Alleged AMD EPYC Zen 4 Genoa Server CPU Pictured In The Flesh And It's An Absolute Unit
There wasn't any talk of AMD's eventual next-generation EPYC stack at the Consumer Electronics Show, and we didn't really expect there to be any. However, AMD has talked about its future server CPUs codenamed Genoa before. Between what AMD has said and various leaks and rumors, we have at least some kind of idea what it will bring to the table. And it will need to be a very big table, based on an actual product shot that has tipped up.
AMD's next-gen EPYC chips will make the jump to its Zen 4 architecture, which AMD did tease at CES, at least on the consumer side. Zen 4 will be manufactured on optimized 5-nanometer node and, as it applies to future Ryzen processors, will leverage a new AM5 socket and platform with support for DDR5 memory and PCI Express 5.0.
On the server side, Zen 4-based EPYC processors will slip into a spacious SP5 socket (LGA 6960). And now thanks to Reddit user Three-Feet-Cat, we have a look at what an EPYC Genoa chip looks like (shown above, click to enlarge).
That's a big chip, to say the least. Most of the markings are blurred out in the Genoa silicon picture, save for AMD's logo and the SP5 designation stamped onto the integrated heatspreader (IHS). Assuming the photo is the real deal, we can surmise that this is one of the early prototypes out in the wild. We even see it housed in its orange carrier frame.
No specs were shared, but we do have some official information from AMD about Genoa, as well as a bold claim.
"When introduced, we expect Genoa will be the world's highest performance processor for general purpose computing," AMD Dr. Lisa Su said last November. "It's designed to excel across a broad range of data center workloads, from enterprise to HPC to the public cloud."
AMD also confirmed that Genoa will be offered with up to 96 cores and 192 threads, and offer support for the new CXL interface. Samples are shipping to customers already too, so it's not too surprising to see a picture like this leak out.
The last word from AMD is that Genoa is on track to go into production and launch this year (same as its Zen 4 Ryzen CPUs). Then sometime later, AMD will introduce its EPYC "Bergamo" server chips based on Zen 4c, with up to 128 cores and 256 threads. Those will use the same socket and platform as Genoa, and ship in the first half of 2023.
