AMD Ryzen 5 7545U laptop processor with a Zen 4c plus Zen 4 hybrid architecture announced

Zen 4c design

• A Zen 4 core takes up 3.84mm2 on the die but a Zen 4c core is only about 2.48mm2 in size. That is about 35 percent less area.
• Zen 4c uses half the L3 cache compared to Zen 4. However, this doesn’t seem to be the reason behind its smaller space consumption.
• Apparently, the reason behind a smaller size is the lower max clock speed of Zen 4c. Lower frequency means fewer chances of interference and power leakages. This in turn lets the chipmaker optimise the core layout for density. 

• Increased density endows better latency and more power efficiency. 
• AMD aims for Zen 4c with the same IPC and instruction set as Zen 4 to use less power and to give more performance below 15W.

AMD Ryzen 5 7545U specs

• AMD Ryzen 5 7545U is manufactured on TSMC’s 5nm node.
• It consists of 2x Zen 4 cores and 4x Zen 4c cores. AMD expects a combination of performance and efficiency from this setup.
• The Zen 4 cores are prioritized in the OS scheduler for a higher absolute frequency.

• The combined 6-core layout is backed by 12 threads.
• The chip can run up to a max clock speed of 4.9GHz and a base clock speed of 3.2GHz.
• It works in a 15-30 TDP (Thermal Design Power). 
• For graphics, the chip comes with a Radeon 740M integrated GPU.

The company plans to use the smaller Zen 4c cores in premium laptops (with increased core count) as well as entry-level laptops (as it offers the same IPC with smaller cores).

AMD is yet to reveal the availability, price, and other details about the new chip. We shall keep you posted once we have them.