Zen (microarchitecture)

Zen is a family of computer processor microarchitectures from AMD, first launched in February 2017 with the first generation of its Ryzen CPUs.

The first generation Zen was launched with the Ryzen 1000 series of CPUs (codenamed Summit Ridge) in February 2017.

[14] The first Zen-based preview system was demonstrated at E3 2016, and first substantially detailed at an event hosted a block away from the Intel Developer Forum 2016.

[24] Zen 2 introduced the chiplet based architecture, where desktop, workstation, and server CPUs are all produced as multi-chip modules (MCMs); these Zen 2 products utilise the same core chiplets but are attached to different uncore silicon (different IO dies) in a hub and spoke topology.

These chiplets are linked by AMD's own second generation Infinity Fabric,[27] allowing a low-latency interconnect between the cores and to IO.

[28] Zen 2 also powers a line of mobile and desktop APUs marketed as Ryzen 4000, as well as fourth generation Xbox consoles and the PlayStation 5.

The Zen 2 core microarchitecture is also used in the Mendocino APU, a 6 nm system on a chip aimed at mainstream mobile and other energy efficient low power computing products.

[31] On April 1, 2022, AMD released the new Ryzen 6000 series for the laptop, using an improved Zen 3+ architecture, bringing RDNA 2 graphics integrated in a APU to the PC for the first time.

[34] Zen 3 with 3D V-Cache for server, codenamed Milan-X, was announced in AMD's Accelerated Data Center Premiere Keynote on November 8, 2021.

It brings a 50% increase in select datacenter applications over Zen 3's Milan CPUs while maintaining socket compatibility with them.