Friday, February 12th 2016
AMD "Zen" Processors to Feature SMT, Support up to 8 DDR4 Memory Channels
CERN engineer Liviu Valsan, in a recent presentation on datacenter hardware trends, presented a curious looking slide that highlights some of the key features of AMD's upcoming "Zen" CPU architecture. We know from a recent story that the architecture is scalable up to 32 cores per socket, and that AMD is building these chips on the 14 nanometer FinFET process.
Among the other key features detailed on the slide are symmetric multi-threading (SMT). Implemented for over a decade by Intel as HyperThreading Technology, SMT exposes a physical core as two logical CPUs to the software, letting it make better use of the hardware resources. Another feature is talk of up to eight DDR4 memory channels. This could mean that AMD is readying a product to compete with the Xeon E7 series. Lastly, the slide mentions that "Zen" could bring about IPC improvements that are 40 percent higher than the current architecture.
Source:
HotHardware
Among the other key features detailed on the slide are symmetric multi-threading (SMT). Implemented for over a decade by Intel as HyperThreading Technology, SMT exposes a physical core as two logical CPUs to the software, letting it make better use of the hardware resources. Another feature is talk of up to eight DDR4 memory channels. This could mean that AMD is readying a product to compete with the Xeon E7 series. Lastly, the slide mentions that "Zen" could bring about IPC improvements that are 40 percent higher than the current architecture.
130 Comments on AMD "Zen" Processors to Feature SMT, Support up to 8 DDR4 Memory Channels
$ means Dollars
€ means Euros
Now you're just changing your story to try to save face. But even if we go with the idea that you meant Euros, €220 wouldn't buy you a Athlon X2 a motherboard and RAM. At least not at retail prices. Maybe if they fell off the back of a truck. The exchange rate for the Euro back in 2005 wasn't that strong. It was about €1.25=$1. So even if you bought the cheapest 3800+, that would still be €280 just for the processor. So there is no way, at anytime in 2004-5 that you bought a Athlon X2, motherboard, and RAM for €220.
The fact is, as soon as AMD was on top, they started charging crazy prices for their processors. Up to $1,000 for non-Extreme processors even! And it didn't go back down again until Intel released the Core 2 series and topped AMD again. That would have been late 2006-early 2007. So, go back and read again, and think really hard what 2004-5 means.
And at that point, Intel had released their Core 2 line. Which, as I said, topped AMD and caused them to drastically lower the prices. Ok, seriously, you gotta get your story straight. If it was before Conroe, then it was WAAAAAY before Burning Crusade. And if it was before Conroe, then the processor were super expensive. Unless you got it at that very short time right before Conroe came out, when all the venders were slashing X2 prices just to clear stock before Conroe's launch. But even still, that doesn't prove the original point you were arguing, that AMD didn't jack up their prices when they were in the lead.
13% difference multi thread at stock and the 8350 is afew Years older, also my system has a lot of dev stuff running on it plus mssql many instances etc
Stock AMD 8350 4Ghz vs i7-6700k 4ghz stock
AMD 8350 with quick oc to 4.5ghz
if zen really has 40% ipc over pd it will monster intels current lineup, single thread is a weak point.
thought I better add the single thread is approx. 40-42% behind the i7-6700k in this quick bench, so if the ipc was on single thread it would be on par with current gen intel and multi thread if improved and I cant imagine why it wouldnt be beyond intels current gen.
Anywho. I eagerly await the release of the Zen dreadnought upon the unsuspecting masses. It will be a make-or-break deal for AMD, and that is what ticks me off, no-one in the industry is looking at Zen with the notion that it will either catapult AMD into the mainstream again, or kill it outright..
The more a "build-up" a brand has to a product, the worse it will turn out... either because of our own exaggerated expectations, or because the marketing BS will just cherry-pick scenarios and applications to underline a very specific gain in performance and give the public a sense of "overall" performance gains. If Su starts talking more and more at investors on the gains, and benchmarks start "leaking"... I'll be concerned.
At the same time my guildmate built "fastest (non EE) Intel you can get" PC and it was a Prescott.
Intel Released the E6600 Jul-2006 for $316. Proof
Intel Released the E6700 Jul-3006 for $530. Proof
AMD Released the AM2 FX-62 May-2006 for $1031. Proof
AMD Released the AM2 X2 5000+ May-2006 for $696. Proof
AMD Released the AM2 X2 4400+ May-2006 for $514. Proof
AMD Released the AM2 X2 3800+ May-2006 for $323. Proof
This shows what AMD's prices were just 2 months before Conroe was released. So there is no way you bought an X2, motherboard, and RAM for 220 € or $ before Conroe's launch.
The other interesting thing I'd like to point out is that everyone rags on Intel for keeping prices high. But even though the E6600 was faster than 5000+, and basically just as fast or slightly faster than the FX-62, they priced it at $316. That is cheaper than even the X2 3800+, and it crushes that processor. It is actually Intel that forced AMD to lower their prices from ridiculous levels to more something more reasonable.
Here is the list:
Bezeichnung : Athlon64 X2 4000+
Einzelpreis : 63,55
Gesamtpreis : 63,55
Anzahl : 1
Bezeichnung : Ultra DIMM 2 GB DDR2-800 Kit
Einzelpreis : 74,34
Gesamtpreis : 74,34
Anzahl : 1
Bezeichnung : M2A-VM
Einzelpreis : 50,68
Gesamtpreis : 50,68
It actualy was 188.57 Euro total for GPU + Mainboard + Mem.
I bought it from MIx Computers de, if that matters. You conveniently forgot Pentium Extreme Editions, that have actually established the 1k$ price point, that FX-62 thoroughly wiped the floor with.
www.anandtech.com/show/2012/9
So, yeah, completely bullshit, like I said. And by the way, Sep. 2007 was a long while after Conroe was released. I went over this, once Conroe was released AMD had no choice to slash prices. The E6600 beating their $1000 5000+ and only being priced at $316 forced them to drastically cut prices. In fact, you bought your Athlon X2 after Allendale was released, with the E4300 besting the X2 4600+, and biting at the heals of the 5000+. All for $163 at launch. So no wonder you got an X2 4200+ so cheap.
You're cost to buy an Athlon X2 when AMD was not in the lead doesn't help your argument that AMD didn't jack up prices when they were in the lead. No, I didn't forget them. I clearly said the EE is a niche market that is always overpriced. Intel might have set the $1000 price point, but AMD is the one that priced non-Extreme processor at that $1k price point. However, Intel's prices in the mainstream market are, and have been, reasonable.
Let's move on? mmmmkay? :)
4000+ that I bought in Sept 2007 for 74 Euro was released in May 2006. Fair enough.
Just checked the "latest FX" vs i5 review. So, what we have now:
1) Intel has single thread IPC lead of about 60% (i7)
2) Intel 14nm Perf/Watt is about 2.2 times better than AMD on 28nm
If AMD achieves 40% IPC increase and Samsung's 14nm allow to cut power consumption in half, we can see competitive low and mid range AMD CPUs. However, AMD still hinting at "even moar coars" makes me worry, they actually won't... =(
PS Jeez Christ.... Here is the 999$ Conroe:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core#Core_2_Extreme
ZEN should easily compete with Intel's future Gen CPU's, not just Haswell. Skylake no problem and even Cannonlake, which is simply a die shrink of Skylake. This 40% IPC improvement over Excavator is independent of the process node. That alone is a testament, Skylake may have a difficult time keeping up with ZEN.
Also, 16-core CPUs will certainly have lower clocks than your run-of-the-mill desktop Zen, and the way to make up for that in terms of performance (without changing the chip architecture) is to introduce copious amounts of L3 cache, which is exactly what Intel does with Xeons.
From what I've read around this wonderful web:
- the Zen APU parts lack any L3 cache (meaning they'll be roadkill for Intel on single core performance). While I understand the strategy, it means that the APUs will fight an uphill battle, focusing on price rather than on performance.
- the Zen server parts are expected to carry 8MB of L3 cache per 4-core clusters, meaning a 16-core processor would sport 32MB L3 cache. A little under Intel's Xeons, but still a worthwhile performer if the performance AMD claims isn't BS.
Another of my concerns about Zen is "what niche is it addressing"? By the time Zen is out, Intel will have released its next-gen Grantley-EP Xeons (ES-46xx v3) which will up the ante to 22 cores (44 threads).And why are people worried about Single Threading Performance on ZEN? ZEN is not Bulldozer. ZEN should have the ability to outperform it's competition in both Multithreading and Single Threading real world performance.
ZEN I am brand new design built by one of the world's best CPU Architect.
IMHO: When a company overstates its CPU features and performance like it has repeatedly done, for the sole sake of a misguided product strategy which is framed by financial KPIs and exec bonus payouts, any expectations on Zen's final performance is strictly BS.
ZEN is a different Story. AMD is not foolish enough to pull off the same thing. ZEN is life and death of this company. That's why they are not BS'ing.
Theoretically, we could be looking at 50% to 60% IPC improvement, if not more. There's no basis to your reasoning it seems. 32 Core Chips or Multi-CPU platforms are needed for Servers and Workstations. I don't believe we will see 32 Core Chips for performance desktop setups.
What interests me is ZEN's Quad-Channel memory interface. It's about bloody time. Based on what I've read about ZEN, this will surely be my next major upgrade.
Nevertheless, I predict Zen won't be clocked higher than bulldozer (they went up to 5 GHz stock ffs) but much less power hungry and all performance gains will come from extra floating point units, shorter pipeline (lesser branch missprediction penalty), sound cache hierarchy, better instruction scheduler and memory controller.