Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is set to unleash its first Zen-based processors by 2017. The company will first introduce its desktop processors by the first quarter, and it will be followed by its sever-based chips by the second quarter.
The schedule of release has been reconfirmed by CEO and President of AMD, Dr. Lisa Su, at the Q3 2016 earnings call that happened recently. Su stated that the company will launch its "Summit Ridge" by the first quarter of 2017, while, "Naples," the processor for servers, will be released in the second quarter, WCCFTech reports.
She added: "In server, our Zen based high performance processor remains on track for introduction in the first half of 2017. We successfully passed several silicon & platform technical milestones in the quarter and have secured multiple new design wins across OEM enterprise and cloud providers."
Su also clarified that the previous plan of the "Summit Ridge" launching by Q4 this year is just for several production samples, and it is generally aimed at their partners. The volume launch will happen next year.
Chris Hemmelgarn of Barclays also asked the CEO, "With Summit Ridge launching in Q1 of 2017, I guess how would you expect the channel to ramp that? Do you see it ramping pretty fully in the first couple of quarters of the year, or are you looking for more normal PC seasonality?"
Su replied that AMD is expecting that there will be a good demand for their desktop processor, but "not quite at the seasonal patterns." She also believes that the company will be competitive in the area that the Intel Core i5 and Core i7 are holding on to when their products arrive, PC Gamer stated.
AMD is expected to formally launch the latest Zen desktop processor during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is scheduled to happen from Jan. 5 to 8 next year. The company is also expected to introduce the accompanying motherboard for the new chip, the X370 AM4. The upcoming motherboard is said to feature DDR4 Memory, USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps, PCIe Gen 3, SATA Express, and NVMe.
The "Summit Ridge" will feature 8 Zen cores and 16 threads, while "Naples" will have 32 Zen cores and 64 threads. Pricing details for the upcoming products are still unavailable.
