With Zen 5, AMD, like Intel, is planning both performance cores (Zen 5) and efficient cores (Zen 5C). However, the number of CCDs (Core Chiplet Die) containing these efficient models could seriously increase, enabling CPUs with up to 192 cores!
Zen 5C: 192-core CPUs possible!
As such, the number of cores per CCD is unlikely to increase. Currently, Zen 4 allows the integration of twelve eight-core CCDs, compared with eight 16-core Zen 4C CCDs. With Zen 5/C, CCD size should decrease due to smaller cores. Thanks to their smaller size, the number of CCDs could be increased.
Thus, in Zen 5, we could see processors equipped with sixteen CCDs each containing 8 cores. However, with Zen 5C, the number of dies could rise to 12, each with 16 cores. All in all, this means CPUs with a total of 192 cores.
Of course, chips with that many cores wouldn’t be much use for everyday tasks. No, we’re talking here about configurations for server/workstation platforms, with Epyc/Ryzen Pro or even Threadripper processors.
With Zen 6, @Kepler_L2 on Twitter tells us that the number of cores per CCD could vary. CCDs could have 8/16/32 cores. Depending on requirements, CPUs with 64 cores on two CCDs could be produced, for example. Once again, for the maximum number of cores, we’ll have to look at Zen 6C, for which we have no information as yet.
