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I have heard the term fabric used when talking about a processor in some recent documents I have looked at.

For example, "..and that will erase data within the processors fabric."

Upon researching fabric, I came across this Fabric Computing definition which didn't quite seem to make sense for the definition of a processors fabric.

So my question would be, in regards to computer processors, what is fabric?

DevelopingDeveloper
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  • where did you read that? Obviously, when it comes to new terms, the context is most important! Also, don't try overly hard to put technical sense in marketing terms, should this happen to be one. – Marcus Müller Oct 23 '19 at 17:33
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    Surprisingly it very difficult to google out something that confirms my understand of it even though I use this term (specifically "data fabric") every day... – Eugene Sh. Oct 23 '19 at 17:34
  • My understanding is that it will erase data inside the processor, not data within external devices. I think fabric is a synonym of material here. So internal register and ram/rom for microcontrollers will be cleared – Pier-Yves Lessard Oct 23 '19 at 17:42
  • Why don't they just use the word logic? – Voltage Spike Oct 23 '19 at 17:47
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    Is this for a processor which is implemented on an FPGA? That's the main context where I might expect to hear _fabric_. – Justin Oct 23 '19 at 18:19
  • @ReinstateMonica "Data Fabric" is pretty standard term in (at least modern) processors and refer to the whole complex of logic responsible for the data transfer between components. – Eugene Sh. Oct 23 '19 at 18:22
  • @ReinstateMonica Yes this is to do with Fabric on an FPGA – DevelopingDeveloper Oct 23 '19 at 18:32

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This sounds like a broadly interpreted term. But in the context of processors we (by we I mean my work environment of a major processor manufacturer) use this term to refer the whole infrastructure intended for a specific purpose, such as Data Fabric - which is consisting of the interconnect, control and arbitration logic involved in moving data of different types and representations between different processor blocks. As reference I could find the AMD Infinity and Scalable Control Fabric description. Citation:

Infinity Fabric (IF) is a proprietary system interconnect architecture that facilitates data and control transmission across all linked components

Eugene Sh.
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  • I think it can be considered an answer to this question. – Transistor Oct 23 '19 at 19:09
  • Yes, "fabric" in modern processor design refers to an interconnect technique of more like a "point-to-point" as opposite to the old-style classic "shared bus" architecture. – Ale..chenski Oct 24 '19 at 03:51
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Regarding FPGAs, I always took this to mean just the general logic (the look-up tables and flip-flops) and interconnect in the FPGA (i.e. the "sea of gates"); That is to say not the hard IP blocks such as DSP blocks, ADCs, PLLs, or transceivers. It kind of looks like woven fabric with all the uniform square-grid criss crossing.

I've not really heard this used for processors but since you're talking about a soft process on an FPGA, I assume it means the same thing.

The quote "...and that will erase data within the processors fabric" lacks a little more context than I would like and seems a little ambiguous because I would normally take "clearing the fabric" as literally wiping the FPGA clean and the soft processor along with it. In that context it doesn't make sense to say "clear the data within the process fabric". If I took that phrase literally, I would assume it is talking about something similar to a hard reset on a hard MCU, where the data within the processor is cleared without wiping out the processor itself from the FPGA (something that is not possible with a hard processor anyways).

DKNguyen
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I usually start with the dictionary:

fabric /ˈfabrɪk/
noun: fabric; plural noun: fabrics

Origin

late 15th century: from French fabrique, from Latin fabrica ‘something skilfully produced’, from faber ‘worker in metal, stone, etc.’ The word originally denoted a building, later a machine, the general sense being ‘something made’, hence fabric (sense 1) (mid 18th century, originally denoting any manufactured material). fabric (sense 2) dates from the mid 17th century. Lexico / Oxford.

It makes sense that the chips are made in a fabrication facility.

Transistor
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