8 PCWorld APRIL 2020NEWS AMD TALKS PC GPU
details on key technologies that will benefit
the PC as well as other segments: a new
“X3D” packaging technology that will
complement its existing “chiplet” designs;
a “CDNA” compute-intensive version of its
GPUs; and RDNA 2 and 3, the evolution of
the “Navi” GPU architecture that should
include hardware ray tracing.
Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive officer,
began by noting that, first and foremost, AMD
is playing to its strengths: high performance in
graphics, CPU, and solutions that include the
two. “This is the fundamental DNA of our
company,” she said.RYZEN INVESTMENTS ARE
PAYING OFF
Over the next five years, AMD will continue
to build upon its Zen road map, its RDNA
architecture, and 7nm and future processtechnologies. AMD
changed the game
with Ryzen, and it’s
paid off, Su said: Fully
half of premium
desktop PCs use
Ryzen, and it’s
consistently gained
share over the last few
quarters. AMD also
continues to invest in
graphics, exclusively
supplying the Apple
Macintosh, and
shipping over 150 million units in the game
console business since 2013. But, Su added,
AMD is still “underrepresented” in the
PC market.
Now, AMD is looking for new ways to
leverage the technology it already has in
house. “We actually see more opportunities
to combine our CPU and GPU solutions,” Su
added. AMD has used techniques such as
“chiplets” to improve the flexibility of its
processor and graphics design. AMD will
have to build on those with new packaging
and interconnect techniques to keep pushing
performance forward, Su said.
Su was so confident that the company can
make it happen that AMD now predicts that it
can deliver 20-percent compound annual
growth in revenue over the next four years—
aggressive numbers for a company that was
struggling just a decade ago.AMD teased what it has coming down the pipe in terms of CPU and GPU
revisions. Note that AMD’s not saying what the “advanced node” means.