AMD Zen processor release date, specs, latest news: AMD challenges Intel's supremacy with new Ryzen chip

Amee Florence Payno Saturday, December 17, 2016

AMD's Ryzen processors, from the Zen microarchitecture, are designed from the ground up for optimal balance of power and performance. | Youtube/AMD

After a long while, Intel may finally be facing tough competition this 2017 with AMD's Zen microarchitecture.

Now identified with its new brand name, Ryzen, the Zen x86 core processor will be the first chip in the Summit Ridge desktop family that AMD will be focusing on in 2017.

According to Trusted Reviews, the Ryzen processor will be unleashed as a 3.4GHz+ chip with eight cores (16 threads), 4 MB of L2 and 16 MB of L3 cache. With its power and features, the Ryzen chip is expected to take on Intel's super-expensive Haswell-E and Broadwell-E Core i7 enthusiast chips.

Ryzen, according to AMD, is capable of doing 40 percent more work per clock cycle compared to the previous Excavator core generation. Amazingly, Ryzen is designed efficiently such that power consumption per cycle will remain the same as before.

The Zen chip's performance boost is attributed to the new 14nm process. This allowed more transistors to fit onto a piece of silicon, leading to significant improvements in the chip's performance without risking increases in power consumption.

The Ryzen chip also supports "Simultaneous Multi-Threading," which bears resemblance to Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. The new Zen architecture allows better distribution and multi-tasking.

Although AMD has been generous in sharing details about the development of the Zen microarchitecture to the public, the company has yet to disclose the Ryzen's chip's "boost" speed (or maximum potential) and its price, according to PC World.

With the impending launch of the Ryzen chip and the many subsequent products to be launched along the way, AMD's future has never looked as bright as it does at the moment. During AMD's special Ryzen live stream on Dec. 13, Chief Executive Lisa Su predicted a "very, very strong lineup" of motherboards, hardware partners, and system builders for their company.

"2016 was a very strong year; we're very pleased with all the progress that we've made," Su said. "But with 2017, the best is truly yet to come," she added.