AMD and Microsoft have introduced Project Zenith, a ready-to-code Windows 11 experience designed to help developers start building local AI applications faster on the AMD Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform.
First announced at IFA 2026, Project Zenith is now available pre-installed on the new Ryzen AI Halo powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 processor. Support for other Ryzen AI Max-powered devices is expected to follow.
The developer-ready Windows 11 environment comes with commonly used development tools, including Visual Studio Code, Git, GitHub CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Azure CLI, Python, Node.js, .NET, PowerShell 7 and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). It also includes optimized Windows settings to reduce initial configuration time.
AMD complements the experience with its Ryzen AI Developer Center, validated software configurations and AI Playbooks offering guided workflows for local AI development. These include running large language models (LLMs) using PyTorch and AMD ROCm, generating images through ComfyUI, developing with Qwen3-Coder in VS Code, serving LLMs through LM Studio, and automating workflows using n8n and local language models.
The Ryzen AI Halo platform combines CPU, GPU and AI acceleration with up to 192GB of unified memory, including up to 160GB available for graphics, and memory bandwidth of up to 273GB/s. AMD says the platform can accommodate models with up to 300 billion parameters, supporting larger AI models, longer contexts and multi-model workflows running locally.
Built on the x86 architecture, the platform also maintains compatibility with existing applications and development workflows, allowing developers to customize their environments and choose between local and cloud-based AI computing.
Developers who already own a Ryzen AI Halo with Windows installed can configure a similar environment through Microsoft’s Windows Developer Config on GitHub.
