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AMD has launched its Ryzen-based take on x86 server processors to compete with Intel's Xeon CPUs. All of the Epyc 7000-series CPUs support 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes and 8 channels (2 DIMMs per channel) of DDR4-2666 DRAM:
A few weeks ago AMD announced the naming of the new line of enterprise-class processors, called EPYC, and today marks the official launch with configurations up to 32 cores and 64 threads per processor. We also got an insight into several features of the design, including the AMD Infinity Fabric.
Today's announcement of the AMD EPYC product line sees the launch of the top four CPUs, focused primarily at dual socket systems. The full EPYC stack will contain twelve processors, with three for single socket environments, with the rest of the stack being made available at the end of July. It is worth taking a few minutes to look at how these processors look under the hood.
On the package are four silicon dies, each one containing the same 8-core silicon we saw in the AMD Ryzen processors. Each silicon die has two core complexes, each of four cores, and supports two memory channels, giving a total maximum of 32 cores and 8 memory channels on an EPYC processor. The dies are connected by AMD's newest interconnect, the Infinity Fabric, which plays a key role not only in die-to-die communication but also processor-to-processor communication and within AMD's new Vega graphics. AMD designed the Infinity Fabric to be modular and scalable in order to support large GPUs and CPUs in the roadmap going forward, and states that within a single package the fabric is overprovisioned to minimize any issues with non-NUMA aware software (more on this later).
With a total of 8 memory channels, and support for 2 DIMMs per channel, AMD is quoting a 2TB per socket maximum memory support, scaling up to 4TB per system in a dual processor system. Each CPU will support 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes, suitable for six GPUs with full bandwidth support (plus IO) or up to 32 NVMe drives for storage. All the PCIe lanes can be used for IO devices, such as SATA drives or network ports, or as Infinity Fabric connections to other devices. There are also 4 IO hubs per processor for additional storage support.
AMD's slides at Ars Technica.
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:26AM (12 children)
What the shit? What's the big idea of building a CPU that badass, guys? I mean I couldn't figure out how to make it sweat in a gaming rig if I had an unlimited budget and that's always been half the fun of server chips.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:21AM (10 children)
Games are going to be slow to adapt to beyond quad-core, but the major consoles now have 8 cores (~6-8 usable threads), AMD has made the (true) octo-core cheap, and Intel will introduce a mainstream 6-core chip in 2018 (Coffee Lake).
If you need highly threaded software that will tax your 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, or 32 core CPU, I'm sure someone out there has compiled a list.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:35AM (3 children)
Right but half the fun of server chips existing was imagining what a badass gaming rig you could build with one. AMD screwed us on that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:49AM (2 children)
Well, technically the Ryzen "enthusiast" chips stop at 16 cores, and Intel at 18.
I'm not sure what a game could do with 24 or 32 cores (with lower clocks), but maybe there is some crazy procedurally generated game that will scale to 128+ cores.
Maybe AMD didn't ruin the fun but moved the goalposts, giving the software developers a nice kick in the ass.
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(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:54PM (1 child)
Well , I'm waiting for some benchmarks....hopefully good enough to keep Intel honest....:-/
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday June 22 2017, @02:04PM
Intel's $1,000 10-core chip has been benchmarked against AMD's ~$330-440 8-core Ryzen 7s:
Intel Core i9-7900X Reviewed: Hotter and More Expensive than AMD Ryzen 1800X for Small Gains [soylentnews.org]
Considering that AMD's 16-core Threadripper is rumored to be $849 [wccftech.com], compared to the $1,000 Intel is charging for 10 cores, you can extrapolate from Ryzen 7 1800X and arrive at the conclusion that AMD is about to fuck Intel's shit up, benchmarks be damned.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by EvilSS on Thursday June 22 2017, @03:00PM
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday June 22 2017, @06:03PM (4 children)
I write multi-threaded software. My SDR (Software Defined Radio) is currently using 33 threads during SSB (Single SideBand) reception and can use more if certain signal processing options are selected or when receiving wideband FM; my image processing software, on the other hand, determines how many cores there are, and then splits the images into bands (or in a few cases, regions) for processing so unless you've got a CPU with more cores than the image has scan lines, there are cases where they'd be tasked unless you tell the software to specifically limit how many cores it will use (which you can do.)
The real problem for multi-core computing isn't how many cores: The problem is memory bandwidth. Eventually, you get no significant gains because "waiting on memory" dominates over "waiting on instruction cycles."
Eventually, unless the memory bandwidth problem is solved, adding more cores is going to start looking like the "more megapixels" nonsense with the tiny phone sensors. Yeah, you'll have 'em... but they aren't doing you much, if any, good.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:39PM (2 children)
I've said multiple times that my compiles will take at least 8 cores (come on guys, push those tools to 16 now!), and swallow all the DDR bandwidth I can throw at them.
Reasonably-priced 8-channel DDR4? I need a mop before someone slips on the drool puddle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:46PM (1 child)
RTFM [gnu.org] :-)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:14PM
Sadly, there's no open version for my tools. Compiling HW is very specific.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:41PM
AMD is rumored [wccftech.com] to be adding High Bandwidth Memory to certain CPU/APU models. Intel has added HBM to Xeon Phi which has over 70 cores. However, stacking memory onto the CPU can cause thermal problems and is expensive. It remains to be seen how widespread HBM will be with CPUs.
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(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday June 22 2017, @07:45PM
The big "gamer thing" now is streaming + gaming. Encoding video and broadcasting it at the same resolution you're playing at is pretty CPU intensive. On top of that your social gamer stuff like discord (or mumble, teamspeak, ventrilo). A quad could probably do it. But a six (or eight) would be ideal.
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