AMD unleashes intriguing new EPYC server CPUs — and its main feature could be key for Ryzen’s future

AMD has finally launched its EPYC 8004-series processors, a dozen of them, with a new SP6 socket and up to 64 Zen-4c cores (128 threads). The Siena CPU range completes the family whose other members include Genoa (high performance), Genoa-X (big cache) and Bergamo (cloud native). In AMD’s own words, Siena is a new swim lane in its core roadmap.

The top of the range model, the single-socket 8534P, has a base frequency of 2.3GHz with 128MB L3 cache and a 200W TDP; an network-specialized version (PN) focusing on edge-optimized and communication servers is also available with a lower TDP and lower base frequency but a wider operating temperature range.

Despite being slower, the PN parts will sell for more (about 10% dearer) but overall AMD is still less expensive than the equivalent Intel part. The new processors will go heads on against a plethora of Xeon processors ...