An awful lot is riding on AMD Zen, the next-generation processor architecture from the company that has been picking up steam recently due to the performance improvements it brings.
As things stand, there is a solid chance that AMD will finally be able to compete with Intel.
The company recently held a performance demonstration of Zen that vowed the press, and chip maker will bring these processors at CES in January 2017 — the desktop Zen FX CPUs are also on track to launch around that time.
However, while wide availability is only set for Q1 2017, AMD has hinted that we might get limited availability by the end of this year depending on yield and ramp up.
And now we have hints that the upcoming AM4 socket motherboards for Zen and Bristol Ridge will debut in October, as motherboard partners are ready to show off these new boards in a couple of months from now.
AM4 is the first unified socket for APUs and CPUs from AMD, and it will bring all its desktop products under one umbrella once it arrives.
There are several key features of these new motherboards, including support for DDR4 memory, PCIe Gen 3, USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps, NVMe and SATA Express — all things that Intel has had support for, or is getting soon.
All this will definitely breathe some new life into the PC market, and may even stir up some welcome competition for Windows 10 devices as AMD tries to match the dominance of Intel.
Perhaps this success will translate to tablets and hybrids too, paving the way for even more affordable hardware and a wider array of choices for buyers.
source:windows10update
