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AMD Outlines Plans For Zen-Based Processors, First Due In 2016

crookedvulture writes: AMD laid out its plans for processors based on its all-new Zen microarchitecture today, promising 40% higher performance-per-clock from from the x86 CPU core. Zen will use simultaneous multithreading to execute two threads per core, and it will be built using "3D" FinFETs. The first chips are due to hit high-end desktops and servers next year. In 2017, Zen will combine with integrated graphics in smaller APUs designed for desktops and notebooks. AMD also plans to produce a high-performance server APU with a "transformational memory architecture" likely similar to the on-package DRAM being developed for the company's discrete graphics processors. This chip could give AMD a credible challenger in the HPC and supercomputing markets—and it could also make its way into laptops and desktops.

25 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Finally a replacement by Rellon · · Score: 2

    I've been hobbling along with my FX-8350 and AM3+ for awhile now and have been wanting to upgrade. If it lives up to the hype, unlike dozer, and piledriver, then I'll definitely get one. Now if only the process actually works....

    --
    "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will" Wicca Rede
    1. Re:Finally a replacement by kalpol · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hobbling???? I just upgraded TO an 8350 from a Athlon 5200+ (which did pretty much everything I asked of it, including MythTV and watching Netflix in Virtualbox). I don't know what to do with all these cores now.

      --
      12:50 - press return.
    2. Re:Finally a replacement by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Still trucking along on a Phenom II X6 1045T... 6x2.8 GHz or 3x3.2 GHz still seems like a lot. I can't remember the last time I was CPU-bound. I have to spend more than a hundred bucks on a GPU, I guess.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Finally a replacement by Zanadou · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This.

      I have a FX-8350 too. Given how much the the cores sit around idling at less than 5% usage, I don't think I'll need to upgrade my CPU before 2020. RAM, on the other hand...

      As many other people have noted: the CPU speed wars have been over since the Intel Wolfdale/AMD Deneb days of 2009-2010.

    4. Re:Finally a replacement by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      If it is hobbling, you probably didn't do a very good analysis of if it matches your work load, because it is not a high-end general purpose CPU. ;)

      Mine is freakin' awesome. It does everything I ask of it so easily that I can't even hear the fans.

    5. Re:Finally a replacement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wait until you try to do some video encoding. The new instruction set support alone will justify the update.

    6. Re:Finally a replacement by Maxwell · · Score: 2

      Your $600+ intel CPU is slightly faster than a $195 AMD CPU. LOL, indeed.

  2. Just in time for the End of the Line by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Insightful

    14nm tech may be the end of the line for CMOS. The 10 nm node that follows may not even be possible

    1. Re:Just in time for the End of the Line by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      None of those other nodes pitches involved dimensions of which quantum mechanical tunneling was the dominant effect, nor of gate thickness being one atom. But that's what 10nm is.

    2. Re:Just in time for the End of the Line by Megol · · Score: 2

      10nm is proven possible. Samsung have demonstrated some 10nm chips already.

      Transistors have been made much smaller in process development labs so we know that the scaling will continue some time into the future.

    3. Re:Just in time for the End of the Line by ITRambo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We are a ways away from not being able to shrink dies further using known technologies. One atom, in this context, is much smaller than 10 nm. The range is 0.1 to 0.5 nm using various methods of calculating the atom's diameter (see link following). . Source on atom size: http://hypertextbook.com/facts...

  3. Zen Architecture by hey! · · Score: 5, Funny

    Featuring GGL (Gateless Gate Logic).

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    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Zen Architecture by nytes · · Score: 2

      Can it calculate the sound of one hand clapping?

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      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
  4. So close... by lga · · Score: 2, Funny

    >40% higher performance-per-clock from from the x86 CPU core.

    That could very slightly close the gap between AMD and Intel!

  5. Extrapolate? by Hrrrg · · Score: 2

    Anyone care to extrapolate from current benchmarks as to how this new processor will compare to Intel's desktop offerings? I would like to see Intel have some competition there.

    1. Re:Extrapolate? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Anyone care to extrapolate from current benchmarks as to how this new processor will compare to Intel's desktop offerings? I would like to see Intel have some competition there.

      FX-8350: 2012
      "Zen": 2016

      The 40% jump is more like 0%, 0%, 0%, 40%.

      If you compare a 3770K (best of 2012) to a 4790K (best of today) you get a ~15% frequency boost and another ~10% IPC improvements. If the leaked roadmaps are to believed Skylake for the desktop is imminent which will bring a new 14nm process and a refined micro-architecture at the same time as Broadwell missed their tick for the desktop, so in the same timeframe Intel will have improved 30-40% too.

      Anyway you asked about AMD and I answered with Intel but it's a lot easier to get a meaningful answer without getting into the AMD vs Intel flame war. In short, even if AMD comes through on that roadmap they're only back to 2012 levels of competitiveness and honestly speaking it wasn't exactly great and AMD wasn't exactly profitable. They're so far behind that you honestly couldn't expect less if they weren't giving up on that market completely, which honestly thinking I thought they had. And I wonder how credible this roadmap is, I remember an equally impressive upwards curve for Bulldozer...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. Dear AMD by faragon · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Please, focus. I don't know what "the market" need. I know what *I* need to buy from you again:
    • Netbook: 2-core CPU/APU at 2GHz with decent IPC for 30 USD
    • Laptop: 4-core CPU/APU at 2-2.5GHz with good IPC for 60-70 USD
    • Desktop: "PS4 on a chip" with twice the CPU frequency for 90-120 USD

    Note that, in comparison to ARM CPUs, x86 SoCs are *crazy* overpriced. There are superb ARM SoCs for just 20 USD. WTF are you doing selling similar consumer-grade chips for 100 USD??

    1. Re:Dear AMD by tabrisnet · · Score: 2

      AMD gets a lot of shit for this, and there's plenty to give 'em shit for... but that's not one of 'em.

      It's a shared FPU only when in 256bit AVX mode. When in normal 128bit (2x64) SSE mode that you share one FPU with 2 cores.

  7. Better Tell Intel Their 4nm Process Isn't Real by HannethCom · · Score: 4, Informative

    Intel develops technology which doesn't doesn't make it into their plant for 5 to 10 years. Also they don't put things on their roadmap until they've proven possible.
    http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/c...
    Intel's 2012 roadmap shows 4nm process in 2022. Which means they have a process that has been tested to work, they are just tweaking it to reduce errors and working on the best way to outfit a plant for it. Also costs billions and time to refit a plant.

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    Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
  8. Re:Please make it soon AMD by Totenglocke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good bang for your buck and ethical business practices. Hell, just the unethical business practices alone should make most informed people stay away from Intel.

    --
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
  9. Re:Please make it soon AMD by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Funny

    A lot of people don't really understand that the CPUs are already "fast enough" and that they can include other important issues in their buying decisions.

    I mostly buy and recommend AMD because:
    1) better price/performance ratio
    2) code I write is designed to scale horizontally, which loops back to #1 even when it is a high load service
    3) better power/performance ratio on desktops and servers
    4) the motherboards are cheaper for the same components, and I hate over-paying even if the motherboard cost is too small a percent of the total system cost to matter very much

    Intel does mostly win on laptops due to lack of availability of alternatives.

  10. Re:Holy shit AMD does something right by Aighearach · · Score: 2

    What is the use case for a high end integrated APU? The current use case is for systems that need modern GPU capabilities, but not high graphics performance. Lots of use cases require something like OpenGL but would never have it maxed out. They are full-featured, they just don't have the number of cores that you want for playing fancy games.

    If you want both to be high end, it seems more logical to have discrete graphics. But if you need OpenGL for CAD, WebGL, or some other use, then an APU is indeed "full featured" not "crippled" at all. They support the latest APIs and technologies, just not the latest games at highest settings.

  11. Re:Please make it soon AMD by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny

    So I can get a 64 core machine with 512GB or memory for $8k instead of $80k.
    At the low end good enough and dirt cheap pushes towards AMD. In the middle there are niches where braindead developers still don't have a fucking clue in 2015 how to write multi-threaded code so a fast i7 with hardly any cores is the best tool for the job, but that's a diminishing niche as developers start to learn what they should have in 1995.

  12. Re:Where is the support for ECC RAM? by dshk · · Score: 3, Informative

    What are you talking about? All AMD server boards support ECC. In contrast to Intel, AMD always puts every feature into every processor of the same generation. AMD does not dumb down artificially even its cheapest processor. That is one of the thing I like in AMD processors. I do not have to check which random feature is disabled in a particular processor. Even some desktop AMD motherboards have ECC support, like the SABERTOOTH 990FX.

  13. Re:Where is the support for ECC RAM? by FirstOne · · Score: 2

    Nearly all AMD CPU/APU's support ECC memory, you just need the right Mother Board... ASUS bios's have consistently supported AMD/ECC memory combinations for many years.

    Not long ago, I configured a number of Phenom II X6 1045t and FX-8320 systems with 8-16GB of ECC memory on ASUS M4A88T-M and M5A78L-M motherboards. This link indicates the Zen series will support 4 channel ECC/DDR4.