AMD has assigned ASMedia Technology the research and development work for its Zen-based processor. Now it is rumored that a USB 3.1 design issue has been encountered and is speculated to affect the motherboard manufacturers. An increase of several dollars is expected for the new motherboard design.
DigiTimes reported that AMD's upcoming offering, the Zen processors, are having performance issues with their USB 3.1 feature. The speed is dropping off as the circuit distance increases on the motherboard. This means that the USB controller is inside the processor package and will need an extra component to let it roll out the speed it is supposed to offer. The additional part or parts will increase motherboard production cost by US$2 to US$5, insignificant for end users if they end up footing the bill. However, on the manufacturing process side with a scaled up production, it will be a significant amount. The CPU maker is worried that the extra costs would discourage manufacturers from utilizing Zen-based processors in their systems.
The report then mentioned that additional retimer and redriver chips may be required, possibly even a separate USB 3.1 chip. AMD is also said to be considering to provide the needed parts to motherboard manufacturers via a third-party supplier and will sell it together with the Zen-based chipsets.
So far, ASMedia has denied that an issue exists, while AMD said that its Zen processors are right on track.
The first Zen chips, named Summit Ridge, is expected to arrive next year and may materialize during the CES show in Las Vegas come January next year. The upcoming chip will arrive with eight-core and sixteen-thread CPUs, and hyped to be a competitor for the Intel Core i5, PCGamesN reported.
Meanwhile, HotHardware stated that AMD is also rumored to be working on a server variant of its Zen processor, which is dubbed as Naples. The rumored CPU is said to contain 32 cores, with 8MB of L3 cache per cluster. It is reported that the total L3 cache is 64MB and will make it capable of computing 64 threads while only consuming within a 180W power limitation.
The AMD Zen CPU is expected to be released next year.
