Wednesday, September 20th 2017
AMD to Build 2nd Gen. Ryzen and Radeon Vega on GloFo 12nm
Not to be held back by silicon fabrication process limitations like in the past, AMD will build its second-generation Ryzen CPUs and Radeon Vega GPUs on the new 12 nanometer LP (low power) FinFET process by GlobalFoundries. From the looks of it, "2nd generation Ryzen" doesn't seem to be the same as "Zen2" (a micro-architectural advancement due to be built on the 7 nm process), and is more likely an optical shrink of existing 14 nm IP to the 12 nm process, giving AMD the headroom to increase yields, and clock speeds across the board. The 12 nm switch allows AMD to roll out a new "generation" of Ryzen processors as early as the first half of 2018.
The "Vega 10" silicon could be another key piece of AMD IP on the receiving end of an optical shrink to 12 nm, which will give AMD much needed power savings, letting it increase clock speeds, and probably implement faster standards of HBM2 memory, such as 2.00 GT/s. AMD will likely label this shrunk down silicon "Vega 20." There's also the possibility of AMD building a bigger new GPUs altogether. In 2019, the company will give its CPU and GPU lineups major micro-architectural upgrades, and the switch to the 7 nm node. The new "Zen2" micro-architecture with IPC increases and new ISA instruction-sets, will be launched on the CPU side, and the new "Navi" graphics architecture will take center-stage.
Source:
WCCFTech
The "Vega 10" silicon could be another key piece of AMD IP on the receiving end of an optical shrink to 12 nm, which will give AMD much needed power savings, letting it increase clock speeds, and probably implement faster standards of HBM2 memory, such as 2.00 GT/s. AMD will likely label this shrunk down silicon "Vega 20." There's also the possibility of AMD building a bigger new GPUs altogether. In 2019, the company will give its CPU and GPU lineups major micro-architectural upgrades, and the switch to the 7 nm node. The new "Zen2" micro-architecture with IPC increases and new ISA instruction-sets, will be launched on the CPU side, and the new "Navi" graphics architecture will take center-stage.
19 Comments on AMD to Build 2nd Gen. Ryzen and Radeon Vega on GloFo 12nm
edit: Misread the post, I guess with 12nm AMD is releasing new ryzen processors in 2018 but a major advancement is in 2019? Sorry it's a bit confusing :P
I think AMD is continuing this refresh, but being independent of GloFo, they are going for 12NM rather then sticking onto the 14NM proces. This saves both partys some time as GloFo's best interest is to provide a silicon base which is able to clock higher with less power requirements.
I woud'nt say that LP Finfet is 'bad' but it explains why most Ryzens are hitting a wall beyond 4.2Ghz. The Vishera's for example where on a different proces and where able to clock much higher (5GHz on air).
Why would they not measure improvements over their own 14nm?
Just curious...
According to this linke they say 10-15% compared to current 16/14nm FF solutions. All in all idk how i feel about this. Ryzen is super good but it definitly got its rough edges that need to be ironed out
For starters ryzen is very power efficient so a shrink isnt whats needed to help it perform as needed. It needs to be revised to clock higher, and to me it seems a simple die shrink wouldnt result in much progress there as the power efficiency gain will most likely be advantages below the 4ghz mark but not at peak. Amd need to be clocking ryzen the 5ghz mark to stay relevant against intel who seems to be taking advantage of their peak turbo clocks right now to differentiate their products, and with them moving to 6 and 8 core mainstream parts Amd cant simply throw more cores at the problem.
The main benefit i can see from this is that amd can improve their interconnect to scale better and have lower latencies all while producing even smaller chips; which will help in producing higher supply targeting lower pricepoints, and higher marketshare.
At this rate, by the time 10nm actually comes, we'll have Zen 2 in full production. Ice Lake being another micro-increase over cannon...ouch.
Might be enough for 100-200Mhz more..
(note: this is a logarithmic scale)There is a good chance it will, since it's just a new stepping.
But why would you buy one and then upgrade? That's like upgrading from Skylake to Kaby Lake.Exactly.
Just a new stepping with some tweaks on a slightly refined node.
Does the process really matter as long as power consumption and clock is competitive? A full on example is Ryzen kicking around current Intel in power consumption, sure half of it is better power control, but the other part is lower leakage even if the transistor needs a little more switching power.
And Risk Production in H1 2018!? Erhm so if all goes to bonkers again, we could see something new on that process in Q4/2018.