AMD has unveiled the first generation of Epyc, its new range of server processors built around its Zen architecture. Processors will range from the Epyc 7251 — an eight-core, 16-thread chip running at 2.1 to 2.9GHz in a 120W power envelope — up to the Epyc 7601: a 32-core, 64-thread monster running at 2.2 to 3.2GHz, with a 180W design power. From a report: These chips are built on the same fundamental architecture as the company’s Ryzen CPU cores, and they’re aimed at the incredibly powerful data center market. AMD’s 32-core / 64-thread Epyc CPUs combine four eight-core dies, each connected to the other via the company’s Infinity Fabric. According to AMD, this approach is significantly cheaper than trying to pack 32 cores into a single monolithic die — that approach would leave the company potentially throwing away huge amounts of silicon during its production ramp. The Infinity Fabric is deliberately over-provisioned to minimize any problems with non-NUMA aware software, according to Anandtech. Each 32-core Epyc CPU will support eight memory channels and two DIMMs per channel, for a total maximum memory capacity of 2TB per socket, or 4TB of RAM in a two-socket system. Each CPU will also offer 128 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 support — enough to connect up to six GPUs at x16 each with room left over for I/O support. That’s in a one-socket system, mind you. In a two-socket system, the total number of available PCI Express 3.0 lanes is unchanged, at 128 (64 PCIe 3.0 lanes are used to handle CPU — CPU communication). Anandtech has a longer writeup with more details on the CPUs power efficiency and TDP scaling. Further reading: ZDNet, press release.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – AMD Looks To ‘Crush’ Intel’s Xeon With New Epyc Server Chips