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AMD Offers Full Details and Performance of Zen-Based Naples Server Platform (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: AMD lifted the veil this morning on architecture details and performance expectations of its next generation Zen-based server platform, codenamed Naples. Naples is an up to 32-core, 64-thread variant of Zen, targeted at enterprise and data center applications. The processors will feature eight-channel DDR4 memory controllers (with up to 16 DIMMs attached per CPU), with support for up to 4TB of memory and 128 lanes of on-chip PCI Express connectivity. In a 2P (dual processor/dual socket) configuration, Naples offers up to 64 physical cores (128 threads), access to 32 DIMM slots, and aggregate 16 memory channels. Versus a 2P Intel Xeon E5-2699A V4 based server, the 2P Naples setup ends up with double the memory channels, a higher total memory capacity, more cores (20 more physical cores, 40 more threads), and 48 more available PCI Express lanes. AMD's performance comparisons at its tech day event pit a 2P Naples server with 512GB of DDR4 RAM up against a 2P Intel Xeon E4-2699A V4 configuration with 384GB of RAM. The Naples system had a higher memory capacity and that memory was clocked much higher too -- 2400MHz versus 1866MHz. The Naples system has more cores, and with SMT on, can ultimately process more threads as a result. The AMD Naples system also has double the memory channels, further improving peak memory bandwidth. In its demos, AMD used a seismic analysis workload, which involved multiple iterations of 3D wave equations. According to AMD, the test taxes the entire system, including CPU cores, memory and I/O. In this demo, the AMD server system completed equations roughly 2.5x faster than the dual-socket Intel Xeon server. Expected price points weren't given, but Naples processors and servers should be available in Q2 this year.
The Xeon line has been pretty lame for the last couple of years. It's nice to see some competition.
The Ryzen CPUs support ECC, but the parts haven't gone through the server level validation for it. It's up to motherboard manufacturers whether or not to support it, and I expect we'll see "home server" 300 series boards with ECC support in the near future.
The Naples parts will absolutely support ECC. It's pretty much mandatory for server parts these days.
Never underestimate the stupidity inherent in all human beings.
The Ryzen CPUs support ECC, but the parts haven't gone through the server level validation for it. It's up to motherboard manufacturers whether or not to support it, and I expect we'll see "home server" 300 series boards with ECC support in the near future.
Historically one of the huge advantages of AMD is that ECC has been available on much lower end parts than Intel. I hope that continues.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The article doesn't mention support for error correction for the RAM. If a bit gets flipped somewhere in a massive research project running on such a system with 4 to 8 TB RAM, the entire project could be ruined.
ECC, anyone?
All the AMD processors support ECC. You need to explicitly criple it like Intel does not to. It need to be certified with the motherboard though, and most consumer motherboards don't do that, and many also don't provide the tools to access if any error-corrections are done.