Anyone remember the Black Editions from AMD ? Well it looks like AMD is doing an Intel, at least that is what the latest rumors imply for ZEN. K model processors for Intel obviously imply an unlocked multiplier and enough voltage headroom.

If we can believe the Italian website BitsAndChips (they mention 'according to their sources') there will at the very least be one octa-core Summit Ridge-processor especially for overclockers. Which would make total sense as AMD always has released unlocked products. The CPU would retain its 95 Watt TDP.

The K model would get slightly higher clock frequencies (whatever they may be), an unlocked multiplier but also would be sold without cooler as tweakers pretty much never ever use stock coolers anyway. Whether or not the rest of the Summit Ridge-processors would be locked on the multiplier is another question that can be raised, as that does nto fit the model that AMD has followed in the past.

The initial “Zen” CPU core is stated to deliver more than 40 percent improvement in instructions per clock cycle over the previous generation cores and will come to market first in an 8-core, 16-thread system-on-chip for desktops (=Summit Ridge). The "Summit Ridge" Zen family will feature a unified AM4 socket with its GPU-equipped "Bristol Ridge" APU counterparts, and feature DDR4 support and a an expected 95W TDP. Though unconfirmed we expect each Zen core will have four integer units, two address generation units and four floating point units, and the decoder can decode four instructions per clock cycle. L1 data cache size is 32 KiB and L2 cache size 512 KiB per core. 2 CCUs = 2x8MB (L3) + 8x512KB (L2) = 20MB.





The 8-core Summit Ridge processor series from AMD will be the first ZEN based product series released to the desktop consumer market. As it looks right now, Summit Ridge is to be released in January or February 2017.

Ah well, bring it on we say !





