With the increasing hype being built around AMD's upcoming Zen architecture, many tech analysts agree that it could revive the rivalry between itself and Intel in terms of the server chip business. AMD recently said that it is rebooting its server chip business with its upcoming Zen CPU architecture.
In order to make Zen stand out on top of the rest, AMD is planning to merge the CPU block with a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) in order to create a powerful microchip that can easily handle high-performance tasks.
In a statement acquired by PC World, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su said, "It's fair to say we do believe we can combine a high-performance CPU with the high-performance GPU. It's an area where combining the technologies makes a lot of sense."
There are reports claiming that AMD is planning to combine a CPU based on the Zen architecture and a GPU based on the upcoming Vega architecture. While this possibility offers a lot of interesting facts, AMD has yet to confirm whether it is bringing this vision into reality.
In case AMD takes this route, it will not be the first time the company has built an ultra-powerful chip. The company has already combined full-featured CPUs and GPUs on especially made-to-order chips that are at the heart of the current-generation consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. For instance, at the heart of the Xbox One console is a 5-billion transistor chip composed of an octa-core AMD CPU codenamed Jaguar, and a Radeon graphics processor.
Regarding AMD's server plans, the company is rumored to have reverted back to the x86 architecture. The first server chips with Zen architecture are expected to hit the market within the first half of 2017. Su said that the chips are currently tested in dual-socket systems coming from several vendors and that results are impressive.
According to Fudzilla, notable server manufacturers like Lenovo and HP are looking forward to the alternatives that the AMD Zen can offer, especially in the market that is currently flooded with Intel Xeon processors.
