If you're making plans to build a high-performance data center, be sure to take a close look at the latest version of AMD's EPYC™ CPU chipsets, which were code-named “Milan X.”
Servers that employ AMD’s third-generation EPYC™ CPUs are so powerful that Meta/Facebook is now building its servers with them, using the new single-socket cloud-scale design, which is a part of their Open Compute Project. “AMD EPYC™ processors are now a part of the world’s hyperscale data centers,” said Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, in the presentation at which she debuted the processors.
This latest generation of AMD EPYC™ CPUs uses an innovative packaging option of 3D stacking of chiplets for high-performance computing applications. Higher density cached memory is stacked on top of the processor to deliver more than 200 times the interconnected density of prior chiplet packaging designs. “It is the most flexible active-on-active silicon technology available in the world,” Su said. “It consumes much less energy and fits into existing CPU sockets, too.” AMD's latest chipsets satisfy the higher demands of cloud computing and electronic circuit design applications.
Jason Zander, EVP Microsoft Azure, said that Microsoft's partnership with AMD has let the cloud computing company deliver cloud instances that can run up to 12 times the speed of earlier offerings. “That rivals some supercomputers,” he said. Azure has configured some of the most powerful virtual instances, which are running on the latest AMD EPYC™ processors. They are available from 16 cores up to 120 cores and can share 448 GB of memory and 480 MB of L3 cache among the processors. For deeper information, see this Microsoft blog.
Circuit design demands the fastest processors. “The next step for AMD is to deliver more differentiation in value with a focus on performance per core,” said Dan McNamara, general manager of AMD’s Server Business Unit. “In our tests comparing Synopsys VCS chip-design simulation software running on older and newer AMD EPYC™ CPUs, engineers were able to complete 66% more jobs in the same elapsed time, thanks to having a larger L3 cache. This means that more data can be kept closer to the processor for better performance.” These faster product design lifecycles mean faster times to market since designers can save time in the testing process.