Shouldn't AMD begin taking matters on their own hands by now? Why can't they launch their own "NUCs" and motherboards?
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.
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 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.