AMD will switch to 12nm process for Ryzen and Vega next year

AMD will switch to GlobalFoundries’ 12nm LP finfet process early next year for the production of Ryzen CPUs and Vega GPUs. These chips are currently made by the same chip manufacturer using a 14nm process.

Mark Papermaster, AMD’s CTO, announced this at a GlobalFoundries conference, Tom’s Hardware writes. AMD previously planned to switch from the 14nm-lp process to the improved 14nm-lpp variant, or 14nm+, next year. That has now been adjusted and new products will be made on the smaller 12nm process.

In previous roadmaps, AMD showed that it wants to switch to 7nm for Zen 2 and Navi. These are the chips that will eventually form the basis for the successors of the current Ryzen CPUs and Vega GPUs. It is not yet known whether AMD will stick to that planning, or whether it will also use the 12nm process for Zen 2 and Navi.

The new 12nm-lp-finfet process is, according to GlobalFoundries, an addition to the previously announced cheaper 12nm-fd-soi process, or 12fdx. The 12nm SOI production is particularly suitable for simple chips such as those for the Internet-of-things and network technology. For large, complex chip designs, finfet is a better choice, thanks to its better performance.