AMD Engineer: Developers Given Total Freedom with 'Zen'

[HKZeroFive]

The “Zen” micro-architecture is a tremendously important project for Advanced Micro Devices. If the new technology is successful, AMD will become a viable developer of central processing units again. If not, the company will have troubles with surviving. Fortunately, “Zen” is a completely new micro-architecture that promises to be very competitive. Apparently, the management team gave a lot of freedom with the new CPU design.

“It is the first time in a very long time that we engineers have been given the total freedom to build a processor from scratch and do the best we can do,” said Suzanne Plummer, the veteran Austin chip engineer who heads the Zen team, in an interview with MyStatesman.

“[Zen] is a multi-year project with a really large team,” said Ms. Plummer. “It’s like a marathon effort with some sprints in the middle. The team is working very hard, but they can see the finish line. I guarantee that it will deliver a huge improvement in performance and (low) power consumption over the previous generation.”

Ms. Plummer has worked at AMD since 2002, when the company took over Alchemy Semiconductor.

The first processor based on “Zen” micro-architecture is code-named “Summit Ridge”. The chip is expected to hit the market in October, 2016, and aim at high-end desktops and servers. The new cores will offer at least 40 per cent performance improvement at the same clock-rate compared to existing cores.

Hopefully AMD does well with 'Zen', considering it's the opportunity that could easily put them back into the CPU market. Although the recent departure of Jim Keller has caused some early doubts, the claims of the design process's 'total freedom', although ambiguous in meaning, seems very promising. Additionally, the prospect of 'Zen' being suited for high-end desktops and servers is exciting, and could provide fierce competition with Intel's products. I'm hoping that in next year's October Zen will do well.

Original Interview: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business/amid-challenges-chipmnaker-amd-sees-a-way-forward/nngdf/

Source: http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-engineer-developers-were-given-the-total-freedom-with-zen/

[jayctech]

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can inform me, but for what possible reason could management handcuff cpu developers?

[rhyseyness]

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can inform me, but for what possible reason could management handcuff cpu developers?

Cost, time, priority and availability of staff, to name a few 

[Bogica]

Do IT! I want competitive AMD CPUs. I want AMD to be competitive again and my next rig will be built once again on AMD just for old times sake!

I just want to see some war on the CPU market.

[Naeaes]

They're gonna release a new chipset to go with this, right? 990FX is friggin' four years old now. That's two hundred in PC years.

 

I haven't followed AMD that closely but I do know AM3+-based chipsets have been very versatile in terms of how many generations of CPU's they've seen, at least. But they can't handle the jump to 14nm and DDR4, right? Right?

 

 

Edit: Don't want to double-post. This is actually an interesting move from AMD. Not tying down engineers is obviously what everyone says but AMD has recently been more marketing oriented. And clearly not allowing their engineers to go all out. (Re-brands!) Whether it works or not or actually even happens or not, time will tell. 

[qwertywarrior]

my guess that it will be delayed and come at a bigger "nm"

[Trik'Stari]

October 2016? Intel will have it beat before it comes out. (if they don't have it beat already)

[Notional]

What happened to the delayed to 2017 BS we heard not so long ago? 2011v3 type AMD CPU 1 year from now sounds really good!

[Vanderburg]

"total freedom to build a processor from scratch [that strictly adheres to the guidelines provided to us by our benevolent management team. They even let us wear jeans on Friday.]"

[Blebekblebek]

they've been using the same guideline since Athlon 64

Energy efficient

Low latency, High performance

but this time they didn't mention low cost

 

because obviously Intel already own that market too with Atom, Celeron, Pentium

[HKZeroFive]

What happened to the delayed to 2017 BS we heard not so long ago? 2011v3 type AMD CPU 1 year from now sounds really good!

Considering it's from our resident AMD antagonist Mr. zMeul, there hasn't been any actual clarification that Zen has been delayed to 2017. It's a rumour, and with an article that is pretty ambiguous on its source, they usually die hard.

As far as I know, October 2016 seems to be the schedule for Zen. With evidence.

[Maslofski]

Maybe someone more knowledgeable can inform me, but for what possible reason could management handcuff cpu developers?

 

less R&D needed over the long run, either you make the best cpu you can now, or you make it 50% better and give the other 50% in the next generation stretching R&D expenses into twice the timeframe

[AHaskin14]

Power to 'em. There needs to be a competition in the market to lower prices for everyone.

[thexzenon]

It'd be nice to have some competition for intel, but I don't think they can actually pull it off  :lol:  Good luck to you, AMD!

[jos]

No one can give total freedom when developing a processor. anyone who had used the design tool will know that. I see this just as publicity 

[SkilledRebuilds]

I see this just as publicity 

Here here.....

"Fortunately, “Zen” is a completely new micro-architecture that promises to be very competitive"

 

/Now I do completely understand that of COURSE no one has these but the internal guys.... and this information wouldn't be shared yet.

 

So it's no new information, just a reiteration?.,..a re-hype of marketing?

Just re-assuring to the world now that JIM's gone, it's still A-ok? <--my best guess.

 

Super hopeful to play with Zen, just want some more specific core-info like the rest of you.

[Biased Opinion]

October 2016? Intel will have it beat before it comes out. (if they don't have it beat already)

I would not be surprised at all if intel already have something faster than what zen will be. Someone would have to run the compute numbers but is zens 40% improvement enough to beat even skylake clock for clock core for core. If its not enough AMD is going to have to push 8 core really hard and maybe even go further than that.

[Ren]

I believe that the given estimates for Zen by AMD in regards to IPC were roughly 10% slower than Haswell or Ivy Bridge. This means they will be at least 2 generations behind Intel and then on a larger process than them as well. I sure hope Zen has some serious core count, energy efficiency, and base clock overhead to warrant a $250 price tag. These are not going to be cheap processors, and they may suck pretty bad compared to Intel's next step.

[jos]

Here here.....

The bit that killed the thread for me...

"Fortunately, “Zen” is a completely new micro-architecture that promises to be very competitive"

 

So it's no new information, just a reiteration?.,..a re-hype of marketing?

Just re-assuring to the world now that JIM's gone, it's still A-ok? <--my best guess.

Yup it is pure publicity. This can be explained in a different way.. Till now we where limiting the employees to make a good processor, although they could make a good processor. We did not care  even if the company was sinking. we just forced employees not to make a good processor. As if this would happen.. They are making a lot of hype, hope they could deliver.. I am seeing the zen news for a long..Now i am beginning to think is it just a unicorn 

[HalGameGuru]

They're gonna release a new chipset to go with this, right? 990FX is friggin' four years old now. That's two hundred in PC years.

 

I haven't followed AMD that closely but I do know AM3+-based chipsets have been very versatile in terms of how many generations of CPU's they've seen, at least. But they can't handle the jump to 14nm and DDR4, right? Right?

 

 

Edit: Don't want to double-post. This is actually an interesting move from AMD. Not tying down engineers is obviously what everyone says but AMD has recently been more marketing oriented. And clearly not allowing their engineers to go all out. (Re-brands!) Whether it works or not or actually even happens or not, time will tell. 

 

They originally talked about FM3, now its AM4, new socket, most likely completely new chipset, more akin to the later APU chipsets than earlier FX chipsets.

 

 

October 2016? Intel will have it beat before it comes out. (if they don't have it beat already)

 

THey don't need the performance crown if they can still maintain const competitiveness.

[Doobeedoo]

Right, well as long as it's great performing and I hope so. I want to see affordable 8-core.

[Nena Trinity]

FM3 huh? Does that mean backwards compatibility to the FM2+ or forwards compatibility maybe? x.x

 

Right, well as long as it's great performing and I hope so. I want to see affordable 8-core.

AMD is probably gonna quit 8-cores... :c

[-rascal-]

 

FM3 huh? Does that mean backwards compatibility to the FM2+ or forwards compatibility maybe? x.x

 

AMD is probably gonna quit 8-cores... :c

 

 

"Zen" and most of the next-generation APUs (if not all) will be using socket AM4.

This was mentioned during this year at AMD's 'Financial Analyst Day' event, back in May 2015.

 

 

There may be DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM hybrid compatibility (given the below presentation slide) on socket AM4 since the "7th Generation APUs" have "DDR3/DDR4 compatibility."

[Nena Trinity]

"Zen" and most of the next-generation APUs (if not all) will be using socket AM4.

This was mentioned during this year at AMD's 'Financial Analyst Day' event, back in May 2015.

 

 

There may be DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM hybrid compatibility (given the below presentation slide) on socket AM4 since the "7th Generation APUs" have "DDR3/DDR4 compatibility."

My guess is you can put FM3 in FM2+ or if it is AM4 then in AM3+ but not the other way around probably... 

[HalGameGuru]

My guess is you can put FM3 in FM2+ or if it is AM4 then in AM3+ but not the other way around probably... 

I think it would be the opposite, you could put current FM2+ in the new socket, not vice versa. But even if they call it AM4 it is supposedly not a direct AM3 derivative, but derived from FM2 and will more closely reflect that socket.