AMD officially cancels 20nm chips and takes a $33 million charge

[Doobeedoo]

I think I knew about this...
Anyway, it seems better though. And that thread title vs article title clickbait...

[Master Disaster]

Can anyone explain the difference between TSMC & FinFet for me?

I mean I thought TSMC was a fabrication foundry while FinFet was a fabrication technique.

Either way the must be talking about Zen and I'm assuming these decisions were made a while ago.

[vm'N]

Can anyone explain the difference between TSMC & FinFet for me?

I mean I thought TSMC was a fabrication foundry while FinFet was a fabrication technique.

Either way the must be talking about Zen and I'm assuming these decisions were made a while ago.

TSMC is a semiconductor company, dealing massively with many big fabless semiconductor companies (those who design the processor, and then send them over to be fabbed, like AMD).

FinFet is a lithography technology. Something that TSMC have recently started with.

So you are basically right.

This really have no effect on zen, regardless. If anything we might see some delay or cancel project of some of AMDs old time rumoured low power 20nm SoC. Nothing of interest for the regular consumer.

[spartaman64]

The 290 has always done that, though. The difference between the 290 and 290X has only ever been an overclock away, and that's just what the 390 is. An overclocked 290.

390 overclocked beats the gtx 970 overclocked

[spartaman64]

why are people all up in arms that amd is moving straight to 14nm instead of 20nm on their new chips. you know that you want a smaller node not bigger

[marldorthegreat]

That would be horrible, because that would mean intel is still king and the development will stay being as slow as it is...

If zen destroys their current cpu's and even beat intel cpu's. That would be great, and that's what we all need. It will give intel the slap they need to increase performance again like they used to do. It would start a cpu war again and in the end, we all benefit from that.

Honestly I cant see zen being that good. It is still using a modular design, and the block diagram looks like it is just updated excavator cores. I want to see a stand alone excavator fx CPU

[vm'N]

Honestly I cant see zen being that good. It is still using a modular design, and the block diagram looks like it is just updated excavator cores. I want to see a stand alone excavator fx CPU

That will not tell much regarding performance. They key point of zen, is exactly the modular design. This is great for semi-costum designs, which also is a big market segment for AMD.

These will be full cores, AFAIK, so I doubt they will run into the same issue as bulldozer.

[samcool55]

Honestly I cant see zen being that good. It is still using a modular design, and the block diagram looks like it is just updated excavator cores. I want to see a stand alone excavator fx CPU

The fact their cpu's will have HT support like intel cpu's do is a big step in the right direction on it's own.

You really can't tell how good a cpu will perform just by looking at the design...

[byalexandr]

Why would they cancel it? This could bring AMD back!

[vm'N]

The fact their cpu's will have HT support like intel cpu's do is a big step in the right direction on it's own.

You really can't tell how good a cpu will perform just by looking at the design...

To be honest, there is nothing we can do but wait.

There simple are not enough information out, to even consider guessing the performance of zen.

[samcool55]

To be honest, there is nothing we can do but wait.

There simple are not enough information out, to even consider guessing the performance of zen.

True, but i think it's safe to say it will be better than what they have now, hopefully a lot better

[marldorthegreat]

True, but i think it's safe to say it will be better than what they have now, hopefully a lot better

They are saying 40% better IPC over piledriver, which puts it on par with haswell. 

[vm'N]

They are saying 40% better IPC over piledriver, which puts it on par with haswell.

They are saying 40% better IPC, which is purely marketing related.

It is simply a number a marketer picked, which he though would look good on a slide.

Maybe not literal, but you get the point.

[samcool55]

They are saying 40% better IPC over piledriver, which puts it on par with haswell. 

Well that's not bad! don't forget they will 16-core cpu's with that.

[vm'N]

Please guys, take the IPC term with a grain of salt.

It is way to vague to try to extract any valuable information from.

[marldorthegreat]

They are saying 40% better IPC, which is purely marketing related.

It is simply a number a marketer picked, which he though would look good on a slide.

Maybe not literal, but you get the point.

Im not going to get overhyped about it. Im going intel from now on. Cant wait for skylake. 

[marldorthegreat]

Well that's not bad! don't forget they will 16-core cpu's with that.

Yeah. 16 cores. Because we will be able to use 16 cores. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2411519/computex-intel-pokes-fun-at-amd-and-mediatek-with-65-core-xeon-smartphone

[samcool55]

Yeah. 16 cores. Because we will be able to use 16 cores. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2411519/computex-intel-pokes-fun-at-amd-and-mediatek-with-65-core-xeon-smartphone

Prosumers will be happy with it. I mean there are more of them out there than you might think.

[dalekphalm]

Why would they cancel it? This could bring AMD back!

Huh? 20nm was mostly going to be GPU's (which are going straight to 14nm next year) and custom APU's... ZEN, or literally anything you would care about, is going straight to 14nm.

 

This shouldn't impact ZEN or GPU timelines at all.

 

Yeah. 16 cores. Because we will be able to use 16 cores. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2411519/computex-intel-pokes-fun-at-amd-and-mediatek-with-65-core-xeon-smartphone

Well let's be fair, the 16 core unit is going to be an "extreme workstation" or Server product. So only people with highly multitasking workloads would even consider it. AMD is planning an 8-core unit for their "high end desktop" segment, that we gamers might be interesting. Plus there will be 4-core versions as well for more mainstream gamers.

[byalexandr]

Huh? 20nm was mostly going to be GPU's (which are going straight to 14nm next year) and custom APU's... ZEN, or literally anything you would care about, is going straight to 14nm.

 

This shouldn't impact ZEN or GPU timelines at all.

 

Well let's be fair, the 16 core unit is going to be an "extreme workstation" or Server product. So only people with highly multitasking workloads would even consider it. AMD is planning an 8-core unit for their "high end desktop" segment, that we gamers might be interesting. Plus there will be 4-core versions as well for more mainstream gamers.

Oh, thank the heavens. I really like AMD, I want them to come back, but it really feels to me like they aren't trying.

[vm'N]

Oh, thank the heavens. I really like AMD, I want them to come back, but it really feels to me like they aren't trying.

Should they apply to more marketing to hype you up?

Or wait until they have something?

These things take time, and there certainly are dry times, where much doesn't happend.

[dalekphalm]

Should they apply to more marketing to hype you up?

Or wait until they have something?

These things take time, and there certainly are dry times, where much doesn't happend.

Yeah I'm really not sure what else people want AMD to do. They're steadily improving their already good GPU lineup, especially dropping some sick new tech (HBM), and they're engineering and designing the mythical "saviour" CPU = ZEN.

 

ZEN takes time. It won't be out any faster because people say so. Besides, ZEN is 2016, and we're getting pretty close.

[patrickjp93]

why are people all up in arms that amd is moving straight to 14nm instead of 20nm on their new chips. you know that you want a smaller node not bigger

AMD needs good products released sooner rather than later. The longer they wait on Skybridge, the more ARM's chances of breaking into the server market erode.

[patrickjp93]

Honestly I cant see zen being that good. It is still using a modular design, and the block diagram looks like it is just updated excavator cores. I want to see a stand alone excavator fx CPU

Each core has its own independent integer and floating point units. Clusters of 4 share an L2 cache, and all 8 share the L3, at least if I remember the diagrams correctly. Zen shouldn't run into most if any of the issues Bulldozer and its derivatives did.

[vm'N]

AMD needs good products released sooner rather than later. The longer they wait on Skybridge, the more ARM's chances of breaking into the server market erode.

Aren't skybridge cancelled already?

It is already to late.