AMD’s Zen architecture, now officially named Ryzen is possibly the most exciting development in the CPU market for over a decade. This pioneering release could dramatically change the current cost of high-performance CPUs and allow AMD to become more much competitive. During the New Horizon presentation, the company’s CEO Dr Lisa Su discussed the process behind the new CPU architecture and naming scheme. Interestingly, Ryzen began four years ago from scratch with the main goal of improving the instructions per clock by 40 percent compared to the previous generation. Additionally, AMD targeted a balance between new functionality, raw performance, thermal efficiency and power consumption. This meant they didn’t simply create a processor architecture which achieves extra throughput via brute force.
On another note, the architecture’s name was agreed upon by engineers and they felt it explains the balanced approach quite nicely. Rather amusingly, Dr Lisa Su told viewers how difficult it was to get engineers to agree on a name which provides a wonderful insight into the design process. Personally, I quite like the Ryzen name and AMD’s branding thus far. Also, the performance data is really impressive and I cannot wait to hear more details. Please note, AMD’s new CPU range is scheduled for a Q1 2017 release and “on track”.
