3.2 Zen: A next-generation high-performance ×86 core

Abstract

Codenamed “Zen”, AMD's next-generation, high-performance ×86 core targets server, desktop, and mobile client applications. Utilizing Global Foundries' energy-efficient 14nm LPP FinFET process, the 44mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> Zen core complex unit (CCX) has 1.4B transistors and contains a shared 8MB L3 cache and four cores (Fig. 3.2.7). The 7mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> Zen core contains a dedicated 0.5MB L2 cache, 32KB L1 data cache, and 64KB L1 instruction cache. Each core has a digital low drop-out (LDO) voltage regulator and digital frequency synthesizer (DFS) to independently vary frequency and voltage across power states.