On August 7 this year, AMD changed the data center market with the launch of the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processor, the world’s first 7nm and highest performance x86 data center CPU. We hosted an amazing launch event in San Francisco, joined by leading industry partners including Google, Twitter, HPE, Lenovo and others, where we showcased the world record performance[ii], breakthrough architecture and broad ecosystem support for the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC family.
Since launch, we have seen significant traction with customers and partners. They recognize the overall breakthrough performance, and the superior single socket performance of the 2nd Gen EPYC vs. the competition. As well, they know our higher core counts and support for compelling features like PCIe® 4.0 make AMD EPYC the right choice for the future of the data center.
Today, we are proud to have new platforms from Dell and new customers pledging to use the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC for cloud, HPC and even 5G. And with the original codename of “Rome,” what better place to reach this next round of milestones than Rome, Italy.
Earlier today I was joined by our CTO Mark Papermaster, as well as our incredible European team and customers, to share the latest progress with our 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors and introduce our newest customers. Here are the highlights:
- Yesterday, Dell EMC announced five new PowerEdge platforms using the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor. These platforms were designed from the ground-up and optimized to support the features of the new AMD EPYC processor including PCI® 4.0. You can read more about the new PowerEdge systems here, including purchasing details for the new systems that are available now.
- Satinder Sethi, GM of IBM Cloud infrastructure, joined me to discuss how IBM Cloud views performance and works to deliver it to its customers. Enterprises moving to cloud want higher levels of performance to support compute-intensive workloads for AI and big data, without jeopardizing security. Security is a critical component of IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy, and technologies like 2nd Gen EPYC with SEV-ES help drive new levels of security in the hybrid cloud era. IBM Cloud customers are also asking for better memory bandwidth for big data and analytics workloads. With 45% greater memory bandwidth in its class,[iii] 2nd Gen EPYC provides fantastic memory bandwidth scaling for big data and analytics workloads. Finally, the core scaling and breakthrough performance of 2nd Gen EPYC provides a superior quality of service and a higher level of performance for container workloads. IBM plans to have more to share in 2020 about its new performance offerings for clients.
- Nokia joined AMD CTO, Mark Papermaster, on stage and talked about the potential performance implications of the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor for 4G and 5G networks. Nokia has tested 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors in its Cloud Packet Core system, which helps service providers deliver converged broadband, IoT, and machine-type communication services while evolving to a 5G core. In these tests, the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors are providing an 80% increase in packet throughput performance compared to previous solutions. This means that with AMD EPYC, Nokia is providing its customers better capacity, performance and scale for their networks.
- European pure player cloud provider OVHcloud showcased an upcoming high-end hosting instance that is based on the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor, specifically the EPYC™ 7402P. The EPYC processor is used in a full flash server and the instances will be available at the end of 2019.
- TSMC joined us on stage to highlight its capacity and capabilities for 7nm fabrication and it also announced its adoption of AMD EPYC processors helping power its next gen research and leading process technology
- Finally, ATOS and its customer Genci, which fosters the use of supercomputing for the benefit of French scientific communities, joined me to highlight Genci’s use of the ATOS BullSequana X system using the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor. Genci specifically chose the 2nd Gen EPYC due to its TCO and fantastic sustained performance efficiency per watt. Additionally, ATOS and AMD showcased a new 2nd Gen AMD EPYC SKU specifically designed for HPC customers that need the highest performance and can support liquid cooling. The AMD EPYC 7H12 is a 64 core/128 thread, 280W part[iv] with a 2.6Ghz base frequency and 3.3Ghz max boost frequency that performs ~11% better at LINPACK compared to the AMD EPYC 7742 in testing by ATOS on their BullSequana XH2000 platform. The AMD EPYC 7H12 is being used by Genci, CSC Finland and Uninett in Norway.
Today we continued to take EPYC to new heights. We are thrilled to have the ecosystem supporting us across hardware, software and cloud providers as we face the challenges of the modern data center head-on with 2nd Gen AMD EPYC. You can find numerous OEMs and channel partners that are selling platforms with the new EPYC processors here.
Expect to hear more from us and our partners this year as we continue to expand our reach with the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor.
Forrest Norrod is the SVP and GM of the Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-5
Cautionary Statement
This blog contains forward-looking statements concerning Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) including, but not limited to the features, functionality, performance, availability, timing, expectations and expected benefits of the 2nd Gen AMD EPYCTM processors and the expected timing and benefits of new partner offerings, which are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "expects," "believes," "plans," "intends," "projects" and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this blog are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this blog and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Such statements are subject to certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond AMD's control, that could cause actual results and other future events to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to AMD's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 29, 2019.
A 2P EPYC™ 7742 processor powered server has SPECrate®2017_int_peak score of 749, and a int_base score of 682 https://spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q3/cpu2017-20190722-16242.html as of August 7, 2019. The next highest peak score is a 2P Intel Platinum 9282 server at 676, base 643: http://spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2019q3/cpu2017-20190624-15369.pdf as of July 28, 2019. SPEC®, SPECrate® and SPEC CPU® are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. See www.spec.org for more information. ROM-91.
[ii] See https://www.amd.com/en/processors/epyc-world-records for details.
[iii] EPYC™ 7002 series has 8 memory channels, supporting 3200 MHz DIMMs yielding 204.8 GB/s of bandwidth vs. the same class of Intel Scalable Gen 2 processors with only 6 memory channels and supporting 2933 MHz DIMMs yielding 140.8 GB/s of bandwidth. 204.8 / 140.8 = 1.454545 - 1.0 = .45 or 45% more. AMD EPYC has 45% more bandwidth. Class based on industry-standard pin-based (LGA) X86 processors. ROM-11
[iv] EPYC 7H12 processor boost frequencies may be achieved only with a cooling solution that meets group ‘Z’ requirements. Achievable boost frequencies may vary depending on the effectiveness of the actual cooling solution. ROM-282
Based on Atos testing of HPL v2.1 benchmark, as of September 13, 2019, using a 2P AMD EPYC™ 7H12 powered production server versus AMD internal testing of HPL v2.1 benchmark, as of July 17, 2019, using a 2P AMD EPYC™ 7742 powered AMD reference server. AMD has not independently verified the 7H12 scores. Results may vary. ROM-287
