[11] Mike Clark, AMD Zen Chief Architect

Mike Clark discusses his career at AMD, the origin and development of the Zen CPU architecture, and the future of processor design.

Ian Interviews #11: Mike Clark, AMD Zen Chief Architect We've heard from the Uncle of Zen, now it's time to hear from the father of Zen himself. Mike Clark is a Corporate Fellow at AMD, and has had his hands in almost every CPU from AMD since K5. He finished university in 1993 to work at AMD, and has been there ever since. Time to ask him about the Zen story, CPU design, and the future of AMD. Written version: anandtech.com/show/17031/anandtech-interviews-mike-clark-amd… 00:00 Intro 00:40 Q1: Work History 05:22 Q2: When did Zen really start? 08:13 Q3: Ability to Pivot 09:17 Q4: Zen Funding during AMD Struggles 11:16 Q5: 8am Meetings with Keller 14:40 Q6: Father of Zen? 16:27 Q7: The Naming of Zen and Ryzen 19:06 Q8: About Skybridge 20:59 Q9: Sign-off and Low Hanging Fruit 24:46 Q10: More Money, More Roadmaps? 26:06 Q11: Zen 5, or Zen 8? 27:00 Q12: Zen A0 Silicon Getting Chilly 29:17 Q13: How Do You Find That Out? 31:08 Q14: Core Decode Width Limits in x86 32:52 Q15: Predicting workloads 4+ years out 34:28 Q16: What's the right amount of cache? 36:55 Q17: Virtual L3 considerations? 38:08 Q18: Stacked L3 Cache 39:44 Q19: Machine Learning in EDA Tools 40:38 Q20: How big can a CCX be? 43:27 Q21: Will Xilinx acquisition change Ryzen? 44:17 Q22: Limits of modern IPC on x86 48:16 Q23: Scalable Cores vs Hybrid Designs 49:54 Q24: What should users look forward to? Mike Tuuk: linkedin.com/in/michael-tuuk-9846419 Tim Wilkens: linkedin.com/in/tim-wilkens-91169a Jay Fleischman: linkedin.com/in/jay-fleischman-8421bb6 Leslie Barnes: linkedin.com/in/leslie-barnes-a2557b3 Will Walker: linkedin.com/in/will-walker-2322022/ Welcome to the TechTechPotato (c) Dr. Ian Cutress Ramblings about things related to Technology from an analyst Patreon helps support this channel: patreon.com/TechTechPotato Join the TechTechPotato Discord! All we ask is you sign up for Patreon for as little as $1.50 a month and your account will be linked - it only has to happen once, and then you can cancel if you wish. Come chat and hang out! Support the channel by hitting that subscribe button, or using our Amazon affiliate link. Please note that TTP may receive a commission if you purchase anything through these links AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (16C/32T): geni.us/5950X AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (12C/24T): geni.us/5900X AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (8C/16T): geni.us/5800X AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (6C/12T): geni.us/5600X AMD Ryzen 9 3950X (16C/32T): geni.us/Bench2020-3950x AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8C/16T): geni.us/Bench2020-3700x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (6C/12T): geni.us/d08ThJ4 Follow Ian on Twitter at twitter.com/IanCutress Follow TechTechPotato on Twitter at twitter.com/TechTechPotato #techtechpotato #amd #zen