AMD Collaborates with Microsoft to Advance Open Source Cloud Hardware

[btarunr]

At the 2017 Open Compute Project U.S. Summit, AMD announced their collaboration with Microsoft to incorporate the cloud delivery features of AMD's next-generation "Naples" processor with Microsoft's Project Olympus -- Microsoft's next-generation hyperscale cloud hardware design and a new model for open source hardware development with the OCP community.

Through Microsoft's contribution of the Project Olympus design much earlier in the cycle than many OCP projects, AMD was able to engage early on in the design process and foster a deep collaboration around the strategic integration of AMD's upcoming "Naples" processor. The performance, scalability and efficiency found at the core of Project Olympus and AMD's "Naples" processor means the updated cloud hardware design can adapt to meet the application demands of global datacenter customers.



"Next quarter AMD will bring hardware innovation back into the datacenter and server markets with our high-performance 'Naples' x86 CPU, that was designed with the needs of cloud providers, enterprise OEMs and customers in mind," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president of enterprise systems, AMD. "Today we are proud to continue our support for the Open Compute Project by announcing our collaboration on Microsoft's Project Olympus."
Kushagra Vaid, general manager and distinguished engineer, Azure Cloud Hardware Infrastructure, Microsoft Corp. said, "Collaboration across the open source community is central to driving rapid innovation and creating a vibrant ecosystem for Microsoft's Project Olympus. Partnership in design, such as our collaboration with AMD, shows how engaging early and often with hardware innovators can produce open source designs that are faster to market and customizable to enable flexibility and choice for end users."

Designed to securely scale across the cloud datacenter and traditional on-premise server configurations, "Naples" delivers the "Zen" x86 processing engine in configurations of up to 32 cores. Access to vast amounts of memory, and industry-leading on-chip support for high-speed input / output channels in a single-chip SoC further differentiates "Naples" from anything else in the server market today. The first "Naples" processors are scheduled to be available in Q2, with expected volume availability building in the second half of 2017 through OEM and channel partners.

AMD will deliver two presentations on "Naples" and its datacenter strategy this week during the Summit. Scott Aylor, vice president of enterprise solutions will talk in the main hall on Wed., March 8th at 4:55 PM, while Dan Bounds, senior director of enterprise products, will deliver an engineering Tech Talk on Thurs., March 9th at 9:20 AM on the Expo Hall stage.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Sounds like a good thing, but... what does it mean for end-users? I hope this means better online gaming latency (MMO's). Prolly too far off to make a difference now.

 

[Aenra]

Sounds like a good thing, but... what does it mean for end-users? I hope this means better online gaming latency (MMO's)

Frankly that's a non issue for me; i never 'got' the latency complaint. Had been playing MMOs on a 212KBs/sec for a decade and never an issue, never mind cloud and all that, didn't even exist (have you seen what Sony called 'servers' back then? And i was in Europe mind, nothing 'local' at the time). All these new cloud toys, they haven't changed a thing for me. And i'm talking competitively, have a couple of world firsts to show. Anyway, least of our worries, smallest of benefits.

A couple of days ago, we get the Microsoft ARM announcement. Am already recalling former AMD efforts that were purposefully gimped by another giant.
Today we get this. You put two and two together, this means the Red Team has a good chance to up its profits, as it will broaden its market share (politely putting it, lol, as it's non-existent in this segment right now). This in turn means higher budgets, which translates to higher potential/improved manufacturing lines.

Latency be damned, we've got bigger fish to fry. Just imagine how better the whole Ryzen thing could have gone had they not time running against them

 

[eidairaman1]

Good news for Team Green-Red

 

[evernessince]

Frankly that's a non issue for me; i never 'got' the latency complaint. Had been playing MMOs on a 212KBs/sec for a decade and never an issue, never mind cloud and all that, didn't even exist (have you seen what Sony called 'servers' back then? And i was in Europe mind, nothing 'local' at the time). All these new cloud toys, they haven't changed a thing for me. And i'm talking competitively, have a couple of world firsts to show. Anyway, least of our worries, smallest of benefits.

A couple of days ago, we get the Microsoft ARM announcement. Am already recalling former AMD efforts that were purposefully gimped by another giant.
Today we get this. You put two and two together, this means the Red Team has a good chance to up its profits, as it will broaden its market share (politely putting it, lol, as it's non-existent in this segment right now). This in turn means higher budgets, which translates to higher potential/improved manufacturing lines.

Latency be damned, we've got bigger fish to fry. Just imagine how better the whole Ryzen thing could have gone had they not time running against them

Just going to point out,

There's a BIG difference between uploading and download what amounts to less than 500 KB/s on an MMO and streaming HD, 2K, and 4K games. Streaming a game requiring you to not only send the HD video feed, which just for 1080p is around 1.2 MB/s, but also the inputs from your computer.

 

[Aenra]

Streaming

That's very true, just not even a consideration from where i'm standing. Online gaming, to quote the exact phrase used by the poster i replied to, is exactly that; online gaming. Like, when you game, lol, yourself.
I do not consider watching someone play (while i do nothing myself) as "gaming". That's just watching

Just me, you need not remind me where we stand, am fully aware, lol..