AMD Zen Reportedly Delayed Until Early Next Year

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Zen Reportedly Delayed Until Early Next Year

According to reports, AMD's Zen processors have been delayed until the start of the next year and it's also affecting Intel's Kabylake launch...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Zen-Intel-KBL-Delay

[chuckula]

I wouldn't exactly call that a delay based on what AMD has actually said in the past.
It is, however, a delay in the minds of people who didn't understand the words that AMD used to describe Zen's schedule, either through ignorance of how chips are produced or through willful over-optimism.

In particular, AMD has repeatedly gone out of its way to say that Zen would be sampling in 2016 with "revenue" in 2017. People heard "2016" and thought that must mean Zen was launching commercially this year. It was never going to happen, and AMD confirmed as much when Lisa Su got up on stage on June 1 at Computex and flat-out said that Zen still hasn't even begun sampling to partners yet. There is absolutely zero chance that a supposedly large, complex, and high-performance chip like Zen is going to be commercially available less than 6 months after AMD even ships the first sample parts to OEMs.

To illustrate this point, Kaby Lake, which isn't actually going on sale until late 2016, was not only shown at Computex, but companies like Asus were showing 100% functioning products out on the show floor that were using Kaby Lake silicon. Once again, it's at least 4 months until Kaby Lake will be available to purchase, and third parties are already showing off fully-functioning systems on the show floor, not in some backroom secret demonstration.

[boxie]

Just gives me a bit longer to save up

[bug77]

Not unexpected, I'd say, since they only had one sample to show at the last event and it was literally one CPU, not a running system.
The delay of Kaby Lake however, means Cannon Lake (and 10nm) will also be pushed farther.

chuckula Nice attempt at rewriting history, but AMD really planned to deliver Zen in 2016:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9231/amds-20162017-x86-roadmap-zen-is-in

http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-set-to-release-first-zen-based-microprocessors-in-late-2016-document/

It doesn't seem to be their fault this time, but some issues in the supply pipeline instead. Still, Zen can't come soon enough for them.

[sykobee]

Firstly, this is Digitimes, they may have moles in Taiwanese fabs, but Zen is being made in Malta, New York. Secondly their story highlighted the Kaby Lake delay, so why has the focus changed here to Zen, and thirdly, AMD demoed a couple of running Zen systems at Computex (driving the Polaris systems for the presentation, not hiding them away), and it's only June.

[chuckula]

chuckula Nice attempt at rewriting history, but AMD really planned to deliver Zen in 2016:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9231/amds-20162017-x86-roadmap-zen-is-in

http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/amd-set-to-release-first-zen-based-microprocessors-in-late-2016-document/

It doesn't seem to be their fault this time, but some issues in the supply pipeline instead. Still, Zen can't come soon enough for them.

I never rewrote anything. You are taking the words of journalists and putting them into the mouths of AMD executives. I'm *not* saying that the AMD executives weren't intentionally using weasel language in a way that they knew tech journalists (who aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed) would misinterpret. Of course the AMD executives said things in a biased and colored way that wasn't actually a flat-out lie while still being misleading. The fact that some tech journalists couldn't (or intentionally wouldn't) get it right to increase their clicks is irrelevant.

Incidentally, I accurately called this back in December of last year, so there's no "rewriting of history" going on at all: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtop...+2017#p1284743

[bug77]

I never rewrote anything. You are taking the words of journalists and putting them into the mouths of AMD executives. I'm *not* saying that the AMD executives weren't intentionally using weasel language in a way that they knew tech journalists (who aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed) would misinterpret. Of course the AMD executives said things in a biased and colored way that wasn't actually a flat-out lie while still being misleading. The fact that some tech journalists couldn't (or intentionally wouldn't) get it right to increase their clicks is irrelevant.

Incidentally, I accurately called this back in December of last year, so there's no "rewriting of history" going on at all: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtop...+2017#p1284743

There's a slide in there that came straight from AMD. And Anandtech isn't exactly known for speculations either.

[LeJimster]

This is around the time I plan to be upgrading anyway. No big deal, I will wait for benchmarks and pricing before I make the jump. I've got a feeling even if it's on par with Intel, the board and chip prices will be still be cheaper and I simply can't afford the prices Intel have been charging lately.

Hopefully we will start seeing some real benchmarks by the end of 2016 though.

[boxie]

There's a slide in there that came straight from AMD. And Anandtech isn't exactly known for speculations either.

From what AMD were saying I was expecting limited availability (possibly only to tech sites) in LATE December with the average pleb being able to purchase one in early Jan

[juno]

Not unexpected, I'd say, since they only had one sample to show at the last event and it was literally one CPU, not a running system.

Just because it isn't public doesn't mean they have no working samples.
Before Computex, fudzilla reported that AMD might actually bring working samples to the event: http://fudzilla.com/news/processors/...ready-for-demo
After the show, semiaccurate confirmed that there have been demo systems with Summit Ridge

Summit [Ridge]/Zen is sampling now and ran several demos at the show. There were two systems running on the floor but the closed boxes didn’t look like much

http://semiaccurate.com/2016/06/06/a...x480-zen-apus/

Both souces are definitely not the most reliable ones on earth, but it's something


To the others: oh stop it. AMD said more than once that SR will be available very late in 2016 for consumers. Therefore they confirmed all the earlier leaks telling us that SR would be available in 2016..