The revolution that Alder Lake has brought to the world of x86 processors could have encouraged AMD to dare with hybrid architecture, which could be on the way sooner than expected.
AMD could be planning to introduce hybrid processors like Intel has done with Alder Lake according to indications that have been leaked in recent days.
The possibility of AMD taking this direction has come to light thanks to Phoronix, who have discovered a few changes to the SMCA driver code updates (Scalable Machine Check Architecture) for future AMD CPUs.
The applied patches add new SMCA bank types (and bug descriptions), and also make design changes, noting that:
“Future AMD systems will have different bank type arrangements between logic CPUs. Therefore, having a single cache for the entire layout system will not be correct. Future AMD systems will arrange the MCA bank types such that the bank number type may be different between CPUs.“.
Although it is something very technical, the only thing you need to know about this release is that these changes might make some sense in terms of AMD is preparing the way for a hybrid architecture.
For those who do not know that it is a hybrid architecture in processors, the general idea is summarized in that we have one set of high-performance cores for demanding tasks and another set of efficient cores for when the computer has hardly any work.
This can greatly improve processor efficiency and also allocate more power to demanding cores while low-power cores cover them from the shadows.
Of course, it must be clarified that this analysis is totally speculative, since AMD has not given any explanation in this regard or made clear changes in its architecture to accept this information as true.
Despite this, the improvement that Alder Lake has meant for Intel together with the need to launch very efficient processors would be Reason enough for AMD to dare to change its Ryzen architecture current for the next few years.