Zen was actually, in a way, a conservative design. They specifically mentioned "performance compatibility" with Intel - they couldn't be weirdly slow in some wo

Zen was actually, in a way, a conservative design. They specifically mentioned "performance compatibility" with Intel - they couldn't be weirdly slow in some workloads because of an exotic design. You could say that they had the luxury of not having to aim for the moon because Intel was pretty much parked on the ground, with a failing new process and no ambition to increase core count. Against the original SV ethos, against Andy Grove, just plain old greed and complacency.