AMD's Zen, the codename for an upcoming computer processor, may arrive in 2016, but mass availability is slated for 2017.

It's been a while for Zen, since it was made widely known in mid-2015. The upcoming computer processor is shaping up to be the best CPU from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in more than a decade, and the AMD enthusiasts are hungry to get their hands on a desktop with the chip.

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, stated during an earnings call that high-end desktops with Zen will be available, but in limited volume towards the end of this year's fourth quarter. Su also said that the number of available Zen-based desktops will be determined on how testing of the chips goes and if PC makers are ready to ship the machines, according to PC World.

The multinational semiconductor company claimed major advancements with Zen such as 40 percent improvement in instructions-per-clock (IPC) as well as a metric for CPU performance.

AMD has a huge detailed proposal for the enthusiast segment, as the upcoming processor will best represent how far the firm has come with its CPU and GPU technologies. But, if the processor flops, it will be disastrous for the company considering the amount of resources put into its development.

However, the most interesting part of the upcoming AMD processor stems from the idle performance of the Zen chips. Reportedly, the Zen chips idle with a clock speed of 550 MHz, in which it delivers a low power state of 2.5W and 5W for the Quad and Octo-core central processing unit (CPU).

That's technically a low idle power, especially given that the previous CPU architecture of AMD draws some 30W even at idle. The Core i7-6700K's 3.5W might look pretty good, but the quad-core chip of Zen processor might even better that, PC Games reported.

Watch the video of the specs of Zen here:

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Topics AMD