AMD has presented the roadmap of Zen 3 and Zen 4 architecture. In particular, the Zen 3 with 7nm+ EUV lithography design is on track and the Zen 4 is currently in design status and can receive an engraving of 5nm or less. During the Next Horizon event, AMD presented the key features of its new Zen 2 architecture, which will support the next generations of its Ryzen, Threadripper and Epyc processors.
As there are almost confirmed news about the Intel’s difficulties in deploying its 10nm engraving technology, it is clear that Intel must leave it and shift to 14nm for the time being, the AMD Group is reducing the size of its cards and taking advantage of the arrival of 7nm engraving at TSMC to expand its offerings next year.
AMD Zen 3 will use 7nm+ engraving
The core of this venture is based on the Zen 2 architecture for x86 processors, which will take advantage of 7nm engraving to make the design of AMD’s new generation processors even more modular.
AMD intends to use this 7 nm engraving in chiplets, which are basic elements that are part of a core component that remains engraved at 14 nm, to take advantage of 7 nm for CPU cores without forcing the more complex miniaturization of memory and interconnect connections.
The Zen 2 architecture will enable more efficient operation of the command pipeline and branch prediction, while taking advantage of improved security mechanisms, particularly to counter the effects of spectrum attacks.
AMD is already discussing the next step with a Zen 3 architecture that will take advantage of the optimization of 7 nm+ etching, in particular by EUV lithography, this architecture will be at the focus for next year’s expected future Ryzen / Ryzen Threadripper and AMD Epyc “Rome” processors.
This architecture is presented as under development and especially in phase with the roadmap. In the longer term, AMD is already talking about a Zen 4 architecture that is currently in its design stage and could benefit from a lower engraving node, perhaps 5 nm lower.