AMD EPYC Embedded 3000 series motherboards?
- Thread starter McKajVah
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I could drop a rant about how much I hate that everytime that AMD has a potentially extremely good product, there is no platform that actually uses it the way that I want. Sometimes there is no platform that uses it at all, or the product is nowhere to be found. I ranted soo much here about that, that I'm already tired of ranting.
I told the SM embedded team at RSA this week: EPYC 3000 with the onboard NICs would be really interesting as a product.
AMD told me I should start seeing boards within 45 days (not from SM)
AMD told me I should start seeing boards within 45 days (not from SM)
It's not like intel embedded parts have good availability and selection as retail components.
I'm not specifically ranting about the embedded parts. Mobile Raven Ridge looked like a killer CPU for Notebooks, but it took more than half a year since AMD officially launched it before a decent variety of models became available. The only market segment where Processors and Motherboards go hand to hand is Desktop.
Chances are that even if the embedded parts were more widely available, no Motherboard would arrange the PCIe Lanes and offer the features the way I would want them, and instead you would see me ranting about that, heh.
Does anyone know already how price of Epyc 3000 compares to Xeon D 2100?
And it puzzles me that SM still seems to have no plan for Epyc 3000... they must be afraid of getting Intel upset.
I agree that AMD has a big channel problem, me I would love to buy mini PCs based on Ryzen Mobile to replace our workstations. For most office workers, a PC needs nothing more than a modern 15W CPU with iGPU, 2 SO-DIMM slots, an m2 slot and some USB/Eth/DP/HDMI ports. Shouldn't AMD begin taking matters on their own hands by now? Why can't they launch their own "NUCs" and motherboards?
And it puzzles me that SM still seems to have no plan for Epyc 3000... they must be afraid of getting Intel upset.
I agree that AMD has a big channel problem, me I would love to buy mini PCs based on Ryzen Mobile to replace our workstations. For most office workers, a PC needs nothing more than a modern 15W CPU with iGPU, 2 SO-DIMM slots, an m2 slot and some USB/Eth/DP/HDMI ports. Shouldn't AMD begin taking matters on their own hands by now? Why can't they launch their own "NUCs" and motherboards?
@mbello pricing covered here https://www.servethehome.com/amd-epyc-embedded-3000-series-launch-watch-out-xeon-d/
Embedded systems vendors often make what their customers are asking for. I have given the feedback to SM in-person that I think they should do an EPYC 3000 series board.
Embedded systems vendors often make what their customers are asking for. I have given the feedback to SM in-person that I think they should do an EPYC 3000 series board.
I had an idea that AMD should actually design "reference Motherboards", which they technically do for their own internal platform prototypes, but they should license it to their Motherboard partners to manufacture it and give support and warranty. Can't see why it shouldn't work when it already does for reference Video Cards...
I think that a massive advantage would be that if AMD designed a Motherboard from the ground up, they could decide what market to cater. They could roll their own Coreboot port and hand pick the other support chips of the platform based on end user documentation, and go open source where it matters (I could also rant about how much I dislike the 100% libre guys that wants even open source microcode and other things that would get into an eternal lawyer maze, when I think that getting a community maintenable BIOS or UEFI implementation without begging the Motherboard manufacturer is far more important short term). AMD could also implement those present but rarely used features, like DASH.
I recall that I asked Supermicro about if they were intending to do an overclockeable Workstation-level LGA 1151 Motherboard, since the Xeons E3 1200v5 required a C232 or C236 Chipset, and they were the first to do Base Clock overclocking on Skylake, making such Motherboard a rather interesing niche product. I got a response that they were going to elevate my suggestion.
Supermicro eventually appeared in the market with the C7C232-CB-ML, which is around what other manufacturers did (For some reason no one made one with a C236, which was required to use the IGP). Sadly, for Supermicro the party finished before it started, it was too late. By then, Intel already issued microcode upgrades that removed Base Clock overclocking in Skylake, and the niche wasn't very popular to begin with. Is sad cause it doesn't seem that they are economically encouraged to commit to do a revolutionary product, even when they seem to be honestly trying to get into the enthusiast market segment.
8 Zen cores, quad channel memory, 2x10Gbe, 16 SATA/NVMe, make it MATX with 2xPCIe x16.
Oh man I can't hold my breath XD
Actually, I think that it would be excellent even with a single Zen die. Socket AM4 is rather underwhelming because it can't use a Zen die 32 PCIe Lanes, just 24 (16x for a single slot or 8x/8x, 4x typically for NVMe, and 4x for Chipset). The embedded Zen has no such limitation and thus you can actually use the extra 8 lanes. The dual Zen die EPYC is pretty much a ThreadRipper, and it is not as interesing as the single die Zen precisely because ThreadRipper already had the 2 * 32 lanes available. Another advantage of the embedded ones is official ECC RAM support.
Just think what could you do with 32 Lanes from a Ryzen SoC with no Chipset. The only thing where it is a bit underwhelming is that it only has 4 USB 3.0 and would absolutely need a third party controller. A ThunderBolt 3 could provide two more USB 3.1 but take 4 lanes. You can also use 4 lanes for 2 * 10 Gbps NICs. I think its perfect for an mATX Form Factor.
Raven Ridge would actually be even better if it wasn't because it has 8 lanes less than Zen (Not sure if die is missing them, or no product actually said that it also had a total of 32), but you get a beastly IGP in exchange of 4 cores.
I can live with that honestly. Not many things could saturate 4 USB 3.0 ports, and you can always get a hub somewhere around, even keyboards and monitors nowadays integrate USB 3.0 hubs.
Add an IGP and it's HTPC+NAS. Add 4x Gbe and it's a (overkill) router+NAS. Add Reg ECC support and it's a VM lab.
So many possibilities here XD
This embedded Ryzen board is cool. My Sapphire FS-FP5V embedded board arrived (AMD Ryzen V1605B with Vega 8) : Amd
*ears prick up*
I don't know how much you're able to divulge, but is this from a "good" server board vendor or from a relative no-name...? And do you know whether you'll be able to snag one to review if and when they're released?
I don't know how much you're able to divulge, but is this from a "good" server board vendor or from a relative no-name...? And do you know whether you'll be able to snag one to review if and when they're released?