There will be another variant for the fourth generation Epyc data center chips called Siena. The focus is primarily on performance per watt for edge applications.

AMD has been causing a stir for some time with the fourth generation of Epyc chips, to which Intel has so far been unable to find an answer. There are already three variants (Genoa, Bergamo and Genoa-X) that focus on various high-end situations in the cloud, data centers and technical projects. With the Epyc Siena 8004 series, AMD is adding a fourth variant that trades pure performance for energy efficiency in edge situations.

Thanks to the chiplet design of the Epyc server chips, AMD has conveniently removed some features from the Genoa chip to focus on other things. Below you will find an overview of all changes:

The main change is that Epyc Siena 8004 uses a new socket, SP6, and is only available in a single socket configuration. The TDP per chip is significantly lower, which is the main goal of this new chip series from AMD.

From 8 to 64 cores

While Epyc Genoa 9004 is available in Zen 4 and Zen 4c, Epyc Siena 8004 is only available in Zen 4c. The reason is that this architecture (both 5nm) is much more energy efficient and optimized for density. At a “logical” level, both are identical (same ISA, L1 and L2 cache), which means that the code for the software is identical between Zen 4 and Zen 4c.

AMD provides a total of twelve Epyc Siena chips that manufacturers and suppliers can use. In fact, there are six different chips, of which a NEBS-friendly version with a fixed TDP value is always available.

Supplement with emphasis on margins

With the new Epyc Siena 8004 chips, AMD is targeting certain edge situations where a stripped-down server chip with a better power-to-watt ratio than the high-end Epyc Genoa 9004 chips is preferred.

In his presentation, the chip manufacturer refers to situations such as voice and image processing in telecommunications buildings, regional cloud locations, external mini data centers or the backbone of a network cloud with a rack infrastructure of 8,000 to 12,000 watts per rack.

With the Epyc Siena 8004 chips, AMD is also targeting demanding edge locations, including base stations at telecommunications providers, metro sites or business-level control systems.

Dell, Lenovo and Supermicro already have systems that accommodate the new chip in configurations for various edge situations. Other names such as HPE, Oracle, Gigabyte and Fujitsu are also showing their commitment to adopting the new portfolio. It is not known when the first systems will be available.