AMD Reveals Single Socket For Zen CPU, APU

[HDB]

I just want a date!

Reading between the lines on other sites: Q4

 

[epobirs]

Given that the unified socket will include the follow-up to AM1 as well, I'm intrigued as to the possibility of $50 motherboards supporting top-of-the-line CPUs.

I imagine there will be limitations even if the socket is the same. For example a $100 board might be able to run every AM4 chip out there, but an entry level (think AM1 replacement) ITX board might "only" support up to certain wattages. Still, this isn't really a problem per-se, and I suspect most boards will support all the stock-clocked chips just fine. As you point out, features like overvolting/overclocking and fancy features will still create a market for mid and high end boards.

Another issue is that very inexpensive boards designed for use with SOC models are going to be lacking critical elements if used with models expecting a south bridge to provide those items. It may be one socket but the boards are not going to be interchangeable without serious issues.

 

[Sunderas]

If they keep to this socket this might be the year I'll make my 1st AMD build.
We just need a punchy CPU with reasonable thermal output.

 

[f-14]

I think it's always funny when people put all the blame on AMD management. Sure AMD has messed up, especially in the last 7 years but you have to remember, this is after they were blocked from the market by Intel.

AMD literally could not sell a superior product in the original Athlon because Intel locked them out from all the OEMs. Back in the day where few had Internet, it was a killing blow. If you cannot sell your product, you don't make money.

the people i know saying this don't blame AMD management they directly blame ATI management that was directly integrated because that's the truth of the matter and all the worthwhile or smart people at AMDwere cut in the merger or left because they couldn't stand dealing with the ATI _ _ [self edited before posting] _ _'ups wrecking their smooth and progressing operation and bright future prior ATI. you can see it in all the ATI exec's and developers being let go in the last few years.

as for the original athlon you are smoking some cyanide laced lsd that 512bit bus on the slotA SLAUGHTERED EVERYTHING INTEL until p4. it is like comparing sdram to ddr4 in dual channel even the athlon B aka thunderbird 256bit crippled version massacred the pentium 2's and 3's and carried over into the p4's. my iwill ali chipset ran circles around the p4 Rdram the athlon XP fcpg further laid the smack down like thors hammer on an ant. intels only saving grace was it's long standing reputation and the billions it pumped into it's marketing team doing what ever they could to save the company from ruin, HENCE why intel locked down their lics. on the sockets. it was bad enough amd k6 and k6 2's were slapping intel silly on the socket 5 then socket 7 front when amd went slot A intel started their miserable slide under their bridge where they stayed until core duo and ddr2 800mhz fsb adoption. the integrated memeory controller on the i-7's is the only thing intel has over amd. the ati screw ups did their best to secure their shoddy under performing positions at amd messing things up as best they could with lies and promises of a gpu on multi core cpu socket to secure amd's future as everything went mobile. amd board is finally figuring out it was b.s. after 10 years and amd should have just taken the patents and business work station rep cream and cut the entire ati staff as chaff.

when amd figures out their memory controller problem intel had better have some other performance bottleneck patented as intel is just riding on die shrink borrowed revisions time.
remember amd forced the need for sdram then ddr then ddr2. gddr5 has been out for years and intel did not force anything more than ddr3. gddr is harder to make than ddr and if intel gets rid of amd then intel face anti trust break up.

 

[ingtar33]

we knew this almost 3 years ago just before the FM2+ socket was about to be released

At that time back in late 2013 AMD said that FM2+ would be the last "split" socket from AM3+, and that the next socket would unify the structure on AM4, supporting DDR4 ram (which is how the AM sockets always have been numbered, based on the version of the ddr ram they supported)

I guess it's nice to see their plans haven't change, but i can't help but feel like this is all too little too late at this point. The time for Zen to be launched and be relevant was probably early last year during the underwhelming broadwell release. by the time Zen comes out intel will be on the chip beyond skylake (either the refresh kaby lake or the upgrade on 10nm cannon lake), and if the promo material about Zen is to be believed it will be sitting on roughly Ivy Bridge performance (possibly Haswell level performance, though I've seen nothing to suggest it will be that good)

the Story of post 2005 AMD. too late to the game every time. Once the core2 lineup was released it took them 3 years to find a chip that could play with it (PhenomII), we're now on year 7 of the core I lineup, and they still haven't released a product that matches sandybridge. it breaks my heart since i want AMD to be competitive but i fear AMD's management has crippled the company to the point of non-competitiveness.

I think it's always funny when people put all the blame on AMD management. Sure AMD has messed up, especially in the last 7 years but you have to remember, this is after they were blocked from the market by Intel.

AMD literally could not sell a superior product in the original Athlon because Intel locked them out from all the OEMs. Back in the day where few had Internet, it was a killing blow. If you cannot sell your product, you don't make money.

Ever since then AMD has had less money and as a result, has almost always been a step behind. Once again, Nvidia is doing something similar on the GPU side of things right now. GameWorks, a program Nvidia claims helps devs. make video games for the PC, has not had a single game where it has achieved that goal. AMD may not have clearcut winner cards out right now but the 20% performance hit from GameWorks really doesn't help and pretty much makes it so that no matter what card AMD releases, the Nvidia card will be faster just because it's a GameWorks title. If two company's products are no longer competing on how good each one actually is, this is no longer a healthy capitalist system.

Dude, I'm well aware of intel's sins in this. I've owned a lot of AMD chips, check my sig, I'm not an intel fan.

That said nothing I wrote criticizing AMD is wrong. And we all know AMD is price deaf. When zen drops their 8c/16t fx cpu i guarantee it isn't going to be for 200 or even 300, it will probably be for 800-1000. THIS is why i'm so critical of AMD. Their management has been so bad since 2005, that they've done the job to thoroughly destroy the company better then all the Intel cheating in the world could manage.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

If they keep to this socket this might be the year I'll make my 1st AMD build.
We just need a punchy CPU with reasonable thermal output.

I have high hopes for Zen. Even if Zen doesn't quite match Intel in IPC, I say it won't be too far behind, and if they pack 8 physical cores (which they will) into the FX, not cores that share stuff but true 8 cores, that'll be a great contendor.

 

[littleleo]

If they are true core and not the sharing part of the core over 2 cores FX versions that will be an improvement. If they come any where close to Haswell performance at a lower cost they will sell. Are the ZEN sockets going to be backward compatible with the FX CPUs?

 

[ron baker]

Nway will zen fit in current sockets. Prepare for disappointment better but still lacking in Ipc.

 

[Sunderas]

If they keep to this socket this might be the year I'll make my 1st AMD build.
We just need a punchy CPU with reasonable thermal output.

I have high hopes for Zen. Even if Zen doesn't quite match Intel in IPC, I say it won't be too far behind, and if they pack 8 physical cores (which they will) into the FX, not cores that share stuff but true 8 cores, that'll be a great contendor.

Let's hope so. I am really excited with the prospects of AMD finally bringing their game together.