AMD has revealed plans for its Naples line of x86 processors with more cores, more memory capacity, and more I/O than current processor offerings.
AMD has taken a significant step into the server and data centre market with its most detailed look yet at the upcoming high-performance CPU for servers, codenamed Naples – designed to disrupt the status-quo and to scale across the cloud data centre and traditional on-premise server configurations.
Naples delivers the new computing paradigm “Zen” x86 processing engine in configurations of up to 32 cores. This offers superior memory bandwidth and the number of high-speed input/output (I/O) channels in a single-chip – there is nothing like this in the today’s server market. The first processors are scheduled to be available in Q2 2017, with volume availability in the second half of the year through OEM and channel partners.
Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-custom business unit, AMD, said “AMD is reasserting its position as an innovator in the data centre and offering choice in high-performance server CPUs. Naples is a completely new approach to supporting massive processing requirements. This system-on-chip delivers the high-performance features required to address highly virtualized environments, massive data sets and new, emerging workloads.”
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The new AMD server processor exceeds today’s top competitive offering on critical parameters, with up to 45% more cores, 60% more I/O, and 122% more memory bandwidth.
Matt Eastwood, senior vice president, Enterprise Infrastructure and Data centre, IDC, said, “It is exciting to see AMD back in the server conversation with a new CPU and a sound strategy for why it is the right processor for the modern data centre and the cloud computing era. Looking at the product details announced today, it sounds like a compelling combination that will give IT buyers a unique new option to consider when making their next upgrade.”
Naples features:
- A highly scalable, 32-core System on Chip (SoC) design, with support for two high-performance threads per core
- Class-leading memory bandwidth, with 8-channels of memory per Naples device. In a 2-socket server, support for up to 32 DIMMS of DDR4 on 16 memory channels, delivering up to 4 terabytes of total memory capacity.
- The processor is a complete SoC with fully integrated, high-speed I/O supporting 128 lanes of PCIe 34, negating the need for a separate chipset
- A highly-optimized cache structure for high-performance, energy efficient compute
- AMD Infinity Fabric coherent interconnect for two “Naples” CPUs in a 2-socket system (total 128 threads)
- Dedicated security hardware