AMD confirms completing few 14/16nm FinFET product designs

[Bouzoo]

Good news for AMD, however, they didn't say which product is at talk, but since we know both Zen and Arctic Islands are based on FinFET and are coming next year, there is a high possibility one of them, if not both (and few others?) are having this design.

 

Matt Ramsay – Canaccord Genuity – Analyst

A little bit of a longer-term strategic question for you, Lisa. Last night, Intel announced the addition of a new chip on their 14-nanometer roadmap and pushed back 10. It strikes me as two things. One, love to get your commentary relative to your foundry partners as to how the [Moore’s Law] progression is going, particularly with Zen coming on 14-nanometer next year. Second, it looks like now you will be in a position to potentially overlap your Zen products with a generation of Intel products that is still on 14-nanometer. Just your reaction to that, in general, and the competitive landscape on the foundry side. Thanks.

 

Lisa Su – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. – President & CEO

Matt, I do think the process technology landscape, right now, is quite interesting. On the first part of your question, how do we view FinFET technologies? Actually, I think the maturity of FinFET technologies is coming along very nicely, so we see it as an important part of our roadmap in 2016 across all of our markets. We’ve actually just taped out our first couple of FinFET designs. Relative to what that means for the competitive landscape going forward, I’ve been asked that question a couple of times over the last year and my comments have been, our focus is on design architecture and ensuring that we use all of our design architecture expertise. Zen is a clean sheet design and from architectural standpoint, I think it’s going to be very competitive. The fact that the gap between foundry technologies and other technologies is shrinking, I think does change the competitive landscape and will be a good opportunity as we go forward competitively. We are aggressively going after FinFET and I think that’s going to be an incredibly important node for us.

 

Now we just have to wait for them to show us actual products and then we'll see what's what. There are few holes in the article, so if I missed something let me know. I for once welcome good AMD news.

 

Source

[SurvivorNVL]

I really hope that Zen and Arctic Islands are a hit.  It still seems very bleak even if they have success.  But here is definitely 110% hoping.  It would be rather cool to have a truly high performance all AMD system.

[zMeul]

repost?! http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/409168-lisa-su-%E2%80%9Cwe-have-actually-just-taped-out-our-first-couple-of-finfet-designs%E2%80%9D/

[Bouzoo]

repost?! http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/409168-lisa-su-“we-have-actually-just-taped-out-our-first-couple-of-finfet-designs”/

Indeed. Search failed.

[Guest Strangerbob]

Their priority should be to make a 4core Zen CPU with integrated graphics with HBM on the level of latest x60 nvidia cards or x70 amd cards.

 

 

AMD needs to do something NEW and hardcore like that to pull them out of this shithole their in.

 

Imagine mounting a zotac zbox with the mentioned Zen APU on the back of your freesync supporting huge 21:9 OLED monitor. You get to enjoy artifact free gaming on a setup that doesnt have a PC case at all. 

 

The whole market needs to slowly move to smaller hardware. We are seeing the start of this already today. The PC tower will be a thing of the past just like room sized calculators are now.

[Doobeedoo]

It's definitely Zen and Arctic Islands. For FX replacement is really needed and current Fury X was there to introduce HBM and stay on track. 

[azurezeed]

Zen must be awesome

[Delusional Phil]

Don't disappoint or underdeliver AMD ... I believe you can pull yourself out ... 

Cheers to new tech coming in 2016 ! 

[patrickjp93]

1 Month until we know the truth of Skylake. 1 year (give or take) until we know the truth of Zen, the Rx 400 series, and Kaby Lake. AMD's last gasp, a renaissance, or only a delay to their collapse? Time tells all things eventually.

[othertomperson]

Their priority should be to make a 4core Zen CPU with integrated graphics with HBM on the level of latest x60 nvidia cards or x70 amd cards.

 

Not necessarily. If their £250 tier product were still an 8-core (albeit 8 independent cores without the crap module system of the current FX CPUs) then they wouldn't actually need to beat Skylake's IPC to be competitive. If they only equalled Haswell then their £250 product is toe-to-to with a 5960X. The price of those high end Intel chips doesn't really decrease over time, so that could be quite the upheaval. Given how Sandy Bridge is good enough for gaming then this wouldn't translate to any tangible performance loss to that market.

 

That is to say, if Zen ends up being what people think FX is, and not what it actually is, then that'll be good.

[Spoonfull]

You guys seem to be overhyping the hell out of Zen. Its not coming out until late 2016, and you are putting yourselves in the position where you WILL be disappointed.

[othertomperson]

You guys seem to be overhyping the hell out of Zen. Its not coming out until late 2016, and you are putting yourselves in the position where you WILL be disappointed.

 

You think it won't match Haswell? Bearing in mind that it's going to be competing with Skylake and Kaby Lake, it needs to at least match Haswell or there's no point.

[Spoonfull]

You think it won't match Haswell? Bearing in mind that it's going to be competing with Skylake and Kaby Lake, it needs to at least match Haswell or there's no point.

 

I never said that, and I dont think I implied it either. AMD and AMD users have a serious habit of hyping the living crap out of AMD's upcoming products, and consumers always end up extremely disappointed.

 

Yes, AMD needs a performance based Zen CPU, at an affordable price point that packs alot of cores. But we dont live in a perfect world, and AMD is without a doubt not sharing alot of things with us. I think people should seriously tone down the hype, because its not healthy for users and AMD.

[othertomperson]

I never said that, and I dont think I implied it either. AMD and AMD users have a serious habit of hyping the living crap out of AMD's upcoming products, and consumers always end up extremely disappointed.

 

Yes, AMD needs a performance based Zen CPU, at an affordable price point that packs alot of cores. But we dont live in a perfect world, and AMD is without a doubt not sharing alot of things with us. I think people should seriously tone down the hype, because its not healthy for users and AMD.

.

Well you did, you said "you guys", referring to posts before yours. The post immediately before yours was saying that it had to match Haswell. By extension that was a claim that you were saying was unrealistic.

 

The problem for AMD is that its financial position is so dire that if it doesn't compete with Intel soon it is going to die as a company. You call it hype, when really these are the criteria needed for AMD to still exist come 2020.

[Spoonfull]

.

Well you did, you said "you guys", referring to posts before yours. The post immediately before yours was saying that it had to match Haswell. By extension that was a claim that you were saying was unrealistic.

 

The problem for AMD is that its financial position is so dire that if it doesn't compete with Intel soon it is going to die as a company. You call it hype, when really these are the criteria needed for AMD to still exist come 2020.

Yea, thats a load of baloney friend. This forum allows for you to quote posts in order to address them. I do that, when I want to address a post. I did not quote any post in my own comment. Seems as if you either dont know how to interpret basic forums or you are just making this up. In fact, I didnt even read your post.

 

I was making a general statement about the condition of Zen. I was not making any reference to any specific post or claim.

 

EDIT: "You guys" was a reference to the entire tech community. I think we can both agree Zen hype is everywhere.

[othertomperson]

Yea, thats a load of baloney friend. This forum allows for you to quote posts in order to address them. I do that, when I want to address a post. I did not quote any post in my own comment. Seems as if you either dont know how to interpret basic forums or you are just making this up. In fact, I didnt even read your post.

 

I was making a general statement about the condition of Zen. I was not making any reference to any specific post or claim.

 

So when you made a post addressing everyone who posted before you, you hadn't actually read the posts preceding and were just talking to the ether. OK THEN.

[Briggsy]

I really hope that Zen and Arctic Islands are a hit. It still seems very bleak even if they have success. But here is definitely 110% hoping. It would be rather cool to have a truly high performance all AMD system.

That is an interesting point. You can't really build a high end gaming system that is exclusively intel or Nvidia based. Even now doing a full amd system is weak. it's intel cpu paired with an AMD or Nvidia gpu, or go home. In some ways that's a good thing as it forces all companies involved to play nice and use he same standards. Nvidia seem to be anticipating a market shift with their sudden 180 uturn to proprietary software which makes me wonder how willing amd are to play the same game, especially if Zen ends up being a good gaming cpu. Amd have never gimped Nvidia hardware (on purpose) on an AMD system, but if things unfold in a certain way, who knows what cutthroat decisions amd will make to stay alive or even worse if a company like Samsung or Microsoft buys AMD.

[Spoonfull]

So when you made a post addressing everyone who posted before you, you hadn't actually read the posts preceding and were just talking to the ether. OK THEN.

 

No. I made a post in regards to the condition of Zen. Thats it. I wasnt talking about you, Haswell, or its performance. I made that post because of comments like this:

 

"Zen must be awesome"

 

I never said that it will underperform. I said that people who claim this constantly are going setting themselves up for disappointment. Thats it.

 

I never read your post, because it was a reply to a  comment I frankly didnt care for. I wasn't talking to you or about you.

[othertomperson]

No. I made a post in regards to the condition of Zen. Thats it. I wasnt talking about you, Haswell, or its performance. I made that post because of comments like this:

 

"Zen must be awesome"

 

I never said that it will underperform. I said that people who claim this constantly are going setting themselves up for disappointment. Thats it.

 

I never read your post, because it was a reply to a  comment I frankly didnt care for. I wasn't talking to you or about you.

 

You should probably have been specific. If by "you guys" you mean one specific comment and not the entire group of people you are actually addressing, I dunno maybe you should use the quote button or something.

[Bouzoo]

You guys seem to be overhyping the hell out of Zen. Its not coming out until late 2016, and you are putting yourselves in the position where you WILL be disappointed.

We WILL? But what does that mean? Some people are expecting it to beat Intel, others want it to work on pair and there are some that just want a 40% improvement from the FX series. This can be addressed from multiple angles, depending on what the user expects. 

 

Sure, people are overhyping Zen, and they have many reasons for that. If it fails, AMD might go into history. If that happens, god knows what will happen with CPU market. And there are many reasons for them to believe it will be awesome, I'm sure you can find that of your own if you don't know it already. For the first time in many years AMD CPUs look promising, at least to me. People overhype everything all the time. WILL they be disappointed? Who knows? You don't, I don't, Lisa doesn't, no one does, so maybe "COULD be disappointed" would solve the whole argument. A statement like the one you wrote means you have proof. There, debate avoided.

[vetali]

You guys seem to be overhyping the hell out of Zen. Its not coming out until late 2016, and you are putting yourselves in the position where you WILL be disappointed.

Its not so much hyping, its the fact that it needs to be successful or AMD is dead. Thats bad for everyone and nobody should want that. 

[Spoonfull]

Its not so much hyping, its the fact that it needs to be successful or AMD is dead. Thats bad for everyone and nobody should want that. 

 

I understand that AMD is in a dire financial situation, but that doesnt really justify overhyping a product that might potentially not be what people expect. A little bit of skepticism is healthy, and I see a lack of it in many threads like this. People think Zen is going to backhand chop Intel because AMD says so.

 

There was a alot of hype around Bulldozer, and look at how that turned out. Just increased hostility to AMD products. Just try to be a little pragmatic, and less apocalyptic/emotional about Zen and its performance. Thats all I urge people to do.

 

Its okay to be concerned for AMD, just dont play into the hype AMD likes to push. Stay pragmatic and skeptical.

[vetali]

I understand that AMD is in a dire financial situation, but that doesnt really justify overhyping a product that might potentially not be what people expect. A little bit of skepticism is healthy, and I see a lack of it in many threads like this. People think Zen is going to backhand chop Intel because AMD says so.

 

There was a alot of hype around Bulldozer, and look at how that turned out. Just increased hostility to AMD products. Just try to be a little pragmatic, and less apocalyptic/emotional about Zen and its performance. Thats all I urge people to do.

 

Its okay to be concerned for AMD, just dont play into the hype AMD likes to push. Stay pragmatic and skeptical.

I agree, however it doesn't need to crush intel like AMD fans hope. It just needs to be competitive. If it can't even do that... yeah AMD is toast under their own hype.