AMD CEO: Zen processors coming at the end of 2016

By admin On Jan 20, 2016

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Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, has confirmed during the annual figures that the first Zen CPUs will appear at the end of 2016. With the processors and the new Polaris GPUs, AMD wants to regain a solid position in the high-end segment of the PC market.

With the Zen architecture-based Summit Ridge processors, AMD wants to compete against Intel’s CPUs, AMD CEO Lisa Su said during the announcement of the financial figures for the fourth quarter of 2015.

Su has revealed that AMD is in talks with PC makers about releasing PCs with Zen processors. AMD also hopes to gain ground in data centers with the new Zen architecture. The dedicated server CPUs will be available in 2017. The Zen CPUs should offer a performance improvement of 40 percent per clock tick over the Excavator generation. AMD had previously announced that the Zen chips would hit the market at the end of 2016 at the earliest and a release before 2017 seemed uncertain, but according to the new CEO statements, the introduction seems to take place this year.

With the Zen processors and the upcoming Polaris GPUs, AMD believes that the brand can regain ground in the PC market. Virtual reality is expected to take off in 2016 and AMD sees opportunities to come to the fore with this. For example, the company claims that the Polaris architecture is suitable for making thin and light laptops that can handle virtual reality. The first GPUs with Polaris architecture will be on the market in mid-2016. The video cards based on the Polaris architecture should be more economical than other video cards and offer better performance.

The 2015 annual figures were discussed during the meeting. AMD recorded a net loss of $660 million, a year earlier that was a net loss of $403 million. According to the company, the higher loss is partly due to a decline in sales from semi-custom SOCs and declining revenues from CPU sales. Despite the loss, AMD indicates that it is confident in the results for 2016. This is thanks to the upcoming Polaris GPUs and Zen CPUs, but also because of an expected strong console market. AMD supplies the chips for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.