The bruising Intel-AMD chip showdown will only continue in the next few years as reports emerged that a re-work of Intel's x86 chip architecture is now underway and by 2019 or 2020 the new CPU class will be ready to take on AMD's Zen-based processors. Specifically, the next-gen Intel uArch is seen to stop the Ryzen Summit Ridge chip on its track.
"Intel is studying a new uArch in order to replace the current x86 uArchs in Desktop and Enterprise market," Bitsandchips.it reported. The same report indicated that the reengineered x86 chips will collide head-on with the AMD Zen chip architecture as the Intel uArch will make use of the same approach employed by AMD with the Zen platform.
Essentially, there will be "perfect balance of power consumption, performance and price," the report added, somehow indicating that part of Intel's plan is to make the next-generation x86 chips fully optimized for desktop and mobile settings while keeping the price point reasonably affordable.
It appears too that when the reworked x86 chips will be the faster and leaner versions of their predecessors. "In order to save physical space (Smaller Die) and to improve the power consumption/performance ratio, Intel will throw away some old SIMD and old hardware remainders," Bitsandchips.it added on its report.
Intel was also reported to move away from the general design of x86 chips being backward compatible with older hardware but the purported handicap would be resolved using emulators. The chipmaker it seems is more concerned on making the new x86 chips work on both Intel and AMD platforms.
"Intel will be able to develop a thin and fast x86 uArch, and ICC will be able to optimize the code both for ARM and for x86 as well," the report said.
Picking up on the same report, WCCFTech said Intel's "lean and mean approach to x86" will bump off the Core chip series that likely will make the Tiger Lake, rumored to debut in 2019, the last iteration. "This would be a pretty huge move since an update is long overdue," the report said.
Intel's intent to jump to a new architecture seems to have been hinted by the arrival of Skylake, which obviously highlighted the chipmaker's "focus on mobile and energy efficiency," WCCFTech added on its report.
The new x86 uArchs when realized are seen to be introduced sometime in 2019 but wider implementation is not expected until 2020.