COMPORGA LAB

Computer Architecture and Organization

Laboratory
03
Group # : ____________________ Date: __________________
Members:_______________________________ Rating: _________________
_______________________________ Attendance Monitoring:
Date Absent
Experiment #3: __________ _____________
__________ _____________
Computer Architecture __________ _____________
Case Study __________ _____________

Instruction:

Create a study on modern computer system architectures focusing on its components, framework, data
processing and system designs.

The Ever-Evolving AMD Zen Architecture

Introduction:

 Zen+ (Zen Plus) is the successor to Zen, a 12 nm microarchitecture designed by AMD and
introduced in 2018 for the mainstream PC, enthusiast, and server markets. Zen+ was succeeded by
Zen 2 in 2019. Zen+ based processors are sold under the brand 2nd-Generation Ryzen and 2nd-
Generation Thread ripper.

Process Technology
 Zen+ is manufactured on Global Foundries' 12 nm process Leading-Performance (12LP), an
enhanced version of their 14nm process. The enhanced process provides up to 15% higher density
or up to 10% higher performance. 12LP brings around a 10% frequency bump for the Ryzen lineup
at the same power envelopes. Note that AMD did not switch to standard libraries and instead chose
to get whatever added performance they could get from the same physical design as 14 nm. This
also means some performance was left on the table and the die size is exactly the same as Zen.

Release Date:

 AMD launched 2nd generation Ryzen on the 19th April of 2018. 2nd Generation Ryzen Thread
ripper was introduced in August 2018 and Ryzen PRO processors has launched in the second half
of 2018.

Architecture:
Features:

 10% higher clock frequency

 3% single-thread IPC improvement
 12 nm process (from 14 nm)
 Precision Boost 2 (from Precision Boost)
 Precision Boost Overdrive
 XFR 2 (from XFR 1)
 Cache
 Improved cache prefetch
 12 cycle L2 latency for mainstream desktop (from 17 cycles)
 Memory
 Higher DDR4 transfer rate (2933 MT/s from 2666 MT/s)
 Mainstream chipsets (See § Sockets/Platform)
 X370 → X470
 New Store MI Technology
 Lower Power
 Bug fixes
 OEM related issues resolved (unspecified)
 Family
 Thread ripper: 2x cores (up to 32, from 16)

What are the updates now?

Introduction of the Newest AMD architecture

Zen 3 is the codename for a CPU microarchitecture by AMD, released on November 5, 2020. It is the
successor to Zen 2 and uses TSMC's 7 nm process for the chiplets and GlobalFoundries's 14 nm process for
the I/O die on the server chips and 12 nm for desktop chips.

Zen 3 is expected to be the last microarchitecture before AMD switches to DDR5 memory and new sockets.
According to AMD, Zen 3 has a 19% higher instructions per cycle (IPC) on average than Zen 2.

The Architecture

The new Zen3 core still exhibits quite a few defining characteristics of the previous generation designs, I
think that AMD’s take on a “complete redesign” is more akin to a deconstruction and reconstruction of the
core’s building blocks, much like you’d dismantle a LEGO set and rebuild it anew. In this case, Zen3 seems
to be a set-piece both with new building blocks, but also leveraging set pieces and RTL that they’ve used
before in Zen2.

AMD’s main design goals for Zen3 hovered around three main points:

- Delivering another significant generational single-threaded performance increase. AMD did not want to be
relegated to top performance only in scenarios where workloads would be spread across all the cores. The
company wanted to catch up and be an undisputed leader in this area to be able to claim an uncontested
position in the market.

- Latency improvements, both in terms of memory latency, achieved through a reduction in effective
memory latency through more cache-hits thanks to the doubled 32MB L3 that an individual core can take
advantage of, as well as core-to-core latency which again thanks to the consolidated single L3 cache on the
die is able to reduce long travel times across the dies.

- Continuing a power efficiency leadership: Although the new Zen3 cores still use the same base N7
process node from TSMC (although with incremental design improvements), AMD had a constraint of not
increasing power consumption for the platform. This means that any new performance increases would
have to come through simultaneous power efficiency improvements of the microarchitecture.

New Key Features of the Zen 3

 The Zen 3 now has 2x Larger L1 Cache

 Faster Op-Cache Fetches
 Higher Load and Store bandwidth
 Faster Cycles
 Reduces Latency
 More Flexibility
 Improved memory dependence detection
 The L1 Branch Target Buffer (BTB) has also been doubled from 512 to 1,024
 The number of load/stores has also been increased from 2 Loads + 1 Store to 3 Loads or 2 Stores.
The Zen 3 Cache Hierarchy
 The L2 private caches are now faster and more direct than ever.
 L3 now accepts duplicated of L2 tags
 L3 cache is now shared along all 8 cores rather that 4 cores.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_3

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16214/amd-zen-3-ryzen-deep-dive-review-5950x-5900x-5800x-and-
5700x-tested/2

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/zen-core-3

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/amd-ryzen-5000-zen-3-architectural-deep-dive/