AMD's Zen-based AM4 socket puts an end to multi-socket issues

AMD's upcoming socket AM4 platform will have one socket, not many.

@anthony256

Published Jan 9, 2016 3:07 PM CST
Updated Nov 3, 2020 12:02 PM CST

32 seconds read time

CES 2016 - AMD unveiled their new Wraith cooler at CES 2016, but had some more surprising news: that their upcoming socket AM4 platform will have a single socket. Yes! A single socket.

AMD's Zen-based AM4 socket puts an end to multi-socket issues | TweakTown.com

This means that there will only be one socket to choose from for the Zen-based CPUs and APUs, bringing their platform into unison. Right now, both AMD and Intel's sockets are fragmented, but everything goes into one path with AM4 which is just so great - not just for consumers, but for system builders, too.

As for Zen, AMD is promising 40% more instructions per clock than the current Excavator cores, by utilizing simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) architecture, that is similar to the way Intel does things with its Core series, compared to the cluster-based multi-threading (CMT) approach.

Anthony Garreffa

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.