CONNECT WITH US

AMD intros new Instinct, Ryzen, and EPYC processors for data centers and PCs

Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES Asia, Taipei 0

Credit: AMD

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, unveiled today (June 3) at the Computex 2024 opening keynote address new leadership CPU, NPU, and GPU architectures that will enable end-to-end AI infrastructure spanning from the data center to PCs.

AMD unveiled an expanded roadmap for the AMD Instinct accelerator, introducing an annual cadence of industry-leading AI accelerators, including the forthcoming fourth-quarter release of the AMD Instinct MI325X accelerator, which features industry-leading memory capacity. In addition, AMD unveiled the fifth-generation AMD EPYC server processors, which are anticipated to be released in the second half of 2024.

AMD, meanwhile, unveiled the AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series, the third generation of mobile processors equipped with AMD AI, and the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series processors, which are designed for notebooks and desktop computers, respectively.

"At Computex, we were proud to be joined by Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, Asus, and other strategic partners to launch our next-generation Ryzen desktop and notebook processors, preview the leadership performance of our next-generation EPYC processors, and announce a new annual cadence for AMD Instinct AI accelerators," said Su.

In AMD's statement, Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella indicated "We are excited to partner with AMD to deliver these new Ryzen AI-powered Copilot+ PCs. We are very committed to our collaboration with AMD and we'll continue to push AI progress forward together across the cloud and edge to bring new value to our joint customers."

Leadership AI and enterprise compute for data center

AMD presented its enlarged multi-generational accelerator strategy, demonstrating how it intends to provide performance and memory leadership on a yearly basis for generative AI. The expanded roadmap includes AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, which are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2024 and feature industry-leading memory capacity with 288GB of ultra-fast HBM3E memory, extending AMD's generative AI capabilities. The AMD Instinct MI350 Series will be powered by the next-generation AMD CDNA 4 architecture, which is predicted to improve AI inference performance by up to 35x over the AMD Instinct MI300 Series with AMD CDNA 3. The CDNA "Next" architecture, which will power MI400 series accelerators in 2026, will continue to improve performance and feature sets.

The 5th-generation AMD EPYC processors (codenamed "Turin"), which were previewed today at Computex, will use the "Zen 5" core to maintain the AMD EPYC processor family's leadership performance and efficiency. The 5th-gen AMD EPYC processors are expected to be available in the second half of 2024.

At the keynote, Nadella highlighted how AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators deliver leading price/performance on GPT-4 inference for Microsoft Azure workloads.

PC for intelligent, personal experiences

Su was joined by executives from Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and Asustek to introduce new PC experiences powered by AMD's 3rd-generation Ryzen AI 300 and 9000 Series desktop processors.

AMD detailed its next-generation "Zen 5" CPU core, built from the ground up for leadership performance and energy efficiency spanning from supercomputers and the cloud to PCs. AMD also unveiled the AMD XDNA 2 NPU core architecture that delivers 50 TOPs of AI processing performance and up to 2x projected power efficiency for generative AI workloads compared to the prior generation.

The AMD XDNA 2 architecture-based NPU is the industry's first and only NPU supporting advanced Block FP16 data type, delivering increased accuracy compared to lower precision data types used by competitive NPUs without sacrificing performance. Together, "Zen 5," AMD XDNA 2 and AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics enable next-gen AI experiences in laptops powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors.

On stage at Computex, ecosystem partners showcased how they are working with AMD to unlock new AI experiences for PCs. Microsoft highlighted its longstanding partnership with AMD and announced AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors exceed Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements. HP unveiled new Copilot+ PCs powered by AMD, including the HP Pavilion Aero, and demonstrated image generator Stable Diffusion XL Turbo running locally on an HP laptop powered by a Ryzen AI 300 Series processor.

Lenovo revealed upcoming consumer and commercial laptops powered by Ryzen AI 300 Series processors and highlighted how it is leveraging Ryzen AI to enable new Lenovo AI software. Asus showcased a broad portfolio of AI PCs for business users, consumers, content creators, and gamers powered by Ryzen AI 300 Series processors.

AMD also unveiled the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series desktop processors based on the "Zen 5" architecture, delivering leadership performance in gaming, productivity and content creation. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processors are the world's fastest consumer desktop processors.

Separately, AMD announced the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot workstation graphics card, optimized to deliver scalable AI performance for platforms supporting multiple GPUs. AMD also unveiled AMD ROCm 6.1 for AMD Radeon GPUs, designed to make AI development and deployment with AMD Radeon desktop GPUs more compatible, accessible, and scalable.

Next wave of edge AI innovation

AMD showcased how its AI and adaptive computing technology is driving the next surge of AI innovation at the edge. Only AMD integrates all the intellectual property necessary to accelerate AI applications at the edge.

The highest-performing single-chip adaptive solution for edge AI is provided by the new AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2. It combines FPGA programmable logic for real-time pre-processing, next-generation AI Engines powered by XDNA technology for efficient AI inference, and embedded CPUs for post-processing. Early access to AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices is presently available, with over 30 key partners developing these devices.

AMD showcased its ability to facilitate AI at the periphery across various industries, with Illumina being one of the companies utilizing cutting-edge AMD technology to harness the capabilities of genome sequencing. Subaru's EyeSight ADAS Platform, which will assist the company in achieving its "zero-fatalities" goal by 2030, is powered by AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices; Canon's Free Viewpoint Video System, which will revolutionize the viewing experience for live sports broadcasts and webcasts; and Hitachi Energy's HVDC protection relays, which will utilize AMD adaptive computing technology for real-time processing to predict electrical overvoltage.