AMD Will Start Sampling Zen 2 Processors in 2018

AMD’s Zen 2 Planned For 2019

After AMD’s drought with Bulldozer, the company has come back with a vengeance. Last year, AMD released their new Ryzen processors. The new CPUs use the new Zen architecture with performance competitive with Intel. Last month, a year after Ryzen launched, AMD came back with the upgraded Zen+ series. Keeping in line with an annual upgrade cycle, the company is prepping their next generation Zen 2 processors.

During the latest earnings call, AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed new details for Zen 2. Zen 2 is the new 7nm product on an entirely new process. Zen arrived on 14nm and Zen+ has been a minor shrink to 12nm. Originally, Zen+ was supposed to be 14nm+ but 12nm is basically the same thing. AMD is planning to sample 7nm server CPUs to customers later this year. That will be followed up by a launch in 2019.

AMD On Track To Hit Roadmap

If AMD is able to stick to their yearly cadence, Zen 2 may be the first 7nm desktop processor to launch. With the growth of mobile CPUs, they may well seize the 7nm crown first. However, AMD still has a chance to beat Intel. AMD is also working on 7nm Vega based GPUs that will sample later this year. Hopefully, that will also mean upgraded APUs, perhaps on 12nm or even 7nm if we are lucky.

Beyond 7nm, Zen 2 will also provide other improvements. It will feature a new upgraded mico-architecture design. That may mean tweaks to silicon, cores in the CCX, core counts, cache and the IPC of course. If AMD is able to deliver, they will be able to close the gap from Intel. Intel has been somewhat stagnant but they are making major investments as well. Overall, it is great to see more competition once again in the desktop CPU market.