AMD Zen 7 CCD tipped to arrive with TSMC’s cutting-edge A14 node

Even though Zen 6 is yet to surface, leaks have already started talking about its successor: Zen 7. Moore’s Law is Dead predicted it would first surface sometime in 2027-28 with new Epyc CPUs codenamed Florence, complete with a top-spec SKU with a whopping 288 physical cores.

Consumer Zen 8 CPUs should ideally launch a year later. Taiwanese news outlet Commercial Times has now tacitly confirmed yet another Zen 7 spec foretold by Tom. For starters, it states a Zen 7 CCD can support up to 16 cores and 224 MB of L3 cache with a 3D V-cache tile. 

AMD plans to use TSMC’s A14 node for its Zen 7 CCD, codenamed Grimlock. Unlike Intel 18A and newer nodes, TSMC A14 won’t support backside power delivery. That upgrade is expected to arrive in a subsequent node revision.  The exact details about how 14A improves upon current-gen nodes like N2 and N2X are unclear. Zen 7 will also leverage cutting-edge tech like FOPLP (Fan-Out Panel-Level Packaging) to enable more efficient operation. 

If true, it will be one of the first major players to fabricate its high-end chips on TSMC A14, joining the likes of Apple and likely Qualcomm. However, not all Zen 7 parts may be made on 14A, or, for that matter, even at TSMC. Jukan, a South Korean analyst, hints that Samsung Foundry has won some orders from AMD, likely for laptop CPUs.

Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume some non-critical components, such as the IO die and Infinity Fabric, could be manufactured on Samsung production lines. A14 wafers won’t be cheap, and AMD will definitely look for ways to keep overall costs low, lest it run the risk of being undercut by Intel’s 14A products.