AMD is about give the new "Zen 5" microarchitecture a near-simultaneous launch across both its client segments—desktop and mobile. The desktop front is held by the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" Socket AM5 processors; while Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" powers the company's crucial effort to capture Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC market share. We recently did a technical deep-dive on the two. HardwareLuxx.de scored two important bits of specs for both processors in its Q&A interaction with AMD—die sizes and transistor counts.

To begin with, "Strix Point" is a monolithic silicon, which is confirmed to be built on the TSMC N4P foundry node (4 nm). This is a slight upgrade over the N4 node that the company built its previous generation "Phoenix" and "Hawk Point" processors on. The "Strix Point" silicon measures 232.5 mm² in area, which is significantly larger than the 178 mm² of "Hawk Point" and "Phoenix." The added die area comes from there being 12 CPU cores instead of 8, and 16 iGPU compute units instead of 12; and a larger NPU. There are many other factors, such as the larger 24 MB CPU L3 cache; and the sizes of the "Zen 5" and "Zen 5c" cores themselves.

An AMD engineer inadvertently leaked the core codenames of the company's upcoming "Zen 5" and "Zen 6" microarchitectures. It's important to understand here what has been leaked. "Zen 5" and "Zen 6" are microarchitecture names, just like the current "Zen 4" and past "Zen 3" or older. AMD uses codenames for the CCD (CPU complex dies) based on these microarchitectures, which it shares between Ryzen client and EPYC enterprise processors. For example, the CCD codename for "Zen 3" is "Brekenridge," and for "Zen 4" it is "Durango." AMD also uses codenames for the CPU cores themselves. "Zen 3" CPU cores are codenamed "Cerebrus," and "Zen 4" CPU cores "Persphone." And now, the leak:

The CCD based on the upcoming "Zen 5" microarchitecture is codenamed "Eldora," and the "Zen 5" CPU core itself is codenamed "Nirvana." There's no codename for the CCD based on "Zen 6," but its CPU cores are codenamed "Morpheus." The "Zen 5" microarchitecture will be based on the 3 nm EUV foundry node; while "Zen 6" will be 2 nm EUV. The engineer in the screenshot is contributing to the power-management technology behind "Zen 5" and "Zen 6," and states that their work on "Zen 5" spanned January-December of 2022, which means the development phase of the next "Zen" architecture is probably complete, and the architecture is undergoing testing and refinement. It's also claimed that work on at least the power-management aspect of "Zen 6" has started from January 2023.

Previously, we have assumed that AMD 4700S desktop kit is based on Xbox Series X APU. Today, according to the findings of Bodnara, who managed to access one of these units, and we got some interesting discoveries. The chip powering the system is actually the PlayStation 5 SoC, which features AMD Zen 2 based system architecture, with 8 cores and 16 threads that can boost up to 3.2 GHz. The board that was tested features SK Hynix GDDR6 memory running at 14 Gbps, placed on the backside of the board. The APU is attached to AMD A77E Fusion Controller Hub (FCH), which was the one powering Xbox One "Durango" SoC, leading us to previously believe that the AMD 4700S is derived from an Xbox Series X system.

The graphics of this APU are disabled, however, it was the same variant of RDNA 2 GPU used by the PlayStation 5. Right out of the box, the system is equipped with a discrete GPU coming in a form of the Radeon 550, and this configuration was tested by the Bodnara team. You can find the images of the system and some performance results below.Performance:

A report in the the latest issue of Xbox World print magazine suggests that developer kits (devkits) of Durango (next-generation Xbox console), were implementing a "state of the art" 16-core IBM PowerPC CPU, its companion graphics processor is AMD-made, spec'd equivalent to AMD Radeon HD 7000 series, as previously reported. The 16-core CPU is said to have been implemented with a far-sight on the platform's longevity. "It's a ridiculous amount of power for a games machine - too much power, even. But remember, Kinect 2 could chew up four whole cores tracking multiple players right down to their fingertips, so it'll need a lot of power," the Xbox World article commented.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console, codenamed "Durango", will implement an "always-on" DRM, according to a VG 24/7 report. Always-on is a stringent anti-piracy measure that's already in use with some PC game titles published by Ubisoft, which requires the players to be connected to the Internet when playing. Even as its proponents (read: game publishers only), claim increased sales, it faces strong opposition from the gaming community. The Christmas 2013 (tentative) launch of Durango rides on the assumption that fast, always-on broadband Internet will have proliferated to every living room.

Next up, there's talk of Durango featuring a unique multi-GPU hardware design that doesn't resemble symmetric PC multi-GPU technologies such as NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFire, but instead, the two GPUs will be tasked with rendering the same object redundantly. Perhaps Durango features native flicker-free stereoscopic 3D capability, and the two GPUs are merely rendering the two planes? Once again, there's talk that these GPUs will be designed by AMD. The CPU of Durango will feature "four or six" cores. Lastly, Blu-ray disc is back as the storage medium, in these latest rumors.

Shortly before launching its next-generation game console (codenamed "Durango"), Microsoft is said to be working on a new product (SKU, rather), called Xbox Lite. This new console will cost as little as $100. According to a source, Xbox Lite will be ARM-based, and scheduled for "late 2013 which does Arcade-style games & all the current & future media apps with Kinect (with near-mode)." What makes the rumor plausible is that ARM chips advancing faster than ever, and so is the ecosystem of casual games on Xbox Live Arcade, which don't have very high graphical detail (and hence, aren't resource-heavy). Many of these casual games, along with Kinect-enabled games, could make up the ecosystem around Xbox Lite.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox game console, codenamed "Durango", will arrive in 2013. More importantly, it is said to completely lack an optical disc drive. The lack of a disc drive could mark a milestone in the evolution of console game distribution. Microsoft already has a high-volume digital distribution platform in Xbox Live, its significance in a post-disc console era will only increase.

This is not to say that Microsoft will completely do away with physical media, an interchangeable NAND flash-based media could also take shape, seeing how prices of NAND flash-storage has come drastically down over the past couple of years. It would be a going back to solid-state game cartridges, for home consoles. Some portable consoles use solid-state media even today.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox game console, which has been unofficially referred to as "Xbox 720", has been reportedly given a codename by Microsoft so industry partners could use it, instead. It is now codenamed "Durango". The working-name "Xbox 720" has been received negatively by some quarters, that felt it implied 720p (1280 x 720) display resolution, which is not a big departure from the present-generation. 1080p (1920 x 1080) is expected of this console, as it's also reported to feature Blu-ray disc support. Durango will focus on improving human-interface, by creating a combination of Kinect and a newer gamepad with a touchscreen.