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7nm AMD EPYC "Rome" CPU w/ 64C/128T to Cost $8K (56 Core Intel Xeon: $25K-50K)
Yesterday, we shared the core and thread counts of AMD's Zen 2 based Epyc lineup, with the lowest-end chip going as low as 8 cores while the top-end 7742 boasting 64 and double the threads. Today, the prices of these server parts have also surfaced, and it seems like they are going to be quite a bit cheaper than the competing Intel Xeon Platinum processors.
The top-end Epyc 7742 with a TDP of 225W (128 threads @ 3.4GHz) is said to sell for a bit less than $8K, while the lower clocked 7702 and 7702P (single-socket) are going to cost $7,215 and $4,955 (just) respectively. That's quite impressive, you're getting 64 Zen 2 cores for just $5,000, while on the other hand Intel's 28-core Xeon Platinum 8280 costs a whopping $18K and is half as powerful.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 24 2019, @10:40AM (1 child)
If the production problems get worked out and there is an actual push to use diamond in various ways, you will see companies like Samsung build their own facilities.
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday June 25 2019, @01:13AM
As I recall, the big problem is that for building reliable CPUs you want an atomically flawless diamond with no lattice discontinuities that would interfere with its electrical properties, so you need to grow a single wafer-diameter crystal from a tiny flawless seed. And, at least for the vapor deposition technologies being used 20-25 years ago, you could only grow flawless crystal in one direction, while the cross-section would slowly increase over time as it grew in very slight "cone" shape, only widening at a fraction of a percent of the speed in the primary growth direction. At the time they were projecting that it would take them around 15-20 years before their crystals were wide enough to be worth using as semiconductor wafers.
Unless the technology has fundamentally changed, that means that the only way Samsung could build such a facility would be if they could get their hands on a flawless diamond wafer from one of the existing diamond-growing companies to act as a seed.