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Are AMD's Ryzen 4000s coming in 5nm+ production?

29.5.2020

Translation: machine translated

According to an article in DigiTimes, the Ryzen 4000 will be manufactured in 5 nm+ instead of 7 nm+. In order to have enough CPUs ready for launch, AMD is said to have postponed the release of the desktop processors. Is this true?

The Ryzen 4000 processors, also known as Vermeer, have so far been announced by AMD in 7 nm+ for 2020. The roadmap did not envisage 5 nm production until 2021 with the Ryzen 5000. As Digitimes now reports, AMD is said to have postponed the release of the Ryzen 4000. The reason: The TSMC company, which manufactures the chips for AMD, has been given the opportunity to produce the CPUs with the more modern production process.

What speaks in favour - and against

TSMC started manufacturing in 5 nm+ back in April. The plus stands for improved manufacturing process. Among other things, the company uses this process to manufacture the A14 chip for the upcoming iPhone. However, the development of the process has been accelerated to such an extent that series production is set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Until recently, TSMC was working to capacity with orders from Apple and Huawei. As Nikkei reports, TSMC has stopped deliveries to Huawei due to the ongoing tensions between the USA and China. TSMC would therefore actually have new capacity.

And what does AMD say? There is no official statement. However, CEO Lisa Su said at the Bernstein Investor Conference that mobile processors are the first to be started with new manufacturing processes because it is easier to achieve the desired performance there. She also said that 5 nm production is important for Zen 4 and GPUs. The statement is ambiguous. On the one hand, it could mean that AMD is sticking to the current roadmap or that it is actually already on the way after Apple's A14.

Another indication that there is something to the DigiTimes article are the rumours about a refresh of the Ryzen 3000, with chips named Ryzen 7 3700 XT, Ryzen 7 3800 XT and Ryzen 9 3900 XT. These are said to be Ryzen 3000s with a higher clock speed than the previous models.

Personally, I don't think AMD will switch to 5 nm this year. The lead time is too short for that. I can't imagine that TSMC can actually offer such capacities in such a short time. But if it is true, it will put even more pressure on Intel. The company has been stuck with 14 nm production for years. What do you think? Write it in the comments column.

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