AMD presented its CPU series in May 2023 Ryzen 7040U designed for the thinnest and lightest notebooks: this range of processors was known by the code name of Phoenix. In the catalog of the Sunnyvale company, chips such as the Ryzen 7 7840U (8 cores, 16 threads) and the Ryzen 5 7640U (6 cores, 12 threads) stand out, especially due to the integration of the NPU for artificial intelligence and inference activities in the local context.
The new Ryzen 7040U CPUs with Core Zen 4c
The news, just revealed by AMD spokespersons, consists in the release of new Ryzen 7040U processors based on the use of core Zen 4c, smaller and highly optimized. These Zen 4c cores, previously leveraged in EPYC 97×4 Bergamo processors for data center systems and “native cloud“, are now debuting on the market consumer within a range of chips intended for laptop.
The first Ryzen 7040U processor with Zen 4c core is the Ryzen 5 7545U: Shares similar specs to the existing Ryzen 7540U, but sports two full Zen 4 cores alongside four more compact Zen 4c cores. The second novelty is the Ryzen 3 7440U, direct successor to the processor of the same name, which replaces most of the original Zen 4 cores with the Zen 4c. In this case there could be some confusion, given the identical nomenclature.
Features of Zen 4c cores
On the occasion of the launch of the Bergamo CPUs, AMD explained that the “c” in Zen 4c stands for “Cloud“. Today’s choice to use the same cores for processors intended for the lower-end consumer segment therefore becomes particularly interesting.
The Zen 4c cores share the main ones characteristics of the Zen 4 cores, but with smaller dimensions. They are compact cores that sacrifice clock frequencies higher due to a reduced area. However, without giving up theenergy efficiency.
Suffice it to say that the Zen 4c cores each measure just 2.48 mm²: that is, they are 35% smaller than their Zen 4 “big brothers”. greater density It allows AMD to pack more Zen 4c cores into the same space or fit the same number of CPU cores into an overall smaller, cheaper chip. The TDP itself can be 15W or less.
The monolithic Phoenix 2 die
The new Ryzen 7040U family processors are referred to as Phoenix 2to underline that it is a cheaper version of the die original Phoenix with fewer functional blocks. The aforementioned Ryzen 5 7545U maintains a frequency of turbo boost equal to 4.9 GHz, with a shared L3 cache of 16 MB. The Ryzen 3 7440U offers a single Zen 4 core and three Zen 4c cores, with a turbo boost frequency of 4.7GHz and a shared L3 cache of 8MB.
AMD did not provide full details regarding the clock speed of the Zen 4c cores, revealing only the maximum turbo frequency for the standard Zen 4 cores and the base frequency for the entire chip.
The new Ryzen 7040U CPUs with Zen 4c cores represent ainteresting evolution in the thin and light laptop processor market. The optimization activity that looks at energy efficiency offers a renewed perspective and opens up new possibilities for the ultrabook industry.
The opening image is from AMD.
