AMD "Zen" A Monolithic Core Design

[qubit]

This sounds great and I'm not completely surprised, since the new guy at the top apparently has turned around other businesses.

I'd love to see an AMD CPU/APU kick Intel's butt once more like they did a decade ago.

Let's hope this really delivers this time.

 

[Captain_Tom]

dont forget the rumours that DX12 allows sharing/adding of VRAM in multi GPU, that 16GB could be insane

OMG... I would upgrade from my i7-4770K in A SECOND if it meant the system RAM could just be that 16GB of HBM.

 

[Freedom4556]

Not to get anybody's hopes dashed, but the instant I read "16 cores" and "current process" I immediately assumed we're looking at a game console/server-esque sub-2GHz bulk process affair. This just sounds like a double-sized, updated PS4 APU.

 

[Krekeris]

Am I the only one here going to get one of these badboys to browse internet and watch youtube?

 

[GhostRyder]

Wow, well on paper this sounds fantastic and like a real winner if they get their IPC up enough to compensate. The GPU portion could be a real winner on its own but if the CPU disappoints then its only good on the server market (Where VM's and such need just a bunch of cores instead of single powerful cores).

Not sure what I really think beyond it sounds great on paper though. It could really be a huge step up from them and I am sure it will be lots better than the previous gen CPU's, however it will come down to how much on a clock to clock ratio as to whether these things are just good or fantastic.

 

[DarkMantle]

I thought it was pretty obvious where it was sourced from. I think your first sentence summed it up nicely.
Zen is a rumored architecture and anything printed is purely speculation for now.

Well it probably is for some people but not for everybody, just take a look at some of the comments. Most of other sites that are also reporting on this story do tell their readers these are rumors or could very well be a complete fabrication. I think it is important to say when a story is based on unconfirmed sources. That is all.

 

[librin.so.1]

[...]I immediately assumed we're looking at a game console/server-esque sub-2GHz bulk process affair. This just sounds like a double-sized, updated PS4 APU.

The APU in PS4 (same goes for Xbone) is of the Jaguar µArch, which is AMD's low-power µArch currently being replaced by its rafinement – Puma.
Meanwhile, Zen is a new µArch – a completely new design.

So, it can't be, in any way, just one "beefy" updated Jaguar, i.e. Puma.

 

[Countryside]

If everything goes well then AMD can say goodbye to Underdog status . If they fail it will be a sad day in cpu history.

 

[HalfAHertz]

The APU in PS4 (same goes for Xbone) is of the Jaguar µArch, which is AMD's low-power µArch currently being replaced by its rafinement – Puma.
Meanwhile, Zen is a new µArch – a completely new design.

So, it can't be, in any way, just one "beefy" updated Jaguar, i.e. Puma.

I completely agree. There is no way in hell they can manage to fit 16 beefy cores on one single die with the available production technology. This smells a lot like 16 tiny cores similar in performance to Puma/Atom. Or in the best case 16 medium sized cores similar in performance to Piledriver/Steamroller and clocked low to keep the heat to reasonable levels. This would pretty much make it useless for gaming/productivity tasks...

 

[RejZoR]

Looks like I'll be having difficulty deciding between Skylake and Zen. It looks amazing on paper and it just might be a reason to go with AMD this time around. AMD's certainly have that "zen" feeling to them when you own them.

 

[micropage7]

with many and many and many cores i think AMD should improve their per core performance, many cores is good but until now i think we miss the opportunity having many cores since only few cores that fully utilized except you do heavy task

 

[btarunr]

I'm a little confused. Why aren't you telling us in your article that this is just rumors based on a "leaked" slide Fudzilla got their hands on.

I linked to that article..

 

[Jorge]

I hope we see cpus without integrated gpu based on this architecture.

Yeah, it's called Zen. Zen is the CPU and it's cores are so good they are going in the next AMD APU iterations. Zen was developed to be a discrete CPU first and then the cores added to the next gen APUs.

 

[Jorge]

I'm a little confused. Why aren't you telling us in your article that this is just rumors based on a "leaked" slide Fudzilla got their hands on.

I love AMD as much as the next guy and want them to be profitable but making people believe this is real based on rumors is just not good for the company (and coming from Fudzilla I have no doubt that could very well be part of the reason why they posted this). This could end up worse than the Bulldozer fiasco.

It's real and not based on rumors. The 16 core APUs are intended for enterprise, not consumers. Eight cores is more than enough for any consumer applications. SMT will help compensate for the poorly written code that exists.

 

[64K]

with many and many and many cores i think AMD should improve their per core performance, many cores is good but until now i think we miss the opportunity having many cores since only few cores that fully utilized except you do heavy task

Well, from a gaming perspective more cores might turn out to be faster overall even if they are slower individually. One of the many promises of DX12 is that it will make better use of additional cores. We'll see.

 

[TRWOV]

HMB controller along with a DDR4 one? So we'll see HBM sticks soon?

AMD should at least match Sandy Bridge's IPC this time, otherwise the same story will repeat... and please, don't call these "FX".

 

[MikeMurphy]

This is a server chip guys. You think AMD would waste money giving consumers 16 cores?

They also look like jaguar derivatives.

 

[wiak]

this looks interesting

 

[newtekie1]

I hope we see cpus without integrated gpu based on this architecture.

Not likely going to happen. Just like Intel, all AMD's CPUs will have integrated graphics. The most we can hope for is a CPU with the GPU portion disabled.

 

[Dent1]

AMD should at least match Sandy Bridge's IPC this time, otherwise the same story will repeat... and please, don't call these "FX".

You are talking from the point of view of a techie and enthusiast. not from a businessman or significant shareholder.

You want performance for your own selfish needs, which is fine, but don't pretend more performance will magically change the "story" without a strategic business plan.

 

[Petey Plane]

This is a server chip guys. You think AMD would waste money giving consumers 16 cores?

They also look like jaguar derivatives.

I completely agree. There is no way in hell they can manage to fit 16 beefy cores on one single die with the available production technology. This smells a lot like 16 tiny cores similar in performance to Puma/Atom. Or in the best case 16 medium sized cores similar in performance to Piledriver/Steamroller and clocked low to keep the heat to reasonable levels. This would pretty much make it useless for gaming/productivity tasks...

AMD been selling 16 core chips for at least 3 years already

 

[Captain_Tom]

AMD been selling 16 core chips for at least 3 years already

Exactly. Everyone seems to be forgetting this. 14nm will allow over double the density so I see no problem with them fitting all this stuff while improving IPC a ton.

 

[newtekie1]

AMD been selling 16 core chips for at least 3 years already

Exactly. Everyone seems to be forgetting this. 14nm will allow over double the density so I see no problem with them fitting all this stuff while improving IPC a ton.

Yep, and they've been doing it on 32nm too...with 115w TDPs...

 

[Devon68]

Meh

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I so hope zen is good. my 6300 is starting to show its age, and im trying to hold out. a zen cpu+microatx board+r9 390x sounds perfect.