Tag: servers

AMD has started mass production of Zen 6. Only for Epycs for now?

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

It’s been nearly two years since AMD’s Zen 5 architecture launched (in late July and early August 2024) and time is ripe for a successor—especially given how far competitors such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and Apple’s M5 have advanced in the meantime. AMD’s answer in the form of the Zen 6 architecture is now finally getting closer—the company has announced the ramp up of production, which could signal a launch later this year. Read more “AMD has started mass production of Zen 6. Only for Epycs for now?” »

A deal that could change everything: Nvidia to acquire a PC maker

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

A report surfaced online last week that may not be entirely surprising given how wealthy Nvidia has become, but the potential consequences would be shocking. According to SemiAccurate, run by longtime IT journalist Charlie Demerjian, Nvidia is preparing to acquire a major PC vendor—or at least a “PC‑oriented company.” Such an acquisition could turn Nvidia into a vertically integrated market hegemon similar to Apple. Read more “A deal that could change everything: Nvidia to acquire a PC maker” »

Intel reverses course: Hyper-Threading returns to CPUs

Processors, News | | Jan Olšan

We’ve already written about the painful measures Intel is implementing get out of the deep red numbers it sunk into due to maintaining and building its own chip fabs (because as a “fabless” player, Intel would be profitable). Among them, however, is one unexpected development: Intel processors are set to reintroduce Hyper-Threading technology for processing multiple threads simultaneously. And this is actually quite peculiar… Read more “Intel reverses course: Hyper-Threading returns to CPUs” »

Power11 is here: New generation of IBM RISC processors detailed

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Fans of alternative CPUs now have a new thing to talk about besides the mainstream offerings from Intel, AMD and the increasingly established Arm. Five years after Power10, a new generation is here: IBM Power11. Though it has to be said it’s focusing on enterprise systems and users, and IBM is no longer targeting mass-market servers or workstations, so this hardware is unlikely to end up in the hands of regular users. Read more “Power11 is here: New generation of IBM RISC processors detailed” »

AMD roadmap: Zen 7 CPUs coming as soon as in 2027?

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

AMD recently held a conference titled Advancing AI 2025, which – as you might guess – focused entirely on new developments in artificial intelligence hardware and software. Processors are a part of AI servers and racks, and at the conference, AMD revealed something that relates not just to AI, but to computing as a whole. The company showed a server platform roadmap that appears to be revealing when Zen 7 will arrive. Read more “AMD roadmap: Zen 7 CPUs coming as soon as in 2027?” »

SSD reaches 122TB capacity, beating largest HDD by four times

News, SSDs | | Jan Olšan

Not so long ago, one could wonder how long it would take SSDs to overtake hard disk drives in capacity. It’s a while since that has happened, but the capacity of electronic storage based on NAND Flash memory continues to grow at a much faster rate than that of magnetic platters. While WD and Seagate have only just passed the 30TB capacity mark, SSDs now offer four times that. The price per unit of capacity, however, will be somewhere else. Read more “SSD reaches 122TB capacity, beating largest HDD by four times” »

Epyc 4004: AMD introduces server processors for AM5 socket

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Some time ago we reported that AMD is preparing a low-cost server processor platform based on the AM5 desktop socket, derived from Ryzen CPUs. This  has now been confirmed, the company has officially launched these processors as Epyc 4004. They can have up to 16 cores as well as V-Cache, but there is even a quad-core model, which you won’t normally find in a desktop. Otherwise, though, these the specs closely match Ryzen SKUs for PC. Read more “Epyc 4004: AMD introduces server processors for AM5 socket” »

Intel launches new Emerald Rapids Xeon CPUs with fast cadence

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Last week, Intel released 4nm Meteor Lake processors with long-awaited chiplet architecture. At the same time, Intel is also releasing the second generation of chiplet Xeons called “Emerald Rapids”. It follows very quickly after the previous “Sapphire Rapids” and, along with various improvements and fixes, it curiously walks back on chiplets a bit, as it uses only two instead of four. This has not only reduced costs but also power draw. Read more “Intel launches new Emerald Rapids Xeon CPUs with fast cadence” »

Amazon unveils 96-core ARM Graviton4 CPU and Trainium2 AI chip

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Last month, Microsoft unveiled their first custom processors being developed for datacenter and Azure services. Also Amazon, which was the first of these US hyperscalers to go the custom hardware route, is now launching new CPUs for its servers. And with it Trainium2, already the second generation of an in-house developed AI accelerator. Amazon also revealed that it has already produced over two million of its CPUs. Read more “Amazon unveils 96-core ARM Graviton4 CPU and Trainium2 AI chip” »

Nvidia’s new fastest AI GPU: H200 with 141GB of HBM3E memory

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

Last year, Nvidia launched the 4nm H100 accelerator with Hopper architecture. It has since been the company’s fastest GPU for AI. Now the company is launching its successor dubbed H200. It isn’t quite a new generation yet, but something of a refresh that will lead Nvidia’s lineup until the next generation with the Blackwell architecture is released. The H200 relies on the use of faster memory, but that should also lift overall performance. Read more “Nvidia’s new fastest AI GPU: H200 with 141GB of HBM3E memory” »

AMD launches Epyc 8004: lower-cost, lower-power SP6 platform

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

This year, AMD has already released the Epyc 9004 “Genoa”, a 96-core server version of the Zen 4 architecture and even the HPC Genoa-X models equipped with 3D V-Cache. Now they are joined by a separate family – processors codenamed Siena, which are specifically designed for lower power draw and lower cost. They have their own SP6 platform with six-channel memory controller (so the boards should cost less too) and TDPs starting from 70W. Read more “AMD launches Epyc 8004: lower-cost, lower-power SP6 platform” »

Jim Keller’s new firm plans RISC-V CPUs with Apple-like wide cores

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

RISC-V processors are still yet to reach above the embedded sector, but with the current developments around ARM, they may be closer to that goal than we think. They ISA might even come to the highest performance processor segment currently ruled by Intel and AMD that ARM itself (with the exception of Apple) is still just trying to crack. Tenstorrent, led by Jim Keller, is now developing processors that could be close to those from Apple. Read more “Jim Keller’s new firm plans RISC-V CPUs with Apple-like wide cores” »

Russia has local Baikal-S server CPUs. 6nm 128-core in the works

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

In the summer we reported that Russia is now making (or rather designing, as fabbing will happen at TSMC) its own ARM Baikal-M CPUs, which are also being used in computers intended for state administration. It was an outdated SoC with Cortex-A57, the very first 64-bit ARM cores. But now the same company has a much cooler processor: a 48-core with a newer architecture that could replace the cheaper server Xeons and Epycs. Read more “Russia has local Baikal-S server CPUs. 6nm 128-core in the works” »