Published in PC Hardware

AMD 7nm CPU to sample this year

by on02 May 2018


Number of products in 2019

AMD was asked about its 7nm products and, as we reported last week, the 7nm GPU for AI has been taped out and apparently so is the 7nm server CPU.

It is interesting that Lisa Su insisted that this is a server part, rather than a 7nm chip. Of course, the server market gets  priority over the desktop as it can make it more money. In reality, the same chip that goes in EPYC server can become a Threadripper too. The high-end desktop (HEDT) part had marginal success for both AMD and Intel but again it is an important tool for marketing.

The choice of words is also interesting, as saying to have a 7nm part would let people believe that they have the Zen 2 7nm desktop part ready too. Her choice of words lead us to believe that server/Threadripper high end desktop comes first.

AMD CEO Lisa SU continues:

And then, obviously, we have a number of products that are planned for 2019 as well. So it's a very, very busy product season for us. But we're pleased with the sort of the execution on the product roadmap.

AMD's 7nm will most likely be a 7nm tweaked and updated version of the original Zen core. The 12nm Zen+ was an optimization and we see Zen 2 taking a similar approach.One would expect a major change, but that would surprise us. Most of the gains going on 7nm will benefit from the smaller transistor and possible optimization on the 14nm to 12nm to 7nm transistor size adjustment.  

Intel has announced that it will move its volume production of 10nm parts to 2019 and many industry insiders compare Intel’s 10nm with AMD/GlobalFoundries 7nm. We will have to wait and see how AMD 7nm compares to Intel 10nm parts.

But things are like fairy tale creatures, as they have yet to launch.  

 

Last modified on 02 May 2018
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