AMD Announces Fourth Generation EPYC Server Processors: Up to 96 Zen 4 architecture cores
AMD held a themed event called “Together We Advance Data Centers” in California, USA, and officially released the fourth-generation EPYC server processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, code-named Genoa. AMD said the new processors will provide unmatched performance for enterprise, cloud computing, and high-performance computing workloads.
The fourth-generation EPYC server processor uses the SP5 socket and can be equipped with up to 12 CCDs, each CCD has 8 Zen 4 architecture cores, and the L3 cache is 32MB. Each core has 1MB of L2 cache, adding up to a total of 96 cores with 192 threads, 96MB of L2 cache, and 384MB of L3 cache. Like the consumer-grade Ryzen 7000 series processors, the CCD and IOD use TSMC’s 5nm and 6nm processes, respectively.
In addition, the fourth-generation EPYC server processor supports 12-channel DDR5 memory (two DIMMs per channel), with a maximum capacity of 12TB; equipped with 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, of which 112 are available; support AVX-512 and VNNI instructions; it also implements support for CXL 1.1+, providing breakthrough memory expansion capabilities.
This time AMD has launched a total of 18 fourth-generation EPYC server processors, with the lowest positioning model being 16 cores and 32 threads, and a new naming and numbering rule is adopted.
At the press conference, AMD chose to compare it with the third-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor.
The results show that in the SPEC CPU 2017 integer performance test, the 16-core EPYC 9174F is 44% faster than the Xeon Gold 6346 with the same number of cores; the 32-core EPYC 9374F is 45% faster than the Xeon Platinum 8362; the 48-core EPYC 9474F is 44% faster than the 40-core Xeon Platinum 8380.
At the end of the event, AMD said that the fourth-generation EPYC server processors have been supported by numerous software companies and OEM partners, including Dell, Google, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Oracle, and VMware.
Since Intel’s next-generation Sapphire Rapids has been delayed to January 10, 2023, its specifications overall are not as good as AMD’s fourth-generation EPYC server processors, coupled with AMD’s time advantage, some research institutions predict that AMD’s market share in x86 server processors may further expand, reaching 25% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Intel recently launched Sapphire Rapids with HBM memory, called Xeon Max, however, in the future, AMD will also add products using 3D V-Cache technology, and there will be EPYC server processors based on the Zen 4c architecture to consolidate the performance advantages in this segment.
