In a report by DigiTimes, it looks like AMD’s Zen 5 CPUs might face a potential delay if the company plans on moving to TSMC’s next-gen 3nm process node.
AMD Zen 5 CPUs Based on The Next-Gen TSMC 3nm Node Might Face A Potential Delay, Alleges Report
The report states that the TSMC 3nm process node has been prioritized by two big companies, Intel & Apple, who have invested a lot in acquiring the next-gen process node and are marked as a ‘VIP’ customer for the process.
There are also other customers including AMD, NVIDIA & MediaTek who are also hoping to get access to the 3nm node but they are not expected to start until the end of 2023 which means that production for the next-gen products based on the process will be pushed into either 2024 or 2025.
Now we cannot say for sure if AMD will be using TSMC’s 3nm process node for its Zen 5 core-based processors. We only know that Zen 4 will be utilizing the TSMC 5nm process node which NVIDIA will also be utilized for its next gaming offerings (TSMC 4N). Based on this report, there are three likely options for AMD. One is that they have to wait till 2024-2025 to get their Zen 5 cores produced. This will mark a 2-year cadence considering that Zen 3 launched in late 2020 and will be replaced in late 2022. The most likely scenario is that AMD will push the launch of Zen 5 to late 2024 or early 2025.
The other two options are that AMD leverages its Zen 5 process node from the N5P process which is a far optimized version of the N5 node and a better version compared to the 4N node that green team (NVIDIA) is utilizing. But given that Zen 5 is going to be a major architectural overhaul, it does not make sense not to have it on the latest process node too as in N3. The most unlikely scenario is that AMD does manage to negotiate with TSMC for early access but given that there are two big players already fighting for N3 wafers, AMD would end up with limited supply leading to lower than expected shipments in 2024.
TSMC Fabricated Chips (Expected – Subject To Change):
| Process Node | TSMC 7nm (N7) | TSMC 6nm (N6) | TSMC 5nm (N5) | TSMC 5nm (4N) | TSMC 4nm (N4) | TSMC 3nm (N3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel | Ponte Vecchio (GPU) | Arc Alchemist (GPUs) | Ponte Vecchio (GPU) Arc Battlemage? (GPU) |
TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Apple | N/A | N/A | Apple M1 (SOC) | TBD | TBD | Apple M2 (SOC / TBD) |
| AMD | Zen 2 (CPU) Zen 3 (CPU) Vega VII (GPU) Arcturus (GPU) Navi 10 Series (GPU) Navi 20 Series (GPU) |
Zen 3+ (CPU) Navi 24 (GPU) Navi 33 (GPU) |
Zen 4 (CPU) Zen 4C (CPU) Zen 4+? (CPU) Navi 31 (GPU) Navi 32 (GPU) |
TBD | TBD | Zen 5 (CPU) RDNA 4? (GPU) |
| NVIDIA | Ampere A100 (GPU) | N/A | TBD | GH100 (GPU) AD102 (GPU) AD103 (GPU) AD104 (GPU) |
TBD | TBD |
The first case does sound more possible since AMD can do an intermediate Zen 4 launch with V-Cache that could last a year and be very competitive against Intel’s gaming CPU options until they launch Zen 5. So 2022 would be Zen 4 vanilla followed by Zen 4 with V-Cache in 2023 and then a Zen 5 launch happening late 2024. Now, this is all rumor for now and should be treated as such but we definitely want to see Zen 5 in action sooner rather than later.
AMD Zen CPU / APU Roadmap:
| Zen Architecture | Zen 1 | Zen+ | Zen 2 | Zen 3 | Zen 3+ | Zen 4 | Zen 5 | Zen 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node | 14nm | 12nm | 7nm | 7nm | 6nm? | 5nm | 3nm? | TBA |
| Server | EPYC Naples (1st Gen) | N/A | EPYC Rome (2nd Gen) | EPYC Milan (3rd Gen) | N/A | EPYC Genoa (4th Gen) EPYC Bergamo (5th Gen?) |
EPYC Turin (6th Gen) | EPYC Venice (7th Gen) |
| High-End Desktop | Ryzen Threadripper 1000 (White Haven) | Ryzen Threadripper 2000 (Coflax) | Ryzen Threadripper 3000 (Castle Peak) | Ryzen Threadripper 5000 (Chagal) | N/A | Ryzen Threadripper 6000 (TBA) | TBA | TBA |
| Mainstream Desktop CPUs | Ryzen 1000 (Summit Ridge) | Ryzen 2000 (Pinnacle Ridge) | Ryzen 3000 (Matisse) | Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) | Ryzen 6000 (Warhol / Cancelled) | Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) | Ryzen 8000 (Granite Ridge) | TBA |
| Mainstream Desktop . Notebook APU | Ryzen 2000 (Raven Ridge) | Ryzen 3000 (Picasso) | Ryzen 4000 (Renoir) Ryzen 5000 (Lucienne) |
Ryzen 5000 (Cezanne) Ryzen 6000 (Barcelo) |
Ryzen 6000 (Rembrandt) | Ryzen 7000 (Phoenix) | Ryzen 8000 (Strix Point) | TBA |
| Low-Power Mobile | N/A | N/A | Ryzen 5000 (Van Gogh) Ryzen 6000 (Dragon Crest) |
TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
The post AMD Zen 5 CPUs Might Get Delayed To 2024-2025 Due To TSMC’s Priority Allocation of 3nm Node To Intel & Apple by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.
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