Zen 3 Goes Embedded

AMD’s new Ryzen Embedded V3000 family addresses networking and storage with the Zen 3 microarchitecture. It features up to eight CPUs but omits GPUs.

Bryon Moyer

AMD’s new Ryzen Embedded V3000 family applies the Zen 3 CPU microarchitecture to networking and storage. Comprising CPUs and I/O interfaces, the system-on-a-chip (SoC) brings AMD’s embedded offering to the next generation. Some models are in production now; others should be later this month.

The number of CPU cores doubled to eight relative to the prior V1500 and V1780, whereas clock speeds have stayed largely unchanged. As with the older family, the new one comprises lower- and higher-power devices; the power ranges are similar, although the bottom of the lower range drops to 10W instead of 12W. AMD selected one model for extended-temperature use.

CPU performance as measured by CoreMark rises 124% over the V1500 owing to the updated microarchitecture; total processor performance more than doubles thanks to twice the core count. DRAM bandwidth increases 50% because of the move to DDR5.

Networking and storage systems primarily involve large volumes of high-speed data. Although many embedded processors integrate graphics, these systems are typically headless, lacking displays and keyboards. Dedicated networking chips provide the highest speeds for switches and routers in core networks, but slimmed-down processors can handle the control plane as well as non-networking applications.

The company also introduced a new Ryzen Embedded R2000-series employing the older Zen+ microarchitecture. This midrange family comprises four members and tops out at four CPU cores; these chips additionally include GPUs that can drive up to four 4K displays for kiosks, industrial PCs, robotics, and similar applications.