A Phoronix reader recently spotted a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe engineer spending time to clean up and improve the “znver1” AMD first generation Zen support in the LLVM compiler. What is a compiler? A compiler is a software development tool which turns human readable programming code into executable binaries. These binaries are the actual applications which the user can run.
As we all know, current Sony PlayStation 4 consoles are built around a custom AMD ‘Jaguar’ CPU with GCN Radeon graphics. The fact that Sony engineers are working on how to improve performance for Zen CPUs hints at a possible Zen design win for AMD. Building Sony’s next generation console CPU/GPU combo, wil be a major boost for AMDs future.
Zen & Navi
Other sources also speak of a Zen & ‘Navi’ based system scheduled for release in 2020. Why the long wait? In order to have games ready in time for launch, developers usually are given the development kit well in advance, usually two years.