It's not just Disney starlets that are the problem, though. The annals of Hollywood are filled with similarly cautionary tales. Not coincidentally, so too are homes across America, where girls from 5 to 15 and beyond are imitating the starlets they idolize, dressing, talking, and acting in ways that, in the not too distant past, would have made a sailor blush.
Setting aside the soul-destroying consequences of living life as a sexual object, from even the most secular vantage point the sexualization of young girls—Disney stars or otherwise—is bad news. Defining your worth by your sexual desirability causes grades to drop and athletic performance to suffer. It induces depression and triggers eating disorders. It leads to high-risk behaviors, sexually transmitted diseases, and situations where no amount of saying "no" can help.
On Sunday, two young football players in the town where I live, Steubenville, Ohio, were found guilty of raping an underage girl. That ruling has generated all sorts of chatter in the media about the lessons parents need to teach their boys.
And boys in this culture do need to learn some serious lessons. Parents need to teach their sons how to love, honor, and respect women, to see them as human beings to value, not bodies to use.
But as a cursory glance at either the Disney bullpen or the local junior high will tell you, our girls need to learn a few lessons too, lessons that are foundational to protecting their bodies, their souls, and their futures.
Lessons like…
1. Growing up is about much more than sex.
Today, whenever a young singer or actress decides to leave their child star days behind, they signal that decision to producers, directors, and the culture at large by sexing up their image (a la Selena Gomez). In that, they also signal to their tween followers that overt sexuality is the mark of maturity.
Sex, however, doesn't make the man (or the woman). Adulthood, real adulthood, is about making the hard choices. It's about responsibility and hard work, generosity and wisdom. Adults put others needs before our own, sacrifice and suffer for those we love, and control our desires, sexual or otherwise, for the sake of a greater good.
Which is to say, our ability to say "no" to the wrong kind of sex with the wrong kinds of people in the wrong kinds of ways is far more the measure of maturity than our ability to say "yes" to the same.
2. Sexiness won't win friends.
Not real friends, that is. Short shorts and shiny locks will attract some people in the short-term. But in the long-term, the way to find friends who will stand by your side in good times and bad, supporting you, challenging you, and loving you, quirks and all, isn't to dress or act provocatively.
Rather, it's to love. It's to be kind and loyal, encouraging and generous, smart and funny, patient and forgiving. It's to see what's unique and beautiful about every person God sends your way, and celebrate that. It's also to pursue what interests you—Shakespeare, show tunes, the Australian Peacock Spider—and enrich the lives of those you love through those pursuits.
Beauty fades. Age advances. But a loving heart, joyful spirit, and lively mind? They endure. And so do the friendships forged because of them.
3. Smiling faces lie.
Not all smiling faces. But the smiling faces of starlets who hop from one boyfriend to another and one bed to another? They lie. Oh boy, do they lie. A quick listen to a Taylor Swift album should tell you that much.
Here's the thing: Being used doesn't make any girl happy. Being treated as an object, not a subject, breaks every girl's heart. The smiles in the tabloids are meant to deceive, and sex without consequences is a fictional plotline.
In the real world, as opposed to glossy magazines, the way to happiness is the way of commitment. It's giving yourself, body and soul, to one person (or to God or his Church if that's your vocation), and choosing to love that person every day of your life. It's seeing the good in him and rejoicing in it. It's seeing the bad, and believing he can do better. It's bringing new life into the world together and holding hands as your days on earth grow fewer. That's real happiness. That's lasting happiness. The rest is just airbrushed misery.
4. Beauty is more than the sum of one's parts.
What makes a woman beautiful isn't just the shape of her face or the length of her legs. It's the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eyes. It's a voice that speaks with intelligence and a body that moves with grace. It's a humble spirit and a prayerful soul.
When people (real people, not reality stars on Jersey Shore) look at us, that's what they see. They don't see a one-dimensonal photo-shopped picture. They see a person, a whole person, and they respond to that person. They're attracted to gentleness and wit as much as they're repulsed by vanity and vulgarity.
No matter what Cosmo says, whatever is on the inside eventually shows up on the outside. If what's on the inside is beautiful, people will see beautiful. If what's on the inside is ugly, people will see ugly. Maybe not right away. But the body expresses the person. One way or another, one day or another, the face will tell. What's hidden is always revealed. Which means obsessing over our bodies, while neglecting our souls is the most foolish beauty regimen of all.
5. Modesty doesn't deny feminine beauty. It affirms feminine beauty.
Modesty is temperance, prudence, and love in action. It's tempering our desire to be desired, so that a person can see the beauty of our soul, not just the beauty of our breasts. It's prudently dressing and acting in a way that will help others treat us like subjects, not objects. And it's loving others by not making it easy for them to think of us in a way that violates their dignity and ours.
Modesty involves the way we dress—not by mandating that women don burkas, but simply by asking us to take a pass on clothing that's aggressively or inappropriately sexual. Modesty also involves the way we act—what we do with our phones or allow others to do with their phones, how we relate to men, how we relate to women, how we speak, and what we speak about.
Modesty isn't about being a prude. It's about being discreet, elegant, and a touch mysterious. It's also about being smart, remembering that thanks to social media, momentary indiscretions have lasting consequences. It is, ultimately, an affirmation of the great power inherent in feminine sexuality and a concerted decision to use that power for good and not for ill.
Handing on that lesson, like every other lesson mentioned here, isn't easy. But if we want the girls we love to grow up to be healthy, strong, smart, confident, and joyful women, hand them on we must.
And if we don't? Well, the Disney starlets seem more than happy to stand in the breach.
Emily Stimpson is a Contributing Editor to "Our Sunday Visitor" and the author of"The Catholic Girl's Survival Guide for the Single Years." Her next book, "These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body" is due out later in 2013 from Emmaus Road Press,
45 thoughts on "Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Disney Stars"
Not what Avery, but what Val said re the Illuminati!
First of all, I confirm what Avery said in re: to the Illuminati, as Taylor Swift seems to be involved in it! Also, shamefully, I will NEVER give my hubby's 10 yo niece a gift card again as her mother saw fit to buy her a bikini or two with it. Next gift? Modest bathing suit picked out by me!
I am still a fan of Demi Lovato and she left her show because of health reasons not photos. I do not agree with everything she does but I still love her and will be there for every step of the way. Also, Demi has spoken out against Disney when it came to them having an episode on one of their shows making eating disorders seem like not a big deal.
However, I do not think it's just Disney's fault, Hollywood has made it obvious in general that they do not care about morality and I am sure they place pressure on every actress & singer to make certain choices regarding their life style. Awards aren't based on talent as much anymore and it makes me really sad to see. If you are sexy or Hot enough than you will go big. When you have others do basically everything for you daily, how can they be expected to make their own decisions about anything and to really think before they act. It is a world, I am thankful I do not live in although I did at one point. I pray everyday that Hollywood will wake up and realize what's happening.
And we parents have a responsibility to not expose our kids to this Disney madness. There are no Disney princesses in our house – not even the cartoon ones. You've got the Little Mermaid dumping her greatest gift and basically selling her dad to the devil to get the hot guy, Pocahontas dashing through the forest is a sexy off-the-shoulder mini-dress, etc. We don't buy Disney-related products, we don't go to Disneyland/world/whatever, we don't have Disney cable. And our kids don't miss it.
I could not have said it better. I just hope my 11 y.o. daughter gets it. Thanks so much.
I am discovering that there may be something even more sinister behind all of this. Just google Disney and the illuminati. It may seemed far fetched at first but the more you dig the harder it is to deny. So sad…my heart goes out to all of these stars who started off pure and have now fallen so far. If you do look into the illuminati and the music industry/ disney…afterwords look up "Obey" clothing line. My 14 year old daughter is telling me she is seeing this everywhere now. Do not be fooled into thinking this is just "cool" or trendy when it is truly glorifying evil. Parents…and youth, Be Aware!
Obey clothing is not evil. They sell their clothing to benefit causes such as Relief for those affected by the Sunami in Japan, the recent Haitian relief and other good causes. They have become a trend because the company is using profits to help groups like Feed America!


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Posted at: 03/18/2013 10:08 AM
Updated at: 03/18/2013 10:25 AM
By: The Associated Press
Photo: Mayor Richard Berry
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Just days after announcing plans to step down embattled Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz is scheduled to give details on his decision amid a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the police department.
Schultz and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry are expected Monday to outline the future of the department and a search for a new chief. Schultz decision to retire also came as a jury awarded the family of an Iraq War veteran who was shot and killed by police a $10 million award.
The city has seen a string of officer-involved shootings - 18 of them fatal - since 2010.
The department also has been plagued by a number of high-profile cases alleging excessive force, including some cases caught on video.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Ben's Chili Bowl dropped from manliest food list
September 29, 2011 - 01:59 pm
D.C. will not be represented on the list of "Manliest restaurants," Eater.com's tally of regional eats that boost testosterone levels.The District staple — now available at two of the three sporting venues in the region — was nominated last month for the award. Instead, the Mid-Atlantic region's digestible dude-i-tude will be exemplified by Primanti Brothers.
Short URL: http://tbd.ly/qWASyi
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You can indicate the ring size, special gift wrapping or any other request to the designer at checkout.
Ships with
DHL Express: 2 - 5 days from dispatch.
HIgh quality italian soft cow leather
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30 cm width X 19 cm height X 6.5 cm depth
11.8" width X 7.5" height X 2.6" depth
The Aladdin is a vibrant bohemian chic style clutch bag inspired by the Arabian nights where things are really slow in the afternoons and are really lively in the night time. Nights become glamorous and spiritual.
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Its soft lines and timeless design in exciting colors along with the extremely soft leather blend in a mixture of romance, fascination and mystery of Arabian nights.
This leather fringe clutch is a charming unique accessory that will definitely make a statement.
Proven to be a season-less staple, the Aladino clutch is a perfect companion for a special event, a casual dinner with friends or an evening business meeting that will accentuate your feminine look.
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Purely handmade in Spain.
Ships with
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|R.J. Harvey
DURHAM, N.H.- In the annual Spring Blue/White Scrimmage the defense made all the big plays, and today, in the Fall Blue/White game, it was the offense's turn, as it went on to produce 44 points. As a result, Wildcat fans had a good opportunity to see many of the offensive weapons the UNH coaching staff has at its disposal in 2004.
Senior starting tailback R.J. Harvey (Albany, N.Y.) showed why he led the Atlantic 10 in scoring with 96 points in 2003. Harvey was explosive at times during the contest, carrying the football 11 times for 117 yards, including a 66-yard run for a TD.
Senior quarterback Mike Granieri (Linwood, N.J.) looked sharp as well, completing 17 of 28 pass attempts for 206 yds. and two touchdown passes, one for 14 yds. to senior wide receiver David Bailey (Bronx, N.Y.) and the other a 21-yarder to junior fullback/tight end Joe Kreider (Mount Joy, Pa.). Granieri did not play the entire game, as all four quarterbacks saw limited action.
Redshirt freshman Ricky Santos (Bellingham, Mass.) was impressive at quarterback as well, especially as a runner. He carried the ball eight times for 46 yards, including a pair of 6-yd touchdown rushes.
Bailey was the squad's top receiver on the afternoon with nine catches for 112 yards. His long reception was for 24 yards. Kreider finished with four catches for 45 yards. Also seeing action in the game was freshman Granite Stater Mike Boyle (Plymouth, N.H.) as he made three catches for 16 yards.
Another nice addition to the offense has been freshman Kaysonne Anderson (South Belmar, N.J.) who busted loose for a few big runss on the afternoon. He finished with 14 carries for 81 yards.
On the defensive side of the football there were several key plays. The biggest of the afternoon was turned in by sophomore defensive back Christian Callison (Andover, Mass.) who returned an interception 46 yards.
The Wildcat defense was also bolstered by the impressive play of redshirt freshman Marvin Wright (Roxbury, Mass.) who recorded a pair of quarterback sacks.
The coaching staff was pleased about the healthy return of senior linebacker Amir Saadah (Fairlawn, N.J.) who was second on the team in tackles with seven, while he also recovered a fumble. The tackle leader for the afternoon was another true freshman in free safety Jeff Pammer (Northampton, Pa.) who recorded eight tackles in the contest.
Defensive end Keith Sawyer (Concord, N.H.) was another key Granite Stater in the contest as he posted a sack for minus three yards.
The Wildcats now turn their attention to their season-opener vs. No. 1 ranked Delaware in Newark, Del on Sept. 2. Game time is 7 p.m. at Delaware Stadium. The team will play its home-opener on Saturday, Sept. 18. Game time is 12 p.m. at Cowell Stadium.


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Seche Launches High Intensity Nail Color
Seche Launches High Intensity Nail Color
From the makers of one of the bestselling top coats, Seche has launched 33 shades of nail color!
- Porcelain II Pure white creme
- Rose II Soft powder pink
- Blanc II Soft white
- Debutant Baby pink shimmer
- Precious Pink iridescence
- Aristocrat Deep plum shimmer
- Simplicity Nude creme
- Enamored Rose shimmer brown
- Memoire Bright mauve creme
- Portobello Brown tone taupe creme
- Lumeire Bright peach shimmer
- Contemporary Purple grey creme
- Mischievous Blackened burgundy creme
- Empress Deep purple creme
- Risque Deep dark brown
- Hypnotic Dark royal blue
- Smokey Deep charcoal shimmer
- Nouveau Deep grey creme
- Elegant Bronzed shimmer
- Chocolat Creamy medium brown
- Bella Deep red shimmer
- Rouge Deep red creme
- Iconic Ruby red with gold shimmer
- Audacious Red fuchsia
- Coral Bright coral creme
- Inspiration Orange red creme
- Smitten Bright pink orange shimmer
- Signature True red creme
- Irresistible Deep red creme
- Magnifique Iridescent pink purple
- Opulent Deep fuchsia creme
- Rendezvous Bright pink creme
- Snapdragon Bright pink creme
Availability: October 2012, $8.50 each (MSRP) at salons, beauty supply stores, and Ulta
Discussion and debate are highly encouraged, and we expect community members to participate respectfully. When asking a question, please check the FAQ section (above) for information about purchasing, price, dupes, and the like. If you have general feedback or need technical support, please contact us.
Comments that include advertisements, self-promotion, insults, etc. may be in violation of our comment policy and subject to deletion. Please see our comment policy for more information.


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What The Tech Ep. 181 – 9-17-13
Andrew Zarian and Paul Thurrott discuss about upcoming Xbox One, Playstation 4, and iPad purchases. Andrew explains how the next iPad has to bring something new to the market. Nokia announces an event for October. Will the delay of the Lumia 1520 effect Nokia in the long run? Why Andrew and Paul also think unsubsidized phones are scams and to expensive. Amazon leaks point to a refresh of Kindle Fire HD. How appealing does the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 look?
You can purchase Paul's book, Windows 8 Secrets on Amazon and help support GFQ at the same time. Just purchase through our Amazon affiliate link.
Visit Paul Thurrott's site http://www.winsupersite.com/
What the Tech is sponsored by
Shutterstock Over 20 million stock photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos. For 30% off your new account use offer code WhatTheTech9
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Went to GFQ to avoid the large ego over at TWIT. But was also hoping for less Mac heads. No such luck here!
No video yet? Any reason it's taking this long?
Keep up the great job
please explain…
Where are you not seeing the video? I see it on the website
The video is there now.
Normally it's up on the site and available via slapdash podcasts at around 11pm here for me
This time I couldn't see it in either places up until not to long ago
Thanks for checking anyway
Podtrac is having an issue we are working on it now
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An employee of a city car dealership was arrested Monday on theft charges after he allegedly stole and wrecked a car belonging to the dealership, according to Johnson City police.
Uriah S. Booher, 29, 138 Milligan Highway, Elizabethton, was charged with theft of property.
Police said Corey Burgdorf, 40, general manager of Tri-Cities Nissan, 3602 Bristol Highway, was contacted by the Carter County Sheriff's Office in reference to a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta belonging to the dealership that had crashed in front of Sterling Hills Apartments at 138 Milligan Highway early Monday morning.
The CCSO told Burgdorf they found Booher's work badge hanging from the rearview mirror.
When questioned by police, Booher reportedly admitted to taking the car without permission.
According to the police report, Booher said he needed a ride home after work, so he took the car to the apartment complex where he was staying. During the night, the car rolled down the hill, hit a fence and got stuck in the mud. Booher was unable to get the car out himself, but told police he was waiting on a friend to help him pull it out.
Booher was being held in the Washington County Detention Center in lieu of $10,000 bond pending an appearance in Sessions Court.


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Eating Out
Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse
Thinking about this place for a celebration in the city. Anyone been and, if so, whaddya think?
Talk is closed, but that doesn't mean the conversations have to stop!
Check out this post for a more thorough explanation, and jump onto our Facebook page or our Twitter feed to keep the conversations going!


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Give the second round to Charlie White.
The Indiana Recount Commission on Tuesday ruled 3-0 that White, Indiana's embattled secretary of state, can stay in office. The commission rejected state Democrats' argument that White was illegally registered to vote while he stood for election last year.
But White's hold on power remains far from secure. In the next round of this marathon bout, Indiana's chief elections officer faces an August trial on seven felony counts, including voter fraud. A conviction on any one of the felony charges would force White from office.
What about the first round? White was thoroughly trounced in that engagement -- the court of public opinion -- months ago.
White's stubborn, sometimes peculiar behavior became such a distraction for his office and the state that key leaders in his own Republican Party, including Gov. Mitch Daniels, called on him to step aside.
White ignored them, and as a result one of the key offices in state government has been in limbo while the man elected to run it fights to save his personal and political future.
In a self-serving My View published in Tuesday's Star, White insisted his travails were not of his own making but that of his partisan opponents. Democrats certainly have tried to exploit the mess White has created, but his explanation fails to take into account why so many prominent Republicans have asked him to give up the office.
It also fails to place the blame for this embarrassment where it belongs: with Charlie White.
In a hearing before the Recount Commission last week, White's defense essentially centered on the argument that his personal life was such a mess that he couldn't be expected to define such details as a clear place of residence during the time when he sought the state's third highest elected office.
The Recount Commission bought that contention, ruling that White's intent was to live at his ex-wife's house (where he was registered to vote) even if he stayed there only part time. The question of White's residency is important in part because he served as a member of the Fishers Town Council until last September, when it was revealed that he had moved out of the district he represented. White said at the time that he didn't realize his new residence was outside of his old district.
A chief elections officer who can't be bothered with the details of election law? It sounds absurd, but that's the best defense White can offer for his actions.