Advanced Micro Devices has had a pretty good year with its Zen-based processors. The Ryzen line of consumer CPUs (central processing units) has shipped more than 5 million units since launching in March 2017.
Now the Santa Clara, California-based company is readying its next generation of CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs). It will build those chips in a new 7-nanometer manufacturing process (which delivers smaller, faster, and more power-efficient chips) for sampling later this year and full launch in 2019.
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, announced the 7-nanometer Epyc processors, which are Zen-based processors for the enterprise and data centers, at the company’s presentation in Taiwan at the Computex trade show. The chips will formally launch in 2019.
AMD will also launch its second-generation Threadripper processor, the high-end gaming chip, in the third quarter. The new Threadripper will have 32 cores and 64 threads, compared to the original 16-core, 32-thread Threadripper that debuted in August 2017.
Su said more than 400 million PCs and console gamers use machines that run on Radeon graphics. Jim Anderson, head of the computing and graphics business at AMD, said that Ryzen has taken market share from Intel in consumer PCs, and he showed how the Ryzen 7 2700X can outperform the higher-priced Intel Core i7 8700K when it comes to creative software and gaming.
AMD is also on track to launch its 7-nanometer Vega GPUs in the second half of 2018. Su said the company has 7-nanometer silicon working in the labs now.