TECH TALK
AMD Seeking Zen, Round Four
THE PROCESSOR DEVELOPMENT cycle takes a long time, from initial goals and planning through early simulations and hardware revisions. When AMD started working on the Zen 4 architecture, switching to a DDR5- exclusive memory controller probably seemed like a sensible choice.
Jarred Walton
© AMD
Now, after the supply chain disruptions of the past two years, requiring DDR5 memory for socket AM5 could prove a serious liability. Just like Intel was the first to support DDR3 and DDR4 memory, Intel started supporting DDR5 and LPDDR5 with Alder Lake in late 2021. In theory, the transition to DDR5 should be underway by the fall, with improving supply and decreasing prices. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone quite according to plan.