Just a few days, at most, before AMD unveils its new CPU architecture.
For several months now, many analysts have been swearing by Intel. The American chipmaker is indeed on the verge of announcing a minor revolution with its Nova Lake-generation processors. A new manufacturing process, a return to in-house foundry operations, a substantial increase in the number of cores, and the integration of a high-capacity cache are just some of the strengths of this generation… which, however, isn’t expected to launch until the very end of the year or, more likely, early next year. And in the meantime, it would be a bit naive to think that AMD is sitting idly by.
Its longtime rival—which has clearly gained the upper hand over Intel since the release of the first Zen processors in 2017—is gearing up, and, according to one of its top executives, some very exciting things are in the works at AMD. Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and chief technology officer at AMD, gave SiliconANGLE the scoop during an interview focused on the Advancing AI event. Organized annually by AMD, this event will take place on July 22 and 23 in San Francisco. Once again, it will be an opportunity to review AMD’s latest technological innovations, with—as the title makes abundantly clear—a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence.
AI will take on a very specific form this time, however, as the American company will use the event to unveil its Zen 6 architecture. “For decades, companies have been running x86 systems. They’re not going to change that foundation. And that’s what we’ve been doing at AMD since the launch of the first Zen processor in 2017. We’re now in our sixth generation. At our Advancing AI event on July 22 and 23, we’ll be rolling out this new generation, which extends our leadership in x86 processors.” Keep in mind, however, that this won’t yet involve new Ryzen processors. No, these first chips based on the Zen 6 architecture will belong to the EPYC lineup—Venice models featuring up to 256 Zen 6 cores—but designed primarily for the enterprise market. Still, it’s a breath of fresh air for AMD’s technologies! For the Ryzen Zen 6 processors, we’ll have to wait until early 2027 and the—as yet unofficial—unveiling of the Olympic Ridge lineup.
