AMD Commits To Using The Most Advanced Process For Each Generation, Will Continue Design, Packing, Assembly Innovations Across All Products

AMD says that it will be using the most advanced process for each generation of products while adopting innovative design technologies.

The launch of AMD's Zen core architecture was a monumental achievement for the red team which has propelled them to great heights over a span of 7 years. At Computex 2024, AMD announced its next chapter of Zen known as Zen 5 which will be adopting TSMC's brand new 4nm and 3nm nodes to continue the high-performance journey & these future products will also use innovative design technologies which have been mentioned by AMD's EVP, Forrest Norrod, who in an interview with The Next Platform comments on the future of AMD's products.

When asked about how AMD sees Intel's process and product roadmap, particularly the recent Xeon 6 announcements, Forrest commends Intel's aggressive plan and also states that they have the internal thinking to assume that Intel would do everything they say. It's a different matter of whether Intel will hit the goals or time frame for its process technologies and products but to compete with the blue team, the best approach is to believe that it will achieve its goal and design a competing product that excels to that.

Forrest also talks about process and design technologies that are being used by AMD to stay ahead of the competition. There's no doubt that AMD has been the one with the most innovative solutions out in the market.

AMD made chiplets mainstream, they are rolling out a proper CPU and GPU combination in the market (MI300A), something that Intel had planned but ultimately canceled (Falcon Shores XPU), they offer the same Zen ISA for diverse segments with the newer compute/cloud-optimized "C" cores bringing some insane core counts.

The company also has a strong interconnect fabric in the form of Infinity Fabric and we all remember that it was AMD who rolled out the first implementation of HBM and saw its advantages for the data center segments. HBM is the same technology that has now become the staple and go-to solution for data center CPUs and GPUs.

Timothy Prickett Morgan: Let’s cut right to the chase scene after the announcement of Intel’s first “Sierra Forest” Xeon 6 CPUs and your revelations about the future “Turin” line of Epyc CPUs two weeks ago. It looks to me like until Intel has anything close to parity on process and packaging with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, that they can’t catch you on CPUs. Is the situation really that simple until 2025 or 2026?

Forrest Norrod: I don’t want to handicap Intel’s capabilities on process. Pat Gelsinger has got a very aggressive plan and we always assume they are going to do what they say. And so, all we can do is run as fast as we possibly can on both the design and the process of TSMC.

I really like our chances with TSMC. I think they are an amazing partner and an amazing execution machine, and we’re going to keep using their most advanced process for each generation. I like our chances of staying at the bleeding edge of process with that.

And likewise, on the design side, we are not slowing down one little bit. We are running as fast as we possibly can. You are going to continue to see design innovation and packaging and assembly innovation from us across all product lines. I can’t control what an Intel does. I just have to assume they are going to wake up tomorrow with badass boots and a vorpal sword and fight. I have to assume that Intel is going to always bring their best from this day forward.

Forrest Norrod - AMD Senior Executive (via The Next Platform)

For the future, AMD says that TSMC is a great partner and they are committed to using the most advanced process technologies that the Taiwanese giant has to offer for their newest products. The same products will not just stop at process technologies but also adopt innovative design, assembly, and packaging technologies. I know this interview inclines more towards the data center side of things but these innovative technologies will play a major role in the upcoming Ryzen 9000 (X3D) chips with new 3D V-Cache innovations which were teased by AMD earlier this month.

AMD is on the verge of launching its first Zen 5 products next month with Strix Point "Ryzen AI 300" and Granite Ridge "Ryzen 9000" CPUs hitting retail in July followed by 5th Gen EPYC Turin CPUs in Q3 2024. As of right now, AMD's EPYC CPU shipments have broken past the 30% barrier (33% in Q1 2024), and with the next-gen lineup, we will see a further continuation of EPYC success stories and we can also see a major boost to the data center revenue coming in from increased Instinct MI300 series plus the new MI325 series which ships later this year.