Details of AMD Zen 16-core x86 APU emerge

[HEXUS]

It is said to feature up to 16GB of high bandwidth memory (HBM) to feed the 'Greenland' graphics.

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[Dottorrent]

Let's hope this brings them back into the game, because AMD has been lacking badly now.

[Brewster0101]

APU's getting DDR support before CPU/FX range ?

[ZaO]

News on everything from Amd but high end desktop processors for the consumer. I'm dying here..... WHEN, AMD? WHEEEEEEENNNNNNNNN!!!???

[bae85]

APU's getting DDR support before CPU/FX range ?

There won't be any CPUs. The FX range will be the APU's.

[crossy]

AMD's Zen will be an x86 APU aimed at enterprise, server and high performance computing systems offering up to 16 cores and 32 threads, support for DDR4 memory up to 256GB/channel and 'Greenland' graphics with up to 16GB of HBM.

I think I'm missing something here - when did a server or "compute engine" need fancy graphics. Even worse, we've been saying for months/years that a high-end desktop competitor is needed and this seems to be ideal - so why the heck isn't it being "desktop-ized"?

MP3/MP4 recoding with 16 cores...?

[scaryjim]

I think I'm missing something here - when did a server or "compute engine" need fancy graphics.

Since people started using GPUs for HPC, so about a decade? Huge amounts of parallel compute has been in high demand in a variety of fields for a long time - this APU is aimed at that market.

Even worse, we've been saying for months/years that a high-end desktop competitor is needed and this seems to be ideal - so why the heck isn't it being "desktop-ized"?

It will be - Zen is an entirely new x64 compatible microarch that is likely to be propagated through AMDs entire product stack. This particular implementation is aimed at HPC, and was leaked from an HPC developer event from a few months back (check the Piledriver thread in hardware and there's a bit more discussion about it).

[Millennium]

I wouldn't agree that AMD has been behind. Yes, perhaps in raw tests, but in terms of technology presidents (think Hoover vs Dyson a decade ago if it helps) not really. The end result is competitive consumer products after all.'

AMD - ever thought of releasing a compiler like an ICC competitor? Something that could bring back that instructions per clock advantage a bit (again)?

I would posit it could be done....

[will19565]

i'd buy a amd gpu this year if they can match the 970\980 in both performance AND power consumption

[LSG501]

As much as I'd love to see AMD bring out a killer chip, even if it's just to give intel a swift kick up the **** with pricing I just don't see this rumour as being accurate for some reason.

I've never trusted fudzilla much for accuracy but this just seems 'too good to be true' not to mention hellishly expensive to manufacture.... even for a server chip.

[GuidoLS]

It almost looks like they're trying to do some direct competition with the Intel Xeon/Quadro workstations, although with these specs, I'm not sure why - 16 cores vs 72 cores sounds like someone is setting themselves up for a hurt me/beat me competition, with every intention of losing.

The cost may be lower, but there aren't too many companies that are going to go for a system that, at best, is 75% weaker, regardless of how 'powerful' that weaker system is. And there's nothing in those specs that screams, or even whispers, home user.

The world was AMD's oyster back in the glory days of the T-Birds. And, for whatever reason, they seem to have lost the competitive spark. Oh, they sort of keep up, but it still feels like, no matter what they do, they're at least a generation (and sometimes 2) behind. Makes it very hard to get enthusiastic, and makes one wonder if they wouldn't be better off concentrating solely on CPU's or GPU's.

[tonyd223]

Just to say, bought an FX8370e as I had a mobo lying around with memory with an old Phenom in it... runs fast enough - just maybe enough is enough?

[ZaO]

The world was AMD's oyster back in the glory days of the T-Birds. And, for whatever reason, they seem to have lost the competitive spark. Oh, they sort of keep up, but it still feels like, no matter what they do, they're at least a generation (and sometimes 2) behind. Makes it very hard to get enthusiastic, and makes one wonder if they wouldn't be better off concentrating solely on CPU's or GPU's.

I wouldn't argue massively with that. But, being roughly a gen or two behind with tech, or at least in regards to hardware performance, isn't a big deal. There are plenty of people who keep their hardware for years (sometimes, not much changes in a couple years either). One of my friends who games on pc, playing all the latest, demanding games stills runs a Phenom II 965 (at stock clocks might I add). Gaming is really my strongest area of knowledge when it comes to hardware, so that's the main thing I can comment on. Amd have been competative in the mid range for years. It's just the high end where they're not doing so good. I'm more of a mid-high end sort of guy. So, something like a Phenom II would definitely not cut it for me (I already got rid of my 955 back at the start of 2012 to get a 2500K). An FX, yeh, sort of.. But I feel I would be better buying Intel at this point in time. Though if I already had a good, built computer with an AM3+ board, I'd almost definitely pickup an FX for a cheap upgrade! See, that's another place where Amd are great, and I don't hear enough praise for - they keep their chipsets going for a long time with really decent upgrade paths! I mean, you can run FX chips on some old AM2 boards as far as I'm aware (though I'm sure they'll be held back a bit on that chipset). Just think how long ago those came out.. Amd are more consumer friendly, imo. They just don't always have the latest and greatest top end stuff when it comes to cpu's. So, for mid range and budget gamers - Amd is awesome As for Gpu's - Amd are still doing great at the high end!

[DanceswithUnix]

I wouldn't agree that AMD has been behind. Yes, perhaps in raw tests, but in terms of technology presidents (think Hoover vs Dyson a decade ago if it helps) not really. The end result is competitive consumer products after all.'

AMD - ever thought of releasing a compiler like an ICC competitor? Something that could bring back that instructions per clock advantage a bit (again)?

I would posit it could be done....

ISTR they did, not that anyone noticed. Well, from memory they partnered with someone that made a compiler to get it optimised for their architecture.

In reality, GCC has AMD optimisation built in and has for some time, but if the dominant market is Intel then which switches are you going to use in your binary?

I mean, you can run FX chips on some old AM2 boards as far as I'm aware (though I'm sure they'll be held back a bit on that chipset).

Phenom can bridge from some AM2 boards (you are supposed to use AM2+) to AM3+, the FX range require an AM3+ board to work. Still, the AMD socket flexibility has proved very useful to me over the years.

[kingpotnoodle]

This looks like the kind of thing that's going to get targeted at Microservers, probably for dense HPC work rather than general servers. There isn't much demand to use the graphics parts for acceleration in general workloads. Maybe we're looking at 16 small cores along the lines of those in Xbox One, I'm fairly sure this isn't some super high end play, with 18 core HT Xeons out there a expensive 16 big core chip would be struggling straight away.

[scaryjim]

Phenom can bridge from some AM2 boards (you are supposed to use AM2+) to AM3+, the FX range require an AM3+ board to work. Still, the AMD socket flexibility has proved very useful to me over the years.

Indeed, if you want to be able to test a range of recent AMD motherboards a £14 Sempron 145 is your friend - AFAIK it'll run in any socket from AM2 to AM3+ (I've booted an old MSI K9N4 SLI AM2 board with mine). Still purchasable new, as well. That's platform longevity

This looks like the kind of thing that's going to get targeted at Microservers, probably for dense HPC work rather than general servers. There isn't much demand to use the graphics parts for acceleration in general workloads. Maybe we're looking at 16 small cores along the lines of those in Xbox One, I'm fairly sure this isn't some super high end play, with 18 core HT Xeons out there a expensive 16 big core chip would be struggling straight away.

AFAIK Zen is meant to be a new core that will combine the best of the existing small and large cores and cover the whole product range. Whether that's correct, and whether it'll work for them, are two completely different questions....

REALLY LATE edit to add:

This story: http://hexus.net/tech/news/cooling/8...r-hits-market/ reminded me of another big plus for AMD - they've kept the same cooler mounting holes since AM2 as well (and the same stock bracket since 754/939), including on the FM sockets. That's a huge amount of longevity for your good quality CPU cooler, which lets be honest is a piece of kit that shouldn't need changing unless oyu manage to completely wreck it....