Core architecture improvements are AMD's greatest leverage for Zen 3 and beyond, according to CEO Lisa Su

We already know that AMD has its Zen 5 architecture in development, while Zen 3 may offer anywhere from 8% higher instructions per cycle (IPC) than Zen 2. However, now AMD CEO Lisa Su has stated that the company is focussing on more than just process improvements with Zen 3 and beyond.

According to a transcript posted to Seeking Alpha, Su informed people during AMD's Q3 Earnings Call that:

Going forward, we are not relying on process technology as the main driver. We think process technology is necessary. It’s necessary to be sort of at the leading edge of process technology. And so, today, 7-nanometer is a great node, and we’re getting a lot of benefit from it. We will transition to the 5-nanometer node at the appropriate time and get great benefit from that as well. But we’re doing a lot in architecture. And I would say, that the architecture is where we believe the highest leverage is for our product portfolio going forward.

Su's comments correlate with rumors that have been circulating in the last few months, which have not been process tech-related. It remains to be seen whether Zen 3 processors will support up to four threads per core or will have more cores per chiplet and more L3 cache than Zen 2, or whether these will amount to mere rumors. The excerpt above already has us excited about what Zen 3 will offer, though.