AMD Launches EPYC 7002 Zen 2 CPU Family With New Servers Shipping From Lenovo And Soon Dell

With that in mind, AMD tonight is officially launching its second-generation “Rome” EPYC 7002 processor family that is based on Zen 2. These new EPYC processors share a lot in common architecturally with the Ryzen 3000 processors, so we’ll point you to our in-depth look at what makes Zen 2 tick here. And for a more specific look at these second-generation EPYC processors, check out our latest article here.

Getting down to brass tacks, the new EPYC 7002 family of processors is quite comprehensive, covering both 1P (single-socket) and 2P (dual-socket) SKUs. Single-socket processors are available in 8/16 (core/thread), 16/32, 24/48, 32/64, and 64/128 configurations. The dual-socket processors largely follow the same approach, but squeezes in 12-core/24-thread and 48-core/96-thread SKUs as well.

Generally speaking, the processors with the fewest number of cores boast the higher base clocks. For example, the EPYC 7262 (2P) features 8 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 3.2GHz, and a boost clock of 3.4GHz. Both clocks are the highest possible from this new EPYC family. When you look at the monster 64-core/128-thread EPYC 7742 (2P), the base clock drops all the way down to 2.25GHz, but it still maintains the 3.4GHz boost frequency.

No matter which processor you select, there are a few things that are common among them, including 8-channel DDR4-3200 support (maximum 4TB per socket), a total of 128 PCIe lanes (including support for PCIe 4), Secure Memory Encryption and Secure Encrypted Virtualization. 

AMD isn’t talking about pricing at the moment for the new EPYC 7002 series, but if history is any indicator, we should expect competitive pricing with comparable Intel Xeon processors. And as you might expect, AMD’s partners have already announced systems that use the new EPYC processors, including Lenovo. Lenovo announced new ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 single-socket server platforms using EPYC 7002 processors.

“Lenovo’s endless pursuit of innovations to accelerate our customers’ intelligent transformation has been paramount in our rise to become one of the fastest growing data center OEMs in the world,” said Doug Fisher, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Units, Lenovo Data Center Group.

“Today Lenovo is expanding our AMD relationship with new, fully optimized solutions to help our joint customers address complex and data-intensive workloads, enabling them to do more with less while still providing uncompromised end-to-end security.”

Likewise, Dell EMC PowerEdge servers will be fully optimized to leverage the new EPYC 7002 processors as well. “As workloads become more demanding and complex, Dell Technologies is focused on helping organizations succeed in dynamic environments using innovative and industry-leading server designs,” said Ravi Pendekanti, SVP of Product Management, Server & Infrastructure Systems, Dell Technologies.

“Through close collaboration with AMD, we are addressing the demands of traditional, virtualized, hybrid and multi-cloud workloads with a broad portfolio of PowerEdge servers, including newly designed servers optimized for 2nd Generation AMD EPYC processors.”

Dell EMC systems with the new AMD EPYC 7002 processors will be shipping later this year.