Five years ago, it seemed unlikely that AMD would be able to compete with rival Intel for the process lead, and that is exactly what has happened. It's not the original Zen architecture, but the shift to 7 nanometers with the introduction of Zen 2 last year; how long AMD can maintain its lead remains to be seen, but looking to the future, there is reason to be optimistic - even excited - about AMD's eventual shift to 5nm.

It's a bit of a rabbit hole to go down, but for those interested in the manufacturing side, WikiChips (via Hardware.Info) has an interesting article on TSMC's direction. TSMC, by the way, is AMD's primary manufacturing partner. And soon (if not yet), AMD will reportedly be TSMC's largest customer for 7nm silicon.

The very short version of this mechanism, which is relevant here, is that AMD designs the processors and TSMC (primarily) manufactures them; there was a time when AMD manufactured its own silicon (primarily) as Intel does, but those days are in the past.

As for 5nm manufacturing, TSMC is already in the early stages and will begin initial production later this year. These are essentially prototype designs. This is an interesting point. [At IEDM, TSMC reported a 1.84x increase in the density of their N7 node. Our estimate was 1.87x, and it is close to that; according to WikiChips, "It has been exactly two years since TSMC launched its 7-nanonode in April.

The 84-87% increase in transistor density over current 7nm designs is significant. Transistor density has traditionally been considered an indicator of overall performance, but it is more complex than that and is where the rabbit hole runs deep if you want to look into the web.

What does this mean for Intel? In a recent webcast, Intel CFO George Davis acknowledged that AMD is leading at the node and Intel needs to "accelerate the overlap" between the 10nm and 7nm nodes and between 7nm and 5nm to "regain processor leadership." He stated. More plainly, Intel does not envision taking the lead again until 7nm and/or 5nm components are available.

As for Intel's 10nm manufacturing, we have seen some parts on the mobile side (Ice Lake), but 10nm desktop CPUs are still waiting. However, Davis also stated that 10nm "will not be as strong a node as people expect from 14nm or 7nm" in terms of yield.

In conclusion, AMD appears to be on a roll now and at least for the next few years.