AMD Preps SP6 Socket For Lower-Power EPYC 'Genoa' CPUs

To address different types of workloads and customers, AMD intends to offer its 4th Generation EPYC 'Genoa' and 'Bergamo' processors in two form-factors: SP5 for heavy-duty machines and SP6 for compact edge and infrastructure servers. Pictures of AMD's yet unannounced SP6 socket have just emerged. 

Some modern servers must offer unbeatable performance and throughput no matter power, heat, and dimensions; others must maintain decent power consumption and relative compactness. Since different kinds of servers tend to have significantly different configurations and requirements, it makes sense to develop almost other platforms. For example, Intel offers Xeon Scalable for mainstream servers and Xeon D for infrastructure, edge, and telco servers. As AMD is grabbing market share from the blue giant, it is following some of its steps to diversify product lineups.

AMD EPYC Sockets

Note: The information comes from unofficial sources.

For machines used for high-performance computing and other performance-hungry applications, AMD plans to provide 4th Generation EPYC processors in SP5 form-factor with up to 96 Zen 4 cores or up to 128 Zen 4c cores. Meanwhile, for edge, telecom, and compact servers, the company intends to offer 4th Generation EPYC CPUs in socket SP5 (LGA6096) form-factor with up to 32 Zen 4 cores or 64 Zen 4c cores, reports VideoCardz. In addition, AMD's socket SP6 will maintain the dimensions of the existing socket SP3 but will have more pins (4,844 vs. 4,094) and will support CPUs with a thermal design power (TDP) of up to 225W (vs. 280W).

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Typically, a leak like this would not draw our attention for many reasons. Still, a member of AnandTech forums has re-published a picture of an SP6 socket and its blueprint that allegedly comes from an AMD document. The images and quotes from the document are said to originate from a now deleted post over at Bilibili.  

"This document defines the requirements for a 4844-position, 0.94 mm × 0.81 mm interstitial pitch, surface-mount land-grid array (SM-LGA) socket — herein referred to as the Socket SP6—for use with the AMD 4844-position organic land grid array (OLGA) package that has substrate dimensions of 58.5 mm × 75.4 mm. The Socket SP6, shown in Figure 1, is designed to provide a reliable electrical interconnect between the printed circuit board (PCB) and the 4844 land pads of the OLGA package throughout the life of the product." 

While we cannot verify the legitimacy of the information, quote, and images, we have two independent sources revealing AMD's SP6 platform from different angles. Therefore, the report looks entirely plausible in general. Nonetheless, take it with a grain of salt.