AMD's slides that give details about its Zen Architecture have been leaked online by a Japanese website. The slides reveal a substantial improvement from previous Bulldozer generation and other technologies to eliminate stalls and optimize performance now with a 40 percent boost. All these information suggest that AMD is no longer at an architectural disadvantage and ready to topple Intel's Skylake.

Earlier this month, AMD has brought a few slides to the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCD) that the Japanese have just leaked online. They bring detailed information about the AMD Zen architecture, which has undergone marked improvements from its predecessor, the Bulldozer that AMD has been using since 2011. The leaked die shot reveals that it has replaced the two integer engines of Bulldozer to just one integer and one floating unit per individual core.

AMD has also improved the Neural Net Prediction technology in its latest Zen architecture. This is the technology which increases performance and reduces processing time by making smart predictions ahead of time on what a branch in a program's code will do. If the prediction is right then the code is executed speedily, but when wrong, the system can stall. AMD now has a dedicated huge amount of data to train and retrain its new branch prediction to prevent stalls in the pipeline, Hot Hardware has learned.

There is also an interesting detail about the 14nm FinFET technology used in the AMD Zen architecture as compared with Intel's Skylake. The Japanese have learned that Intel's process is denser and AMD's design has lower complexity as explained in their website PC Watch. This confirms earlier benchmark results that AMD can finally compete with Intel at the CPU level.

Intel has long boasted of its superior process technology that AMD was unable to catch up until Ryzen came. The AMD Zen architecture will be using not the clustered but the Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) approach where individual core processor executes 2 threads all at once. This particular design enables single integer cluster, which in turn promote higher single-threaded performance. This supports AMD's earlier claims of achieving a 40 percent boost in terms of instructions per clock (IPC) from its predecessor.

AMD has also been working on the Precision Boost technology that can boost performance by launching on-the-fly frequency in small 25MHz increments. This is complemented by the Pure Power monitoring technology that identifies when processors need a boost. The AMD Zen architecture renews the CPU market as it offers strong competition, which could mean good news for gamers as prices will be competitive too.

Earlier leaks on pricing have shown that AMD will cover the whole CPU lineup from the lowest tier to the top-tier. Previous reports say that gamers may see a glimpse of the AMD Zen architecture on Feb. 28 during the AMD's GDC 2017 event. However, the Ryzen CPUs and the Summit Ridge desktop version may be launched on March 2.

Tags Ryzen, AMD, Intel