Two months ago, rumours began to surface about AMD readying a 16-core 32-threaded Ryzen CPU monster that is going to give Intel high-end processors a run for their money. According to VideoCardz.com, that monster CPU is almost here. A leaked list of the latest engineering samples from AMD obtained by VideoCardz reveals that this CPU will be called “Whitehaven”. It will also have a 3.1GHz base clock with a 3.6GHz turbo.

The engineering naming scheme also reveals more aspects of this processor. The first number corresponds to the engineering sample generation. The F3/F4 at the end before turbo/base clock designation refers to the stepping. So both Whitehaven CPUs listed are actually the same, except one is a 1st generation with an earlier stepping, while the other is 2nd generation with a newer stepping. The ‘D’ after the first number means that Whitehaven is a desktop part, not for servers. It would have an ‘s’ instead if that was the case. The letters A8U refers to the TDP and socket. A2 represented 95W TDP processors for example. A9 is not a TDP we have seen before on any AMD part. It is most likely going to stand for 150W TDP. The ‘U’ is also interesting. It is pointing to a new socket since socket AM4 used an ‘M’ designation.

New Platform for High-end Ryzen CPU?

Not only did Ryzen intend to match Intel’s HEDT i7-6900K with the top end R7 1800X, they also intend to match the i7-6950X Extreme processor. For that to happen, it requires a new platform other than the AM4. The new chipset is called X390 and it will go with an LGA SP3r2 socket. Rumours on reddit last month show that the X390 is going to introduce quad-channel DDR4 to desktop AMD. As usual, you have to take rumours with some grain of salt, but it nonetheless seems promising as an alternative to Intel HEDT.