Ampere Computing announced the 512-core AmpereOne Aurora processor for data centers, as well as announced prices for the previously introduced 96-, 128-, 144-, 160- and 192-core AmpereOne M chips and talked about the development progress of AmpereOne MX processors, which will offer up to 256 cores.
Image source: Ampere Computing
AmpereOne processors are designed for high-density data centers. Not only do they compete with AMD’s EPYC Bergamo and Intel’s high-core Forest processors, but they also compete with the custom solutions currently being produced by leading hyperscalers. The manufacturer states that the key advantages of AmpereOne are their energy efficiency and operation in air-cooled environments. According to Ampere, 77% of server racks in use today are up to 20 kW, and half of them are less than 10 kW. In this case, using air cooling instead of liquid cooling looks more profitable from an economic point of view. For this reason, the manufacturer pays great attention to the energy efficiency of its chips, which naturally reduces their cooling requirements.
The company has not yet spoken in detail about the new 512-core AmpereOne Aurora processor. It is still in development. However, it is known to use custom Arm architecture cores, AmpereOne mesh scalability, and interconnects using SERDES blocks and protocols that facilitate communication between processor chiplets. In addition, the manufacturer said that the chip is equipped with an AI accelerator and supports high-speed HBM memory. The processor is also designed for general computing workloads.
Ampere also announced the pricing of the AmpereOne M processors. These chips are manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process, support 12-channel DDR5 RAM and offer up to 192 cores. The most affordable 96-core processor in the AmpereOne M series is priced at $4,761. The most expensive is the 192-core A192-32X, which is priced at $5555. These chips have TDPs ranging from 185 to 332 W.
The AmpereOne MX family of processors currently in production will offer up to 256 cores. TSMC’s 3nm process technology is used to produce them. The chips support 12 channels of DDR5 RAM. Ampere has not yet announced when these processors will be available for sale.
Ampere compared the performance and energy efficiency of its solutions with the AMD EPYC 9754 processor, for some reason designating it as a representative of the Genoa series, although this chip belongs to the Bergamo series.
Specifically, Ampere claims up to 15% AI performance, up to 2.2X power efficiency, and up to 28% cloud performance for its A192-26X processor (192 cores @ 2.6GHz). and energy efficiency up to 82%.