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AMD’s new roadmaps offer some hints at how it’ll upgrade its CPUs in the coming years.
While AMD’s strategy for servers and enterprise AI took center stage at a recent analyst day, AMD executives also previewed coming advancements to its CPU architecture.
(Credit: AMD)
A presentation slide shows the company is planning its Zen 6 and the efficiency-focused version Zen 6c for next year. These chips will boast an “industry-first” 2-nanometer manufacturing process, likely from Taiwan’s TSMC, which also produces M-series chips for Apple MacBooks.
The slide also indicates AMD is preparing a next-generation Zen 7, which will feature a mysterious new “matrix engine” while using a next-generation manufacturing node, possibly TSMC’s upcoming A16 node. AMD was vague about when the Zen 7 will launch, saying only that it will be sometime after 2026.
AMD CTO Mark Papermaster showed off the roadmap, but in the context of the company’s CPU chips for servers, the EPYC processor line. So we’ll need to wait and see what Zen 6 and Zen 7 will mean for desktop Ryzen CPUs.
(Credit: AMD)
However, AMD’s General Manager of Computing and Graphics Group, Jack Huynh, shared his own roadmap for the company’s laptop processors. The slide shows the company is preparing a new “Gorgon” chip for 2026 and then a “Medusa” chip for 2027, with a major goal of accelerating AI-workload performance. (That said, earlier leaks suggest Gorgon will use a Zen 5 CPU architecture, instead of Zen 6.)
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“The future of AI PCs will be built on AMD,” Huynh said in his presentation. The efforts promise a 3x+ boost the company’s PC and gaming-related revenue through 2030, another slide showed, which could steal market share from long-time rival Intel.
(Credit: AMD)
“Targeting 40% client revenue market share over the next three to five years, following 50% growth year-over-year,” the company added in a blog post.
However, Intel is preparing its own next-generation chips, including an upcoming desktop-focused Nova Lake CPU for next year. “With this lineup, we believe we will have the strongest PC portfolio in years,” Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, said last month.
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Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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