
The new mobile Ryzen APUs, the 2200U and 2300U are 2 and 4 core CPU variants of the current Ryzen mobile APUs. The new Ryzen Pro Mobile APUs are designed to deliver more enterprise-class features and reliability to the notebook market that previous AMD offerings while also bringing the benefits of a Ryzen Mobile APU market. AMD’s Pro line of processors usually lags slightly behind their consumer processors in availability because of the added testing and certifications that are needed to bring enterprise-class processor to the market.
I believe this new desktop and mobile APUs increase AMD’s addressable market and this is where the serious volumes kick in for the company.
New, 2nd generation Ryzen with new chipset and updates on the Zen 2 core
Later this year, AMD will also be refreshing the Ryzen desktop lineup including their Threadripper and Pro processors with a new Zen+ core that is based on GlobalFoundries new 12nm process, which should deliver more performance at lower power. The company is suggesting we should see a 10% performance boost across the board, which is likely conservative, given AMD’s past communications history.
These new second generation Ryzen chips will be compatible with the current generation of AM4 motherboards via BIOS update, but AMD is also introducing a new X470 motherboard chipset that is optimized for Ryzen 2nd generation processors. AMD says it is already “heavily” sampling these processors to their partners, and we can expect the second-generation Zen processors sometime this April. AMD also talked about Zen 2 and said that the design is complete and that we can expect it sometime in 2019 with a next-gen 7nm CPU coming in 2020. I take “complete” as it is ready to go to full silicon after successful simulations.
Radeon graphics “everywhere”
AMD is also expanding their GPU offerings with a continuation of their “Radeon Everywhere” strategy which includes launching new Radeon Vega Mobile GPUs for ultrathin notebooks. This includes their semi-custom design that they did with Intel where Intel’s 8th Generation CPU cores are paired with AMD’s Vega GPU and HBM2 memory onto a single compact chip. AMD also teased that they plan to sample their first 7nm product this year with a Radeon Vega based GPU specifically built for machine learning, similar to their current MI25 GPU for machine learning. The company also telegraphed that their future Navi GPU architecture that will follow Vega would be manufactured using 7nm. I believe AMD will start investing more in automotive with Vega but we likely won’t see the fruits of that until 2019. It’s exciting, nonetheless.
Wrapping up
Overall, AMD has given us a relatively clear picture of what we can expect from the company going into 2018 and beyond. AMD did not disclose all the product details at CES 2018, but they do have to save something for launch, right? AMD demonstrated in 2017 strong execution and the ability to deliver products on time and within or beyond expectations. As the company phases out many of their legacy CPU and GPU products, we can start to see the company transform into its new shape- a company willing to take risks and attack their competitors, while also being able to work with new partners to enable each division to execute in ways that haven’t seen in years. 2017 was very kind to AMD, and while AMD does not control their competitor’s moves, it looks like 2018 is going to be a good year with all of their upcoming new products which either address new markets or improve utility.