AMD’s desktop and mobile roadmaps
Under Rory Read, AMD’s desktop CPU roadmap languished. The only meaningful improvement to high-end CPUs under his leadership was the FX-9590 — a 5GHz Piledriver-class core with a 220W TDP. In 2016, that’s finally going to change, thanks to the launch of AMD’s Zen. AMD hasn’t given a date on when to expect Zen (scuttlebutt has pointed to second half of the year, but AMD hasn’t confirmed or denied that estimate).
We’ve expected that Zen would come to desktops, but CEO Lisa Su confirmed that Zen would actually ship on the desktop first. The CEO noted that this market has proven to be important to AMD’s overall market position and design wins, and AMD is committed to attacking this space.
It’s assumed that Zen will also power the 7th-generation of desktop and mobile APUs that are shown here, though AMD only explicitly stated that Zen was coming to the desktop. One major change coming in 2016 is that the APU and CPU will occupy a common desktop socket, AM4. In the future, you won’t have to choose between two different motherboard sockets when you pick either an APU or a CPU from AMD — you can move from one to the other.
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