We sure hope AMD’s a lot better at creating next-generation microprocessors than it is at plugging up leaks, because yet another internal financial slide has emerged from the chip giant. This time around it’s AMD’s 2015-2016 desktop roadmap, showing us the plans Nvidia has for the coming years.
For 2015 this includes 2nd generation FX Piledriver CPUs for the performance market, the upcoming Godavari APUs, and the small form factor SoC Beema APUs. Whether things get interesting though is heading into 2016, with a clean sweep of chips fabricated using the 14nm process, including the Summit Ridge CPU, Bristol Ridge APU, and the Basilisk APU.

The entirety of AMD's 2016 processor range will be based on the Zen micro-architecture, from performance desktops all the way down to he ultra-low power Styx mobility APUs. Summit Ridge looks to be the big performer, packing in 8 Zen CPU cores and delivering what should be some hefty performance. This will be supplemented by quad-core Bristol Ridge APUs for general desktop and gaming, and the dual-core Basilisk APU for small form factor PCs.
Recent leaks have suggested Summit Ridge will have the eight 'Zen' cores, 4MB L2 Cache, 16MB L3 Cache (8MB per set of four cores), DDR4 memory support and PCIe 3.0, all using AMD's new Socket FM3 form factor. On initial impressions it looks like this is designed to go toe-to-toe with Intel's upcoming high-end 6th generation Core Skylake processors.
Bristol Ridge meanwhile looks to essentially be a cut in half Summer Ridge, albeit with integrated next-generation 'Greenland' GCN graphics. To that end the Bristol Ridge APU will have four Zen cores, 2MB L2 Cache, 8MB L3 Cache, DDR4 memory support and PCIe 3.0, again on Socket FM3. Intriguingly the 'Greenland' GCN integrated graphics will support heterogeneous system architecture (HSA) 3D stacked memory for blisteringly fast speed.

AMD 2015-2016 Desktop Roadmap



AMD 2015-2016 Desktop Roadmap



We'll likely see a lot more of these in the coming weeks, when this confidential internal document's embargo lifts on May 6th. So far AMD's plans look extremely promising, but has it got what it takes to claw back territory from Intel? Could 2016 be a landmark year for AMD, particularly in conjunction with its upcoming R9 300 series graphics cards?