"Naples" - bringing competition back to the x86 Server Market

It is clear that the datacenter has long been the lifeblood of large businesses, but it’s increasingly at the core of our culture and plays a central role in everyday life. Every interaction with the Internet and virtually every application you open on your phone relies on the compute and storage capabilities of a remote datacenter – a constant barrage of correlating, analyzing and delivering huge streams of data to people and devices all over the world.

At the core of every datacenter are the racks of servers running the code. The server is typically a non-descript looking box that has supported an incredible amount of innovation in software, with transformational streaming services and online transportation networks disrupting traditional business models and delighting users. But these fantastic new experiences run on server designs that are basically the same as they were 10 years ago – before that smart phone was in your pocket.

Last decade, AMD drove innovations that became the fundamental underpinnings of today’s server architecture. AMD firsts include support for 64-bit x86 code; multiple processor cores on a single chip; high-performance, scalable interconnects that allow the system to scale across sockets, and integrated memory controllers that feed the cores. Virtualization technology is also fundamental today and AMD drove the first virtualization hardware support allowing the server to be sliced up in many different virtualized or containerized services that are easily deployed at scale.

It’s this heritage of innovation that brought me to AMD a little over two years ago, and this same ingenuity is fueling AMD to make its much-needed return to the datacenter market. AMD understands what it takes to build the modern server and soon we will deliver on that promise.

This week AMD is disclosing for the first time information on “Naples,” a server CPU based on the highly regarded, high-performance “Zen” core. This 32-core, 64-thread CPU signals AMD’s re-entry into the high-performance server market and our intention to once again be a significant player in the datacenter. The new AMD server processor exceeds today’s top competitive offering on critical parameters, with 45% more cores1, 60% more input2 / output capacity (I/O), and 122% more memory bandwidth3.

With up to 64 cores, 4 TB of memory, and 128 lanes of PCIe® connectivity, two-socket servers built with the AMD “Naples” processor will have the flexibility, performance and security to support workloads that once required 4-socket or larger server configurations. With this much capacity, organizations can support even more virtual machines per server in virtualized and cloud computing environments. In addition, they can process even more data in parallel, and execute even more high-performance computing workloads that require massive parallelism.

Take Control of Your Technology Future

As we approach the opening of the 2017 Open Compute Project Summit, we’re energized to once-again join the global community of technology leaders who also see the value in rethinking datacenter hardware to create more efficient, flexible and scalable solutions.

The server market supports industries that are rapidly innovating such as machine learning, software defined storage, web services and data analytics. Being able to effectively support growing demands is a must. “Naples” is a result of AMD focusing on maximizing data center advancements and reducing complexity in technology components to deliver greater choice, customization and cost savings. The response from customers and partners has been tremendous. We are incredibly excited to bring a truly balanced system to the market that reflects the name, heritage and vision of “Zen.”

We’re looking forward to sharing more at the Open Compute Summit this week and continuing conversations with other technology leaders on what the future holds for next-generation data centers and how “Naples” works in an OCP world.

My postings are my own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

1.     AMD "Naples" processor includes up to 32 CPU cores versus the Xeon E5-2699A v4 processor with 22 CPU cores. NAP-02

2.     AMD "Naples" processor offers up to 64 PCI Express high speed I/O lanes per socket, versus the Xeon E5-2699A v4 processor at 40 lanes per socket. Note that the "Naples" pre-production processor used for this comparison is not yet certified as PCI Express-compliant. NAP-05

3.     AMD "Naples" processor supports up to 21.3 GB/s per channel with DDR4-2667 x 8 channels (total 170.7 GB/s), versus the Xeon E5-2699A v4 processor at 19.2 GB/s with max DDR4-2400 x 4 channels (total 76.8 GB/s). NAP-03