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Rumored AMD Zen chipset design issues could raise costs for motherboard makers

By Koh Wanzi - on 22 Jun 2016, 2:05pm

Rumored AMD Zen chipset design issues could raise costs for motherboard makers

According to a recent DigiTimes report, AMD’s new chipset for its upcoming Zen processors is facing design issues that could increase costs for motherboard manufacturers.

The increase has been pegged to around US$2 to US$5, and have surfaced in spite of the reportedly stable development and satisfactory yield rate of Zen processors. The problem lies with chipsets designed by ASMedia, to which AMD outsourced the R&D aspect of its chipset design.

The issue revolves around USB 3.1, where data transmission speeds drop drastically as circuit distance increases. This means that board manufacturers will have to add additional retimer and redriver chips, or even an independent USB 3.1 IC, in order to avoid any performance degradation. These additional components are then responsible for the extra costs.

AMD is said to be wary of the impact this could have on board partners’ demand for the Zen chipset in the face of a weakening PC market, which has led it to consider acquiring retimer and redriver chips from third-party suppliers to sell alongside its Zen chipset.

Having said that, AMD has since confirmed that Zen is on track, but refused to comment on customer-specific board-level solutions. On ASMedia’s part, the company denied that there were issues, saying that it was purely a market rumor.

AMD is expected to begin mass production of its Zen CPUs in the fourth quarter of this year.

Source: DigiTimes

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