AMD's James Prior weighs in on the Threadripper "Dummy Dies" controversy
Prior claims that Threadripper's two extra dies have no path to operation
Published: 18th September 2017 | Source: James Prior - Twitter |
AMD's James Prior weighs in on the Threadripper "Dummy Dies" controversy
Threadripper is not a Epyc processor. Different substrate, different dies.
2 dies work, other 2 have no path to operation. Basically rocks.
Yes, exactly why they're not described as inactive, but dummy.
Doesn't matter if they were dead, or active, they're not going to work.
Even looking at Threadripper's substrate we can see missing components around the two inactive dies (top right and bottom left), which hints that these dies do not have the required connections to receive power or properly function.
(Image from der8auer)
In our first article talking about der8auer's de-packaging of Threadripper, we stated that higher core counts for Threadripper would offer some huge engineering challenges and downsides for the platform, especially when it came to power consumption and clock speeds on X399.
Beyond that, there are factors to consider like memory latency for cores on any additional dies, as dies 3+4 (if the even could be used) would need to access memory through another CPU die, adding a lot of memory latencies to additional CPU cores. This may not be a huge deal for some workloads, but it is not exactly a negligible factor. At least all of the dies on EPYC have direct access to some of the system's memory channels.
This is not to say that a 24-core or a 32-core Threadripper CPUs are impossible, as only AMD's internal engineering teams know for certain, though it would certainly present some unique challenges and issues on AMD's TR4 platform. Beyond that AMD's Threadripper series of products is not exactly designed to be a high volume lineup, so demand for a larger Threadripper series CPU would be extremely limited.
The long and short of it is that Threadripper's additional dies will not be suddenly activated anytime soon and that AMD is extremely unlikely to release higher core count CPUs onto the desktop market anytime soon.
You can join the discussion on AMD's Threadripper CPU design on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
Quote|
Originally Posted by Excalabur50
From what I heard 32 cores isn't going to happen supposedly it isn't possible but the die setup is logical
|
|
Originally Posted by AlienALX
We will see. They are going to have to release 32 core Epycs if they want to compete in the server/wstn markets with Intel.
|
|
Originally Posted by HJ1mech
I think they already have a 32 core EPYC don't they?
|
Quote
CSS Valid