Computex 2017: AMD Press conference on Threadripper and X399

The AMD press conference covered several topics mainly, Vega and of course everything Ryzen related from mobile to PC. In this news-item we’ll go a little deeper into the CPU part, aka Threadripper 16-core processors and their respective X300 series Chipset platform.

AMD has been talking EPIC processors and ODM PCs like the ones from Dell, HP and ASUS. ASUS was showing their new 8-core Ryzen based laptop we mentioned in an earlier news-item. AMD has been going string with the initial launch wave of Ryzen. Ryzen Series 5 and 7 are out series 3 would be released later this year as well as the Pro series and mobile series for laptops. That would be a part with integrated graphics (IGP), which as always, AMD calls and APU. AMD talked a lot about ODM systems (system integrators) like Dell.

Ryzen for Mobile versus ThreadRipper ... quite a difference in size :)

I’ll stick towards the enthusiast range of products though as the big word is Threadripper processors for weeks now. AMD will released the Threadripper series processor. It was announced already, 16-core part processor parts. Ryzen is fabbed using a 14nm FinFet process. That fabrication node has been in use and refined for over a year now hence earlier on we already posted that processor yields (fabrication at 14nm) are good for AMD. Hence they can quickly and expand to more cores. (Ry) Zen processor dies aren't that massive, that helps in wafer yields. With 14nm FinFET yields high, the AMD Threadripper series processors make sense for AMD to be released for the consumer segment on an enthusiast series motherboards. Threadripper processors are the 8-core Summit Ridge dies doubled up. The 16-core and 32-threaded processor series have been detailed a bit more on the press-conference. Threadripper remain on track for a release this summer. And since the summer ends in September we can assume that the actual release could be in an August time-frame. 

Confirmed are the 64 PCIe lanes gen 3.0), quad channel DDR4 memory.

Threadripper is not a codename as was earlier on mentioned in the same conference call, this actually will be the brand name for the 16, 14 and 12 core parts from AMD. The codename remains to be Whitehaven. This means that it will not be called a Ryzen 9 series processor (but hey who knows as that could change right?). The Whitehaven motherboard platform should includes support for quad-channel DDR4 memory support and offer additional PCIe lanes. Some unconfirmed additional rumors on these processors can be read up here. The platform will be using Socket design SP3r2, a 4094-pin socket that was developed for the AMD Naples series server processors, but again, AMD did a 180 and is introducing it also as high-end desktop platform series processors and chipsets. Whitehaven will bring quad-channel towards the processor series and the most high-end process would get a 155W TDP, 125W for the 10 core parts.

• Expected to feature up to 16 cores and 32 threads
• All new high end desktop platform that will include more memory and I/O bandwidth than the current AM4 platform
• Targeted at the world’s fastest ultra premium desktop and workstation systems
• Coming in Summer 2017

The table below is unconfirmed and based upon earlier leaked and _totally_ unconfirmed information.

X399 motherboards

X399 platforms for AMDs High-end desktop platform, let's call them enthusiast class processors. These would be intended for the CPUs like we mentioned earlier today, the 16-core / 32-threaded parts. Much like the X99/X299 platform from Intel. ASUS already announced the Zenith Extreme X399 Motherboard yesterday. That dude of a mobo offers quad DDR4 channels, and it’s backed by up to a whopping 64 PCIe 3.0 lanes for multiple graphics cards and ultra-fast NVMe SSDs. This Threadripper ready mobo holds 8x DDR4 DIMM modules that can hold 128 GB of DDR4 memory and 4x PCIe x16 slots and support up to three NVMe M.2 drives. As you can spot on the photos, power delivery is supplied with a dual 8 pin connector configuration along with a 24 Pin ATX connector.  There are four PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCI-e 3.0 x4 and then a single PCI-e 3.0 x1 slot. Storage wise this mobo has 6 SATA III ports, a single U.2 port, two USB 3.0 front panel headers and an internal USB 2.0 port. You'll notice one more (extra) DIMM slot, this is called Dimm.2 and you can pop in an addon card that can house two M2 SSDs. A rather unusual yet intersting way of implementing that alright. The motherboard will get a 10 Gbit ethernet (Aquantia AQtion AQC107 10Gb ethernet controller), by means of a PCI-Express add-in card, but also will get dual-band Wi-Fi solution that supports the new 802.11ad protocol and is capable of theoretical tranfer rates up to 4.6Gbps.

The Zenith Extreme obviously is going to support ASUS AURA Sync RGB lighting and will support SupremeFX audio. More news and info on this product will follow, below have a browse at some of the photos as a bit of an exclusive sneak peak. Dang, that SP3 4094 pins socket!