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The timeline looks about right, SA says he moved back to AMD in 2012[1], so figure 4 years to design a new core and get a few test runs in, then a year to ramp
by posguy 9y ago
The timeline looks about right, SA says he moved back to AMD in 2012[1], so figure 4 years to design a new core and get a few test runs in, then a year to ramp enough so you can sell said chip.
That being said, I think it has more to do with an overall culture change, the technical talent to build a good core has been at AMD this whole time. Jim Keller said as much back in 2014[2], and there is nothing special about Zen's architecture from a technical standpoint. What Zen is is a well executed conventional high performance CPU core.
By not splitting up resources like previous leadership at AMD, they were able to build a solid, competitive core. This type of investment takes 5+ years to come to fruition, from thought to test runs of silicon.
1 - https://semiaccurate.com/2012/08/01/apples-cpu-architect-jim-keller-moves-back-to-amd/ https://semiaccurate.com/2012/08/01/apples-cpu-architect-jim...
2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOTFE7sJY-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOTFE7sJY-Q
- axaxs 9y agoWell...I don't know the entire history, but only my memory...which admittedly is never an accurate source. At that time, it was stated Jim Keller was brought back to AMD specifically to work on something which became codenamed 'Zen', since AMD was getting pounded in their previous ventures(Bulldozer et al). I was excited then, then forgot, and then Ryzen was born.
- posguy 9y agoYea, he definitely came in at an interesting time, right as Lisa Su came to the fore, locking down the PS4 and Xbox One. Following this Lisa pared back the product lines so they weren't spreading their engineering talent thin, which AMD badly needed to do. Remember that ARM Seattle core AMD announced in 2012[1], to be launched in 2014? Here we are in 2017, and its finally just becoming available in significant quantities... Diversions like that were what was keeping AMD from putting enough engineers on the task of building a solid CPU core. 1 - https://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/30/amd-announces-an-arm64-server-soc-for-seamicro/ https://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/30/amd-announces-an-arm64-s...