Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today expanded its chip lineup with the introduction of the Ryzen Pro 4000 series, which it touts as the industry’s first family of seven-nanometer central processing units for business laptops.

The smaller transistor size is not the only highlight. AMD has equipped the chips with a memory encryption mechanism to block hacking attempts, as well as administration features to help enterprises manage large fleets of employee laptops.

Headlining the Ryzen Pro 4000 series is the eight-core Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U, which has a 1.7-gigahertz base frequency that can go all the way up to 4.2GHz. It’s capable of running up to 16 threads at once. AMD claims that the CPU provides more than twice the performance of Intel Corp.’s comparable Core i7-10510U for multithreaded use cases, such as when a worker is running a complex professional application or has multiple programs open. Single-thread performance is about the same.

“For business environments that use the Microsoft Office suite, this also translates to an improved experience during typical office productivity tasks,” AMD product marketing manager David Tjong wrote in a blog post. He detailed that compared with previous generation Ryzen Pro chips, the 4750U offers “from up to 19% improvement in light applications such as Microsoft Word, to up to 77% faster in more demanding applications like Excel.” 

The 4750U is joined by two smaller chips: the six-core Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U and four-core Ryzen 3 Pro 4450U. They have higher base frequencies of 2.1GHz and 2.5GHz, respectively, but the top frequency is lower than that of the eight-core flagship.

AMD has equipped all three CPUs with a technology called AMD Memory Guard that can encrypt a laptop’s entire memory pool. The feature is designed to prevent data breaches in situations where a hacker gains physical access to an employee’s laptop. According to the chipmaker, the fact that everything is encrypted means attackers can’t read the user’s data if they attempt to directly extract it from the memory card inside the targeted machine.

The feature is one of several AMD has introduced to make laptops powered by Ryzen Pro chips easier to manage for information technology teams. Also new is an integration with Endpoint Manager, Microsoft Corp.’s platform for managing Windows business computers. AMD also said it will make Ryzen Pro 4000 chips available for purchase through 2022, even after it releases newer CPUs, so enterprises can procure replacement laptops more easily.

The first machines to feature the new CPUs are expected to hit the market this quarter. Lenovo Group Ltd. plans to launch four Ryzen Pro 400-powered laptops, while HP Inc. is readying two. 

Photo: AMD