As a pesky underdog, AMD challenged Intel in chip innovation until the mid-2000s. AMD churned out innovations like dual-core and 64-bit chips, which kept Intel on its toes.
But some disastrous technological and management decisions cost AMD dearly, and over time, buyers began to consider its processors inferior to Intel’s chips. Intel ran away with PC and server chip market share.
AMD now is looking to rally its dwindling fan base with a series of Zen-based chips this year for desktops, servers, and laptops. The hyped-up Zen chips are expected to be good, and even Intel readily acknowledges the stiff competition coming its way.
AMD promises that Zen chips will deliver a 40 percent improvement in instructions per cycle, an important metric for chip performance. That number is impressive, considering most chips based on a new architecture have typically boasted CPU improvements of up to 20 percent.
The expectations around Zen are high, and the likelihood of it being a flop is unlikely, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.
“If it shows well, we’ll be going back to 1997 or 2006 when AMD was competitive with Intel,” McCarron said.
If that doesn’t happen, it’ll likely be business as usual for AMD, McCarron said.
A strong start is important for AMD, and early adopters of Zen will be the committed user base of enthusiast and gamers who are AMD loyalists.
AMD Ryzen PCs at CES 2017.
AMD’s first Zen-based Ryzen chips are coming in March to high-end desktops. Systems and motherboards will be available right away, Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, said during an earnings call.
The first Ryzen chips will initially compete with Intel chips like Core i5 and i7, Su said. Eventually, AMD will release a full complement of Ryzen chips to take on all Intel desktop chips.
“What we’ll see is some pent-up demand from them in the early launch,” McCarron said. Some AMD loyalists who held off PC purchases will quickly pick up Ryzen chips for gaming desktops.
