AMD: Zen 3 to arrive as early as 2020
The Ryzen 3000 processors, which are based on the Zen 2 architecture, have only been available for just over a month. AMD has now given a preview of future architectures at the launch event for the Epyc 7002 processors. Zen 3 is expected to arrive as early as 2020.
With the Zen architecture, AMD brought momentum to the processor market two years ago. After years of domination, there was once again serious competition for industry giants Intel. AMD then launched the improved Zen+ architecture in 2018 and finally caught up with Intel with Zen 2 in July 2019.
AMD now appears to be forgoing a Zen 2+ generation with Zen 2 and is taking the plunge straight into the next architecture. Zen 3, which is due to be launched on the market next year, will again be manufactured in 7 nm at TSMC. According to AMD, EUV lithography will be used. EUV stands for extreme ultraviolet. In contrast to deep ultraviolet, in which the Zen 2 processors are manufactured, EUV should enable a 20 per cent greater transistor density. According to AMD, this increases energy efficiency and ensures a higher clock rate and higher performance.
With the design phase of Zen 3 completed, AMD is now moving into prototyping and testing. At the same time, the design phase of Zen 4 is starting, with the architecture due to arrive as early as 2021, according to AMD. Where Zen 3 only promises a moderate performance gain over Zen 2, Zen 4 is set to herald a new era.
The 7 nm manufacturing process will be fully developed by 2021. For Zen 4, AMD will either rely on larger chiplets with more cores or switch to the 6 nm production process with EUV. <p
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