AMD has introduced its EPYC 8004-series processors codenamed Siena. The new CPUs come in an all-new SP6 form-factor, pack up to 64 Zen 4c cores, and feature a six-channel DDR5 memory subsystem. AMD's EPYC 'Siena' processors are designed for edge and communications servers that rely on one processor and require advanced I/O and power efficiency more than raw performance.
"The new EPYC 8004 Series processors extend AMD leadership in single socket platforms by offering excellent CPU energy efficiency in a package tuned to meet the needs of space and power-constrained infrastructure," said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business, AMD.
AMD's EPYC 8004-series 'Siena' processors for intelligent edge applications use an all-new SP6 platform, but re-use core components of Bergamo CPUs for high-density servers, such four 16-core Zen 4c general-purpose chiplets as well as I/O die used by the these CPUs. The processor feature from eight to 64 cores clocked at 2.0 – 3.10 GHz and a TDP ranging from 80W to 200W. Meanwhile, it is possible to configure these processors for an up to 225W TDP or reduce their power consumption to 70W.
While AMD's Zen 4c are smaller and less power hungry than full-blown Zen 4 cores, they support the same feature set as their larger counterparts and can therefore run applications that rely on instructions like AVX-512. Although AMD's EPYC 9004-series processors deliver higher performance, AMD's EPYC 8004-series CPUs promise a lower total cost of ownership and higher power efficiency. AMD claims that Siena offers an up to 2x better performance per watt compared to competitors (Xeon Platinum 8490H, Xeon Platinum 8471N ) in SPECpower_ssj 2008. Specifically, the EPYC 8324P showcases up to 1.16x better performance per core in video encoding tasks (than Intel's 32-core Xeon 6421N), according to benchmark results conducted by AMD. In IoT Edge gateway workloads, an eight-core EPYC 8024P offers nearly 1.8x the total SPECrate 2017_int_base throughput performance per 8kW rack against an eight-core competitor (Intel's Xeon Platinum 8471N).
The new AMD EPYC 8004-series processors feature a six-channel DDR5-4800 subsystem that supports up to 1.152 TB of memory. Intelligent edge servers are a relatively new type of application. Some of these machines can take advantage of traditional CPUs, whereas the other pack special-purpose accelerators. That said, modern I/O capabilities is a must for such machines. Therefore, AMD's Siena also support 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes with 48 of them supporting the CXL 1.1+ protocol on top for advanced modern accelerators (for AI inference or other applications) and/or memory expanders.
AMD says that its EPYC 8004 'Siena' processors are now available inside new edge servers from Dell (PowerEdge C6615), Lenovo (ThinkEdge SE455 V3), and Supermicro (H13 generation of WIO Servers). The new CPUs are also endorsed by Ericsson and Microsoft Azure.
The launch of AMD's EPYC 8004-series 'Siena' processors completes the company's 4th Generation EPYC portfolio with offerings including general-purpose servers (Genoa), high-performance computing (Genoa-X), cloud native (Bergamo), and intelligent edge (Siena) machines
"AMD has delivered multiple generations of data center processors that provide outstanding efficiency, performance, and innovative features," added McNamara. "Now with our 4th Gen EPYC CPU portfolio complete, that leadership continues across a broad set of workloads – from enterprise and cloud, to intelligent edge, technical computing and more."
