Tuesday, February 7th 2017
AMD's Ryzen Chips 10% Smaller Than Comparable Intel Skylake Dies
At the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), AMD presented a whitepaper in which they demonstrated how its upcoming Zen x86 core fits into a 10 percent smaller die area than Intel's currently shipping second-generation 14nm processor. According to reports, analysts and Intel engineers in the session said the Zen core is clearly competitive, though many as-of-yet unknown variables will determine whether the die advantage translates into lower costs for AMD. That said, one thing is clear: the chip will have to perform in addition to being smaller, if AMD wants to ever capitalize on the potentially higher margins a smaller die could grant them.
One of the ways AMD improved upon its ZEN core in comparison to its previous products has been on switching capacitance for their new chips, with a reported overall 15% improvement. In addition, AMD has apparently moved on to a metal-insulator-metal capacitor design, thus achieving lower operating voltages as well as as more fine-grained per-core voltage and frequency control (on to become part of their SenseMI technology suite). Looking at the image, which pits an AMD ZEN chip to a comparable Intel solution, we see that AMD saves additional die space by making do with only 12 metal layers as well as overall lower L2 and L3 cache footprints.
Source:
EETimes
One of the ways AMD improved upon its ZEN core in comparison to its previous products has been on switching capacitance for their new chips, with a reported overall 15% improvement. In addition, AMD has apparently moved on to a metal-insulator-metal capacitor design, thus achieving lower operating voltages as well as as more fine-grained per-core voltage and frequency control (on to become part of their SenseMI technology suite). Looking at the image, which pits an AMD ZEN chip to a comparable Intel solution, we see that AMD saves additional die space by making do with only 12 metal layers as well as overall lower L2 and L3 cache footprints.
46 Comments on AMD's Ryzen Chips 10% Smaller Than Comparable Intel Skylake Dies
1.you produce something (at a cost)
2. you sell your product (at a price)
Either you are not thinking it through or else you're trolling :)
If the CPU cost 10% LESS to produce, well you can sell it 10% cheaper and potentially still earn a profit. Granted that the product need to have a market segment, but it has already been established that AMD is well within the range of Intels offers. It is possible that AMD's zen will not from the start beat Intels CPUs in performance, but you can bet your arse they will beat them in price/performance ratio. Then its up to marketing and education of the customers to get that know, but chances are that AMD will deliver a disruption in the CPU market that have been idle in almost 7 years. They will force Intel to ramp up and start actually working for their money. The question is whether or not intel can respond to this reasonably (if thread is true they are not in this case) or/and have money to bleed (im pretty sure they do) Expect AMD to deliever a product 50-100 under intels i5 7600 / i7 7700K products; this can be done because; better waffer efficiency; AMD accepts lesser margin (intel have pushed margin in a period of no competition.) and; AMD is the underdog and right now they want profit ; BUT they want something almost more important; marketshare...
You aren't dealing with a company that can afford to keep it REALLY cheap against Intel with comparable performing chips.
He's not trolling.. I mostly agree with him in fact. ;)
So to be honest; yes AMD can be cheap compared to current intel prices because intel's margin is ridiculous and if AMDs die size and yields is better or comparable they will put their CPU cheaper; It is how the market works! Ofcource AMD cant bleed on their product but im pretty sure they would be happy with just 5% margin in the first generation. You can proberbly get a master in bussiness-dude to explain it in "cleaner terms" but it is how it is :)
We can go around in circles all you want, but, I just realized now (an edit nearly 12 hours later) the article even said what I am saying... LOL
I also need to know how much it weighs, what names it likes to be called and what to feed it on a daily bases.
So you just sit there while I get my valuable information, then we shall get to your so called "benchmarks" and other such nonsense.
:laugh:
You do have some strong points there, but intel's ridiculous margins aren't set in stone, wouldn't be a first time we see a price wars ... maxing both margin and volume is both enticing and tricky because of the way how sold volume is affected by high margins ... however it works differently with duopoly market share, AMD may want to use intel's ridiculous margins to cash in, but I think they can't avoid the price wars even if they start just below intel price points.
You know, start at current market price points and keep lowering the prices as you go but just enough to keep gaining steady market share in a never ending price war?
or something like that
I am just tired of being teased with this daily drip of hype juice and I just want my dinner now.
This revelation about smaller die size than Intel on a CPU/CPU basis implies that AMD is alot closer to Intel on a cost basis than one would have imagined.
A FX 8350 is 100mm2. Retails at $150. If AMD held the line on retail pricing for Zen their profitability would double should Zen be 50mm2. Of course, a wafer at 14nm finfet will cost more than a 32nm planar, then again, AMD's average ASP is going to be well over $100 higher than the FX 8350.
Then we get to the Naples release in a couple of months with it's near 100% margins. We are seeing that, per recent history, AMD's stated estimate of 40% margins was a sandbagged estimate. I think 40% will be the low end of reality by Q4 of this year.
One thing is for sure, Intel's margins will be dropping. They are barely covering their dividend/buyback/CAPEX now at 59% margins (gm). Should they cut back on any of the three either their share price collapses or they harm their future pipeline.
BTW, Intel already announcing price cuts as of yesterday. Writing is on the wall for team blue.