One of the rumors in recent days is the appearance of processors Zen 4 under socket AM4. Apart from other rumors around AMD about its new chips outside the already known and officially revealed roadmap. Some of them seem possible to us and fall within the whole logic of the world, as they are variations of already existing products. Others, on the other hand, are a real nonsense and despite the fact that they are possible to build, they do not make sense in the future of AMD CPUs, where the protagonists are the AM5 and Zen 4 duo.
Executing a roadmap is one of the most difficult things that exist for a company. Usually when a marketing presentation is made, not everything that is in development comes out, since many products end up being canceled because they do not make strategic sense. That is to say, they do not appear due to the fact that there is not a large number of consumers who demand them or it is not attractive enough. On the other hand, we have the limit of wafers to manufacture chips, so those products with the highest demand are released.
Will we see Zen 4 chips for socket AM4?
AMD Ryzen processors today are divided into two different parts, apart from other additional elements that AMD is adding to create specific variations:
- The CCD which is the part that contains the CPU cores and their caches.
- The IOD/SDF that integrates the integrated memory controller for RAM access and PCIe interface management. This part is responsible for communicating the different components with each other. Regardless of whether the processor has multiple chips or a single chip, the CCDs communicate with the rest of the system via the IOD/SDF.
Well, AMD, in order to communicate the different parts of its processors, created an interface called Infinity Fabric. It is a proprietary extension of HyperTransport. Your advantage? It allows AMD to be able to exchange blocks in the architecture of the SoC type based on a central intercom. Well, in the jump from Zen 3 to Zen 4, the communication between the SDF and the CCD remains the same.. Which leads to, in theory, curious things like a Zen 4 processor under socket AM4.
AMD will not launch a range of Zen 4 processors for AM4. Not only because they are not on the road map, but because they go against their marketing and many do not take into account a detail. The processor cannot work without its chipset and one way to capitalize financially on a new generation is to use a new one that forces the purchase of new boards. Furthermore, they have already made it clear your commitment to DDR5 and PCIe 5which requires the new SDF that only works with the new AM5 chipset.
Have we already seen everything for the veteran AMD socket?
Well, the truth is that no, since there is a processor that AMD could consider launching in the following months. Although we must remember that they are within the framework of what is possible, this does not mean that we are going to see them. Mind you, it makes more sense than Zen 4 for AM4. Which one are we referring to? Well, of course Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which would be a cut version of the 5800X3D that has appeared in recent months. Your configuration would be 6 cores, 12 threads and with 48 MB of L3 cache via V-Cache.
