AMD ZEN 8-core Summit Ridge To launch January 17th 2017

You should mark that date in your agenda, 17-1-2017 as there now is a very strong indication that the 8-core ZEN processors from AMD is to be launched or available on that date. An AMD China partner called Maxsun shared some detail on the launch., which found its way onto the web.

Before we begin, as always rumors are just that ... rumors and we certainly can't verify this information. However, the indication and partner seems valid. That would mean availability of AMD Zen on January the 17th, which matches up with a CES 2017 announcement (5th of January through the 8th)

Yesterday we already mentioned an indication for Summit Ridge processors (the 8-core ZEN part) pricing, MAXSUN here as well confirms that pricing scheme. The companies SR7 processors (high-end SKUs) in the Zen line-up would sit in the 1500-2000 Yuan segment, and that is $200-$300. 

MAXSUN also kind of confirmed the clock frequency range for AMD's next processors as they are quoting 3.15-3.30 GHz base clocks with 3.5 GHz boost clocks (similar to Intel's most high-end 8 and 10-core SKUs). On top of that they claim the processors can be clocked to 4.2 GHz fairly easily with conventional cooling and up to 5 GHz with LN2. In the posted screenshots they mention that the top-end SKU can compete with the Intel 6850K

Let me end where I began, as always rumors are just that ... rumors. But this one does seem valid. Let's hope that the hype is real.

The initial “Zen” CPU core will come to market first in an 8-core, 16-thread system-on-chip for desktops (=Summit Ridge). The "Summit Ridge" Zen family will feature a unified AM4 socket with its GPU-equipped "Bristol Ridge" APU counterparts, and feature DDR4 support and a an expected 95W TDP.  We expect each Zen core will have four integer units, two address generation units and four floating point units, and the decoder can decode four instructions per clock cycle. L1 data cache size is 32 KiB and L2 cache size 512 KiB per core. 2 CCUs = 2x8MB (L3) + 8x512KB (L2) = 20MB

In a recent presenation AMD shows Summit Ridge to be faster compared to an octacore-Broadwell-E at the same clock frequency.