AMD’s Entire Epyc ‘Rome’ Product Stack Just Leaked

Whoops. The Eurasian Economic Commission has accidentally leaked AMD’s entire upcoming Rome product stack. While we don’t know the CPUs clock speeds yet, the data revealed shows model numbers, core counts, and TDPs. If true, AMD plans to expand the total number of SKUs it offers. Currently, the company sells 14 different Epyc CPUs. There’s a single 200W SKU (Epyc 7371, 32C/64T, 3.1GHz base, 3.8GHz boost), and one 120W SKU (Epyc 7251, 8C/16T, 2.1GHz base, 2.9GHz boost). Most current Epyc CPUs have a TDP between 150-180W.

With that in mind, here’s the newly leaked data. We’ve highlighted a few of the more interesting SKUs in bold.

There are a few interesting data points here. First, the Epyc 7702P. AMD’s lowest-TDP 64-core CPU squeezes into a 200W dissipation window. While TDP is not power consumption and cannot be treated as a proxy for it, Intel’s Cascade Lake-AP CPUs have a 250W TDP for the 32-core parts, 350W for the 48-core, and 400W on the 56-core CPU. Obviously, we can’t begin to compare performance without knowing something of frequency, but the benefits of 7nm are plain to see.

The Epyc 7282 is another interesting CPU. Previously, AMD’s only 120W Epyc was an 8-core chip. Now the company has managed to squeeze 16 cores into the same thermal dissipation envelope, even in its full server form factor with eight-channel memory support.

As for the bottom-end eight-cores, AMD apparently saw enough demand for the Epyc 7251 (the single 120W 8-core SKU on 14nm) for it to be worth their while to build an explicit single-socket and multi-socket variant of that core on 7nm.

It’ll be very interesting to see how AMD’s formal power consumption figures come out against Intel this time around. If I had to guess, I’d guess that the reason we don’t see a more dramatic reduction in TDPs is for one of two reasons. Either AMD opted to use its TDP headroom in its server parts to aggressively chase frequency improvements, or it left itself plenty of thermal space for the increased heat of AVX2 workloads.

AMD has not given a firm launch date for its Rome CPUs yet. They are expected in-market before the end of 2019.

Continue reading

Third-Party Repair Shops May Be Blocked From Servicing iPhone 12 Camera

According to a recent iFixit report, Apple's hostility to the right of repair has hit new heights with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.

Google Pixel Slate Owners Report Failing Flash Storage

Google's product support forums are flooded with angry Pixel Slate owners who say their devices are running into frequent, crippling storage errors.

Massachusetts Passes Robust Automotive Right-to-Repair Law

Right to repair advocates scored a major victory this week with the passage of Question 1 in Massachusetts. Hailed as the most advanced right to repair law in the land, Question 1 requires that automakers create an open data platform for sharing diagnostic and repair information with independent shops and vehicle owners.

Sony May Let Users Move Games Off PS5, Xbox Series X SSD Is User-Replaceable

Microsoft is using a user-replaceable SSD for the Xbox Series X, while Sony is researching PS5 game transfers.