[Sweclockers] AMD Zen coming in Q3 2016, will be on 14 nm

[Fjodor2001]

http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-taping-finfet-chips/

AMD Confirms Completing Two 14/16nm FinFET Product Designs – FinFET Based Zen CPUs And Arctic Islands GPUs Due In 2016

[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.

 

[dark zero]

AMD and Nvidia last chances to revive the x86 PC industry.

If they fail, gaming industry will go into a crash...

Meanwhile AMD last chance to defeat Intel in one of the tiers.

 

[frozentundra123456]

They had to say something to distract from the disaster that was last quarter. Looks like now it wont be Carizzo, but some powerpoint product coming in 2016.

 

[dark zero]

They had to say something to distract from the disaster that was last quarter. Looks like now it wont be Carizzo, but some powerpoint product coming in 2016.

Even VIA products are real compared to the ppt AMD. No one wants AMD anymore and they are only finding a way to fund themselves before they flee from the ruins.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Even VIA products are real compared to the ppt AMD. No one wants AMD anymore and they are only finding a way to fund themselves before they flee from the ruins.

Yet another generic doomsday rambling post. Got anything of substance to add to the discussion?

 

[dark zero]

Yet another generic doomsday rambling post. Got anything of substance to add to the discussion?

And you have something to defend the corpse? I am preparing to stock with some AMD and Intel low tier products since Intel could move the low tier Core to insane prices and put the Atom tier on the lowest tier.

 

[Fjodor2001]

And you have something to defend the corpse?

How about what Lisa Su just said?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Lisa Su says so many things that doesnt come true.

Remember 20nm? Margins? APUs? Fastest GPU?

She cant even forecast a quarter ahead.

 

[sandorski]

Next year is a big year for sure. Would be nice to see AMD being competitive in both of their main Markets again.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Lisa Su says so many things that doesnt come true.

Remember 20nm? Margins? APUs? Fastest GPU?

She cant even forecast a quarter ahead.

Yeah, just like Intel's Brian Krzanich. Promising everything goes according to the plan, and then all the delays, death of tick-tock, the list goes on.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Next year is a big year for sure. Would be nice to see AMD being competitive in both of their main Markets again.

Yep, there for sure is a lot of interesting stuff in AMD's pipeline for 2016.

Completely new Zen uArch, 14 nm, GPUs on 14 nm. And then Zen based APUs with HBM on 14 nm in 2017.

Their pipeline for sure looks more interesting than Intel's. Hopefully they'll deliver on time.

 

[Dresdenboy]

Lisa Su says so many things that doesnt come true.

Remember 20nm? Margins? APUs? Fastest GPU?

She cant even forecast a quarter ahead.

That's perception, market, human behaviour intertweened.

With a >90% mss player and a ~70% mss player on the other side of the table, there's also a lot more of fluctuation. While on the whole market the change might be 1% (hardly visible on a chart), this means a 10% fluctuation for the smaller player.

The quarterly reports are for the medium term investors. There is no direct way to influence a companies behaviour due to some disliked report. Once there was a CEO of Paramount Pictures launching some succesful projects. But during her time, some bad movies of her predecessor caused bad quarters. She got fired and her successor benefited from her work. That's the sweet reality of that system.

And 20nm weren't about to be delivered this months. They were a plan and that plan changed (hopefully to the better). And Fury X is AMDs fastest GPU so far.

Somehow it's good that my employee, one of the largest car OEMs, doesn't have to talk about the plans in such a way. And many plans change and you have kind of a darwinian process. But as long as the public doesn't know too much before a launch, they are less likely going to become dissatisfied and fill the forums with nonsens about uncertain things.

It seems most of the humans out there (even smart ones) are unable to cope with uncertainties, and probabilites.

 

[mrmt]

That's perception, market, human behaviour intertweened.

With a >90% mss player and a ~70% mss player on the other side of the table, there's also a lot more of fluctuation. While on the whole market the change might be 1% (hardly visible on a chart), this means a 10% fluctuation for the smaller player.

(...)

It seems most of the humans out there (even smart ones) are unable to cope with uncertainties, and probabilites.

I'm glad you are not the one making sales forecasts at your company. If AMD is unable to pinpoint a number they could just use a wider bracket, or they could just push for a very conservative estimate and beat it every single quarter, but that's too much for them. But what I'm really curious is your explanation for AMD uncertainty and fluctuations to be concentrated mostly on the negative end of the spectrum. That's not what should happen in a normal distribution.

 

[dark zero]

AMD is totally dead and I feel that Zen is the last AMD processor despite the results.

 

[myocardia]

Got anything of substance to add to the discussion?

Pot, meet kettle.

AMD is totally dead and I feel that Zen is the last AMD processor despite the results.

Yeah, they have a very hard 4 quarters ahead of them, if not 5 or 6 quarters, depending on delays. It still might be a very decent CPU, though. We'll all have to wait and see what Intel brings to the table.

If Zen has anything close to decent IGP, I will be picking up an 8 core/16 thread version myself. By then, I'll be needing to convert all of my current video disks to H.265, and I would love to have a lower-power 16 thread CPU to throw at those conversions, since by that point, I will be using a Kaby Lake CPU, as my HTPC.

 

[dark zero]

Pot, meet kettle.
Yeah, they have a very hard 4 quarters ahead of them, if not 5 or 6 quarters, depending on delays. It still might be a very decent CPU, though. We'll all have to wait and see what Intel brings to the table.

If Zen has anything close to decent IGP, I will be picking up an 8 core/16 thread version myself. By then, I'll be needing to convert all of my current video disks to H.265, and I would love to have a lower-power 16 thread CPU to throw at those conversions, since by that point, I will be using a Kaby Lake CPU, as my HTPC.

Actually I feel that the APU Zen might become the saviour of the consoles, because no one can beat them in that aspect.
Even Core M can't equal this and is expensive as hell.
And about the APU only will go up to 4 Core/ 8 Thread with HBM (maybe version 1). Without GPU they reach 8 Core / 16 Thread.

 

[myocardia]

Actually I feel that the APU Zen might become the saviour of the consoles, because no one can beat them in that aspect.

Agreed, I don't buy/use consoles, so I always forget about them. I'm quite sure that the 4C/8T APU will be the choice for the next consoles, assuming AMD can keep the power low, while improving the iGPU as much as is needed.

And about the APU only will go up to 4 Core/ 8 Thread with HBM (maybe version 1). Without GPU they reach 8 Core / 16 Thread.

Like most people around here, I have zero interest in an APU. I would buy the 8C/16T CPU, and match it with a low-power dedicated GPU, while I continued gaming on my main system. If I ever needded to game on the 16 thread CPU, I'd buy a faster dGPU for it.

 

[CHADBOGA]

AMD is totally dead and I feel that Zen is the last AMD processor despite the results.

That will likely be the case, but "dead" in this case may mean a new owner and soon after, all new management.

 

[erunion]

Yep, there for sure is a lot of interesting stuff in AMD's pipeline for 2016.

Completely new Zen uArch, 14 nm, GPUs on 14 nm. And then Zen based APUs with HBM on 14 nm in 2017.

Their pipeline for sure looks more interesting than Intel's. Hopefully they'll deliver on time.

AMD's roadmap is interesting because of what is not on it.

What are they getting in 2016?

• CPU only Zen on the first new high performance node since 2011.
• A new flagship GPU on 14nm, but with limited architecture improvements.

The problem?

• The flagship GPU will be 14nm, but what about the rest of the line up? AMD already has the oldest graphics lineup in recent memory.
• Zen FX will be new, but APUs in 2016 will be carry overs from 2015.

AMDs 2016 roadmap: A pair of new high end products with aspirations towards enterprise, but little(or maybe nothing?) else.

 

[SAAA]

How many chances are there that consoles get an upgraded soc with 4-8 Zen cores by 2016-17?
That would be awesome and finally put them at mainstream/performance desktop level, unlike todays "mobile" based cores.

Worst case I imagine the same soc on 14nm process wouldn't be half bad either, oh a GPU upgrade could help a lot too: 4K TVs are becoming more common and it's just sad for consoles to not be able to handle that...

 

[dark zero]

How many chances are there that consoles get an upgraded soc with 4-8 Zen cores by 2016-17?
That would be awesome and finally put them at mainstream/performance desktop level, unlike todays "mobile" based cores.

Worst case I imagine the same soc on 14nm process wouldn't be half bad either, oh a GPU upgrade could help a lot too: 4K TVs are becoming more common and it's just sad for consoles to not be able to handle that...

Don't expect anything from MS. They are leaving the console market. Their console was a MASSIVE flop.
Sony and Nintendo has another chance, but Nintendo is making another flop. Sony could be the only one who will do a console. The very last one.

 

[ShintaiDK]

How many chances are there that consoles get an upgraded soc with 4-8 Zen cores by 2016-17?
That would be awesome and finally put them at mainstream/performance desktop level, unlike todays "mobile" based cores.

Worst case I imagine the same soc on 14nm process wouldn't be half bad either, oh a GPU upgrade could help a lot too: 4K TVs are becoming more common and it's just sad for consoles to not be able to handle that...

It would ruin the entire current console base. Way before their lifespan.

 

[dark zero]

It would ruin the entire current console base. Way before their lifespan.

They are already ruined. Since they use AMD they are automatically ruined.

Being serious, the console market is not in the good shape as the previous gen. Despite they sell more, the quality is slowly going down and now is really noticeable.

 

[mrmt]

How many chances are there that consoles get an upgraded soc with 4-8 Zen cores by 2016-17?
That would be awesome and finally put them at mainstream/performance desktop level, unlike todays "mobile" based cores.

Assuming that Zen cores are mainstream desktop performers...

 

[dark zero]

Assuming that Zen cores are mainstream desktop performers...

It might go to consoles. That's the only option they have.