While Intel recently old investors that its 10-nanometer “Cannon Lake” chips will not be ready until 2019, the company’s rival is kicking things up a notch. AMD told investors that it’s sampling next-gen Zen 2 processors with 7-nanometer technology and are expected to launch in 2019.
AMD is also testing a Radeon Instant marchine learning graphics card that will use 7-nanometer Vega-based technology. They will be manufactured by TSMC, according to AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Si, but the company plans to also use Global Foundries for processors and other products.
Right now, AMD‘s second-generation Zen chips use the 14-nanometer process. The Zen 2 will be expected to use the 7-nanometer manufacturing process. TSMC is reportedly leading the development for the technology, which uses bleeding-edge extreme ultraviolet lithography instead of the conventional visible wave-length light.
If AMD is able to pull this off, it will bring some heated competition on Intel, which said that it will introduce 10-nanometer technology by 2019. Intel, however, has said that its tech is a “generation ahead” of 10-nanometer tech from other companies. Even if that proves to be true, the 7-nanometer chips would erase all of that. In recently leaked slides, AMD’s next-gen Vega raphics technology has double the memory interface width and double the bandwidth of its current GPU offerings.
Things seem to be finally heading AMD’s way. The company turned a $81 million profit this quarter on $1.65 billion of revenue, compared to $33 million loss in the same quarter last year. If AMD is able to pull of the 7-nanometer gamble, it will start to lead the industry.
