AMD EPYC Processors
I have been getting a lot of questions recently about AMD and if it should be used in the data center. The short answer is YES. Since AMD announced the EPYC processors, they have been gaining market share in the data center. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced the industry’s broadest portfolio of AMD EPYC™ processor-based solutions to power everything from the edge to exascale supercomputers. They have been breaking performance records running AMD on the HPE Cray Supercomputers.
AMD EPYC Series Processors help propel your modern data center workloads with leadership performance and advanced security features. AMD has announced the 3rd generation of the EPYC processor. It sets the performance bar to new heights. Built on the Zen 3 core and the AMD Infinity Architecture, the AMD EPYC 7003 series provides the best performance, highest I/O, and integrated security. The video below shows the announcement for the new AMD EPYC generation 3 processors.
Hewett Packard Enterprise AMD EPYC Processor Portfolio
The current Hewlett Packard Enterprise product portfolio is built on the AMD EPYC generation 2 processor which features the 7002 series processors. The 7002 is based on Zen 2 core, which delivers optimized performance-per-watt, large L3 cache for low latency access to data. These processors support up to 64 cores per socket, 128 threads, 4TB of DDR4 memory capacity across 8 memory channels, and 128 lanes of PCIe® 4.0 connectivity to reduce bottlenecks.
Based on the AMD Infinity architecture, the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC Processors are the first server processors featuring a 7nm hybrid multi-die design and PCIe Gen4 I/O. The AMD EPYC Family continues to offer the most I/O and memory bandwidth in its class.
Security Features
AMD EPYC processors boast a set of advanced security features, called AMD Infinity Guard. This includes the AMD secure processor, Secure Memory Encryption (SME), and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV). These features help minimize potential attack surfaces as software is booted, executed, and processes your critical data.
With Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), AMD EPYC processors help safeguard privacy and integrity by encrypting each virtual machine. This aids in protecting your data’s confidentiality even if a malicious virtual machine finds a way into your virtual machine’s memory or a compromised hypervisor reaches into a guest virtual machine.
The HPE Server portfolio ranges from the low-end DL325 Gen10 Plus 1U server up to the HPE Cray EX supercomputer. There are 1 socket and 2 socket general-purpose server options, scalable building block options, high-performance computing options, and options built for AI and Deep Learning. Find out more about the HPE server product line with AMD EPYC processors here.
New Products
HPE will be announcing new products based on AMD EPYC Gen3 processors in mid-April 2021. More information will be available as it gets closer to the announcement date. According to the HPE Press release dated March 15, 2021, HPE has secured 19 world records in key areas for optimizing workload experiences. This includes achieving leadership positions in virtualization, energy efficiency, database analytic workloads, and Java applications. To date, HPE servers and systems using 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors combined to hold a total of 32 world records.
After the announcement, the full portfolio of HPE servers and systems supporting the new 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processor will include the following:
- HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus v2 server
- HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus v2 server
- HPE ProLiant DL345 Gen10 Plus server
- HPE ProLiant DL365 Gen10 Plus server
- HPE Apollo 2000 Gen10 Plus system with the HPE ProLiant XL225n Gen10 Plus server
- HPE Apollo 6500 Gen10 Plus system with the HPE ProLiant XL675d Gen10 Plus server
- HPE Apollo 6500 Gen10 Plus system with the HPE ProLiant XL645d Gen10 Plus server
- HPE Cray EX supercomputer EX425
- HPE Cray EX supercomputer EX235n
Availability
All new HPE Apollo systems with the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processor will be available worldwide on April 6. All new HPE ProLiant servers with the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processor will be available worldwide on April 19. Contact Zunesis, if you would like to learn more about these processors.
We are all winners when there is competition in the semiconductor industry
My personal narrated history of the semiconductor market in my lifetime.
For many years, I have been labeled by my friends and peers in the industry as being an AMD fanboy. In truth, I am a fan of competition and a free market to drive innovation and keep prices affordable for everyone. In this blog, we will dive into a little history about AMD. They are very relevant today not only in the PC market but in the Datacenter as well.
Some history
When people think of computer processors, typically the brand Intel comes to mind. They have been pioneers in the consumer and enterprise microprocessor industry for more than half a century. The company was founded in 1968 in California by Gordon E. Moore a chemist and Robert Noyce who was a physicist.
Throughout much of the twentieth century advancements in computer processing could most notably be attributed to the Intel corporation. In the mid-1970s, something interesting happened in the microprocessor market. Another American company AMD or Advanced Micro Devices, known at the time to provide licensed second-source manufacturing for Intel and others started to develop and sell their own unique microprocessor designs.
This was the catalyst for consumers and OEMs to have a choice in the marketplace for whom provided their computer processors. Until that time, Intel had solely provided or licensed others to make the processors for the IBM personal computer and other enterprise products.
1980s-1990s – AMD can compete … mostly
Throughout the 80s and 90s, AMD was making licensed copies or clones of Intel processors with relative success. In 1996, AMD released its first in-house designed x86 processor. This competed with the Intel Pentium processors operating at 75-133Mhz. They weren’t developing anything revolutionary. They were providing a cheaper alternative to Intel and driving innovation to some degree.
This is the era in which I became an AMD customer. At the time, I could not afford an Pentium based PC. I cobbled together components that I could afford to build my first computer. It was an AMD K6 266Mhz processor and had 16Mb of RAM. It wasn’t much but I could do my schoolwork on it and it played a few games.
2000-2010 – Things are looking up for AMD
In the early 2000s, AMD released their socketed Athlon processors. They were true game changers as they supported features like on-die L2 cache and double data rate RAM. Later in 2003, they introduced to the market the first 64bit processor. Beating Intel to the punch and taking the innovation crown for a short period of time.
In 2007, AMD introduced their first server class processor called the Opteron. The Opteron was a very powerful and viable alternative to Intel’s XEON processor. Budget conscious businesses had another option when choosing servers for their data centers which wouldn’t break the bank. During this time frame, multi-core processors were introduced to the marketplace. AMD pursued this trend with positive results.
“At this time in my life, I was working in IT. I finally had some money to build the computers I wanted to build. Again, I chose AMD because of their price-to-performance ratio compared to Intel. My thought process involved simple mathematics. If I was able to achieve 90 percent of the performance of the Intel equivalent for 60 percent of the cost, then it seemed like a good choice. “ #lawofdiminishingreturns
2010-2015 – The Dark ages of which we do not speak
During this time frame, AMD is handedly beaten by Intel by most legitimate metrics. They did not innovate or develop new core architectures but chose to pile on the physical processing cores. A strategy that failed them for the better part of a decade.
The consumer products weren’t competitive. The server processors were relegated to budget options and entry level servers for small businesses. Although I owned many computers comprised of this architecture, it was a low point for me. I did lose some faith in the company. My concerns centered around the lack of competition in the marketplace. Monopolies are good for no one except Mr. Monopoly whoever that may be.
2016-Today – The enlightenment and salvation
In 2016, AMD introduced the Ryzen or Zen microprocessor architecture to the world. This revolutionary microarchitecture displayed IPC (instruction per clock-cycle) gains of almost 52 percent compared to the previous Bulldozer architecture. AMD was back in the game in a big way.
In the consumer market, AMD sells processors that were faster than Intel offerings and twice the price. In the enterprise, AMD has continued to increase core counts with this newest architecture. It has extinguished some of Intel’s market share in the Datacenter.
TODAY
AMD has released its second iteration of the Zen architecture called Zen 2. The enterprise offering is called 2nd Gen EPYC. This architecture is truly displacing the Intel offering because it can compete on more than one level. The IPC is on par and often exceeds the Intel equivalent. The core counts far exceed what Intel has by offering a 64 core/128 thread processor named EPYC 7742.
This processor by itself could facilitate a virtual environment for most small to mid-sized businesses. The processor is so revolutionary that virtualization/hypervisor companies are changing their licensing models in fear that a single socket host would undercut their profits from licensing.
Who offers it?
HPE, a company who has always been an advocate and an ally to AMD. They sell consumer devices outfitted with the newest AMD RYZEN processors based one ZEN 2 architecture. The servers utilize the newest 2nd Gen EPYC processors based on the same microarchitecture.
These solutions offer better performance. Pricing is competitive to the point where they displace any Intel offering. As an unabashed AMD fanboy, I urge you to look at the metrics and decide for yourself. In almost any computing workload, AMD is a competitive and cost effective option.
Contact Zunesis today for more information on AMD and other IT solutions for your organization.
Additional Resources:
Two AMD Processors Crush four Intel Xeons in tests
Intel insists Xeon vs Epyc benchmark fight was fari, amends speed test claims anyway
Epic Win: AMD’s 64-core 7nm Epyc CPUs Leave Xeon Lying in the Dirt
