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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

A CERN engineer has leaked a few details of an unreleased 32-core AMD "Zen" processor [hothardware.com] featuring support for 8 channels of DDR4 memory. The processor connects two 16-core CPUs with an on-die interconnect, and could be a replacement for older AMD Opteron chips and competitor to Intel's Xeon chips. Zen is the name of AMD's upcoming 14nm architecture [soylentnews.org]:

AMD is long overdue for a major architecture update, though one is coming later this year. Featuring the codename "Zen," AMD's already provided a few details, such as that it will be built using a 14nm FinFET process technology and will have high core counts. In time, AMD will reveal all there is to know but Zen, but in the meantime, we now have a few additional details to share thanks to a computer engineer at CERN.

CERN engineer Liviu Valsan recently gave a presentation on technology and market trends for the data center. At around 2 minutes into the discussion, he brought up AMD's Zen architecture with a slide that contained some previously undisclosed details (along with a few things we already knew [hothardware.com]). One of the more interesting revelations was that upcoming x86 processors based on Zen will feature up to 32 physical cores.

Before you get too excited about the high core count, there are two things to note. The first is that AMD is employing a "bit of a trick," to use Valsan's words. To achieve a 32-core design, Valsan says AMD will use two 16-core CPUs on a single die with a next-generation interconnect, presumably one that would reduce or be void of bottlenecks.

The second thing to consider is that it's highly unlikely AMD would release a 32-core processor into the consumer market. Zen-based Opterons aren't out of the question—servers and workstations could take real advantage of the additional cores—but as far as FX processors go, it's more realistic to expect offerings to boast up to 8 cores, maybe even 16 at some point.

Previously: AMD's Upcoming "Zen" APU - 16 Cores, 32 Threads [soylentnews.org]

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