AMD's Zen processors to feature up to 32 cores, 8-channel DDR4

[Scorpus]

It looks like it will still be many months before we see anything official from AMD on their upcoming Zen processors, but that hasn't stopped some information being presented at CERN's recent IT Technical Forum.

As spotted by The Tech Report, a CERN engineer revealed during the Forum that AMD's Zen line-up would feature processors with up to 32 cores in two 16-core modules. These chips will also reportedly use Symmetrical Multi Threading, which is basically an AMD-developed version of Hyper-Threading.

The slide from the engineer's presentation also reveals that Zen will bring a 40 percent improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) compared to their current line-up. Along with more cores, this will make Zen a much more powerful line of CPUs, potentially with significantly improved power efficiency as well thanks to the use of 14nm FinFET technology.

And finally, Zen will allegedly support both PCIe gen 3.0, and eight-channel DDR4. This essentially brings AMD's line of CPUs up to feature parity with Intel's current processors, and even going beyond with support for more memory channels, potentially to deliver enough bandwidth to all the processing cores.

AMD is expected to formally announce and release Zen before the end of the year, and it could be just what the struggling company needs judging by this early information.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/63796-amd-zen-cpu-up-32-cores.html

 

[Puiu]

This certainly looks good on paper. We just have to wait and see the benchmarks.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Looks hugely promising. Like Puiu said, we have to wait for benchmarks to be sure though! If this is, in real life, like it is on paper, AMD has a comeback planned.

 

[wastedkill]

Looks hugely promising. Like Puiu said, we have to wait for benchmarks to be sure though! If this is, in real life, like it is on paper, AMD has a comeback planned.

Lets hope its not another BS internal benchmark lol But ye looks great lets just hope that hyperthreading brings us 64cores in total, if its single core & multicore nodes match intels then I might replace my x99 setup with the 32/64core zen.

 

[Technician]

AMD is so cute, trying to keep up still.

 

[dirtyferret]

How about building a legitimate quad core CPU that offers 40% per clock performance over current FX chips across all tests not one or two cherry picked tests against some under powered APU chips. That would get me excited for AMD again.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, all this marketing hype is possibly creating yet another Bulldozer fiasco. You would think AMD would have learned their lesson.

 

[MonsterZero]

AMD is so cute, trying to keep up still.

I was thinking the same thing, people rave about their chips being cheaper, but at what cost. At what cost..

 

[Lionvibez]

The only concern here is they need it to get close to haswell IPC and I think it will be closer to IVY.
Any improvement is a good one considering we haven't had an AMD that can compete for almost 10 years now.

 

[Nobina]

I hope this is what AMD needs to get back on track but I until I see how it performs I'm neutral.

 

[The Owl]

I love Multi core AMD CPUs I have 3 x 6 layer and 1 x 8 layer but the only thing that concerns me is will the / Any OS take full advantage of that many layers?

 

[MrBlkfx1]

It's great that AMD is looking pretty good on paper, but I won't get my hopes up. With that said, an AMD comeback would be great for consumers from a pricing standpoint and innovation. If AMD was able to compete with Intel, they'll probably start to release products that come with more than a 5% performance increase over their predecessors.

 

[Adhmuz]

No where do they mention how this will be released to consumers, one can only assume at this point in time that these 32 core chips will be primarily for server use, unless otherwise stated. Nor do we get any insight at clock speeds these chips will run at, great knowing that they're 40% more efficient but if that comes at 30% reduction of clock speed that's not terribly good. It's too soon to say anything other than way to go AMD at creating hype that will likely never be lived up to.

 

[mosu]

It's a quad 8 cores chips interconnected meant for servers, not for consumer and will be released in 2017.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, all this marketing hype is possibly creating yet another Bulldozer fiasco. You would think AMD would have learned their lesson.

If you think I rag AMD now wait till after that happens. If this turns into another Bulldozer fiasco, this Intel/nVidia guy will start flying his colors. Until then I can't wait to see ZEN competing in benchmarks against Intel.

 

[agb81]

AMD is so cute, trying to keep up still.

Yeah, it's a little hard to keep up competing when your main opponent cripples your sales and technological advancements for two years through bribery.

 

[Evernessince]

AMD is so cute, trying to keep up still.

I was thinking the same thing, people rave about their chips being cheaper, but at what cost. At what cost..

I positive that at this point everyone knows where AMD stands. AMD processors aren't even recommended over the $100 price point anymore.

 

[NahNood]

This certainly looks good on paper. We just have to wait and see the benchmarks.

And any bugs.

 

[NahNood]

AMD is so cute, trying to keep up still.

I was thinking the same thing, people rave about their chips being cheaper, but at what cost. At what cost..

I positive that at this point everyone knows where AMD stands. AMD processors aren't even recommended over the $100 price point anymore.

$99 for my amd and it's working just fine, thanks. $300+ for an intel? Funny.

 

[thorpj]

Looks hugely promising. Like Puiu said, we have to wait for benchmarks to be sure though! If this is, in real life, like it is on paper, AMD has a comeback planned.

Lets hope its not another BS internal benchmark lol But ye looks great lets just hope that hyperthreading brings us 64cores in total, if its single core & multicore nodes match intels then I might replace my x99 setup with the 32/64core zen.

Why would the multithreading bring 64 cores? it will be 32 cores, 64 threads.

 

[thorpj]

So is Symmetrical multithreading going to utilise the optimisations for Intel's Simultaneous multithreading? or are we going to have another situation where those cores are pointless?

 

[Evernessince]

$99 for my amd and it's working just fine, thanks. $300+ for an intel? Funny.

And that's great, it works for you. For people who need the extra power, there is literally no choice but Intel. Go to any tech form and Intel will be recommended for any sort of gaming, productivity, emulation, or any other heavy task. This is to be expected. AMD haven't released a new micro architecture in YEARS. On top of that, their last large shakeup in Bulldozer, was an unmitigated disaster.

 

[The Owl]

And that's great, it works for you. For people who need the extra power, there is literally no choice but Intel. Go to any tech form and Intel will be recommended for any sort of gaming, productivity, emulation, or any other heavy task. This is to be expected. AMD haven't released a new micro architecture in YEARS. On top of that, their last large shakeup in Bulldozer, was an unmitigated disaster.

In your opinion and in the opinion of testers that probably get paid to do good reports on intel CPU's I have been building Computers for people for close to 20 years before I retired two years ago I have three "main machines 2 have AMD 1100T 6 layer jobs and 1 8 layer and they do everything I need them to and I probably do a dam sight more than most, there is nothing wrong with AMD if they have enough Ram behind them (all mine have 8gb as a minimum) so sorry AMD forever IMHO.

 

[Evernessince]

In your opinion and in the opinion of testers that probably get paid to do good reports on intel CPU's I have been building Computers for people for close to 20 years before I retired two years ago I have three "main machines 2 have AMD 1100T 6 layer jobs and 1 8 layer and they do everything I need them to and I probably do a dam sight more than most, there is nothing wrong with AMD if they have enough Ram behind them (all mine have 8gb as a minimum) so sorry AMD forever IMHO.

This isn't my opinion, it's backed by data from every benchmark.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2015/benchmarks,187.html

You can spout your "experience" all day but I don't believe of lick of it because AMD hasn't been competitive in the CPU space since Phenom II x4. Anyone who's kept up with computers would know that. If you're so blinded by biases that you've ignored benchmarks the last 7 years, you need to be discussing this in the only place that will actually believe you, the AMD forums.

 

[The Owl]

As I said

in the opinion of testers that probably get paid to do good reports on intel CPU's

No one ever complained about the machines I built being slow EOS IMHO. but if you have more money than sense fine your choice