At Hot Chips 2023, AMD went into a lot about the AMD EPYC Genoa, Genoa-X, and Bergamo CPUs. It also showed key specs for the upcoming Siena platform that will be launched in the future in its talk.
Since these are being done live from the auditorium, please excuse typos. Hot Chips is a crazy pace.
AMD EPYC Genoa, Genoa-X, and Bergamo Again
Since we have done so much coverage on Genoa, Genoa-X, and Bergamo at this point, instead of going into less depth from a 30-minute talk here is the AMD EPYC Genoa Gaps Intel Xeon in Stunning Fashion launch piece and video:
You can also learn about AMD EPYC Bergamo and Genoa-X with a video here:
Instead, we are going to focus on Siena.
AMD Siena Shown at Hot Chips 2023
AMD Zen 4 was a big upgrade from Zen 3 used in AMD EPYC 7003 “Milan” with higher IPC, more clocks, and lower power.
Zen 4c brought an even more compact Zen 4 core for Bergamo. Even with that, AMD has been focused on making big CPUs. At Hot Chips, it is showing a lower-end solution.
AMD Siena Shown at Hot Chips 2023
AMD’s Socket SP5 strategy is to build out different chiplets and combine them with a common I/O Die.
Now, AMD is showing the fourth member of the 4th Gen AMD EPYC portfolio, Siena meant for the Telco Edge markets.
Here it is. The most disclosures we have had on Siena thus far. We get up to only 64 cores with 6x DDR5 DRAM channels. Siena is going to scale much lower than Genoa with a 70W to 225W TDP, albeit not as low as some of Intel’s Xeon D parts.
AMD needs lower power parts because Intel has its monolithic die Sapphire Rapids parts that are very attractive for 32 cores and fewer which is a major volume segment in the market. 96 or 128 cores 350W+ are great, but they do not fit into applications where one needs a sub 150W CPU.
AMD CCD and Memory Technology
AMD also showed an interesting CCD slide that shows some of the features of the I/O die.
This is a great slide. AMD also has one on its memory technologies including CXL.
Still, Siena is the big one.
Final Words
We are very excited about the AMD EPYC Siena launch since AMD has a big hole in its server portfolio in the lower power power segment. We finally see how AMD is achieving this with half of the DDR5 channels and fewer cores. Stay tuned on this until we can get hands-on and show you full details of the platform.
Is it known whether this(perhaps under a different set of model numbers; but without substantial changes) is also going to be the Zen4-based threadripper part; or is there something non-workstation about it?
“The most disclosures we have had on Siena thus far. We get up to only 6 cores with 6x DDR5 DRAM channels”
You mean 64 cores, not 6.
No Threadripper NON Pro SKUs as Consumer/HEDT is dead and replaced by Threadripper Pro(WEPYC)! SP5 and SP6 MBs are not consumer focused parts and Any Threadripper Pro parts are Pro Workstation with Pro Workstation pricing! HEDT(RED Tee-shirt) is Dead Jim!
Siena is supposedly Zen4c based – Telco does not need high clocks or burstability, Telco needs low latency, consistency (low jitter), high throughput, etc.
The one thing that is really needed here is solution provider support – it would be great to have endorsement here from the likes like Nokia, Ericsson or Mavenir.