The codename and process node of AMD’s distant Zen 6 processor has been revealed on the LinkedIn profile of an alleged AMD engineer. Zen 5, which is expected to hit the market by 2024, is the latest microarchitecture, so we still have a long way to go before we get a glimpse of Zen 6.
New information courtesy of Md Zaheer (opens in new tab)It looks like AMD’s senior silicon design engineer who has worked on the power management aspects of the Zen 4, Zen 5 and Zen 6 processors.The person has since disguised the name of his AMD project he worked on, while the Twitter user Mallow David (opens in new tab) I took a screenshot of the original description before the change. Granted, AMD has already revealed details about Zen 5, so this isn’t a huge blunder. However, it does provide some information about Zen 6.
There’s no Zen 6 on AMD’s official roadmap as the chipmakers have only shared plans up to Zen 5. The final roadmap, dating back to June 2022, is AMD planning to launch Zen 5 in 2024. It showed something. , Zen 6 he likely won’t hit the retail market until 2025 and not after that. According to Zaheer, who started working on Zen 6 in early 2023, AMD’s internal codename for his Zen 6 core is Morpheus. However, the author did not share the codename for his CCD (Core Complex Die). The Zen 6 chip will reportedly utilize his 2nm manufacturing process. However, we don’t know if AMD will continue to utilize his TSMC for his CCD production or jump-ship it to Samsung. TSMC and Samsung expect the 2nm process node to be ready by 2025.
AMD Microarchitecture
| micro architecture | core | CCD | process node | release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zen 6 | Morpheus | ? | 2nm | ? |
| Zen 5 | nirvana | Eldora | 3nm | 2024 |
| Zen 4 | Persephone | Durango | TSMC 5nm | 2022 |
| Zen 3 | Cerberus | Breckenridge | TSMC 7nm | 2020 |
| Zen 2 | Vahalla | Aspen Highlands | TSMC 7nm | 2019 |
| Zemplus | ? | ? | GLOBALFOUNDRIES 12nm | 2018 |
| Zen | ? | ? | GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm | 2017 |
Silicon engineers have apparently worked on Zen 5 from January 2021 to December 2022. So it looks like Zen 5 is on track for his 2024 release according to AMD’s roadmap. The trade name of the Zen 5 processor is unknown, but AMD calls the mainstream chip Granite Ridge. Thanks to Zaheer, the Zen 5 core is known internally as Nirvana, while the CCD is ( Andreas Schilling (opens in new tab)) goes by the codename Eldora.
AMD had previously said that Zen 5 would use an “advanced node” which we speculate could be 4nm or 3nm. According to Zaheer’s previous notes, Zen 5 will feature his 3nm furnace. It’s important to emphasize that he was part of the development team for the server chip (probably he was EPYC). Zen 5 is rumored to be available in He 4nm and He 3nm variants.
AMD takes full advantage of the Zen 5 microarchitecture. Zen 5 will debut in Granite Ridge for the mainstream market and EPYC Turin for servers. For Zen 5, AMD will also release chips with Zen 5c cores. This is similar in theory to Intel’s E-cores found in the mainstream 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors. Zen 5 is also coming to AMD’s upcoming APU, the Strix Point, with RDNA 3+ graphics and Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE).
Assuming Zen 5 follows a similar cadence as previous Zen microarchitectures, the first consumer desktop Ryzen chips could arrive in late 2024.
