By: Adrian (a.delete@this.acm.org), January 2, 2021 12:52 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Björn Ragnar Björnsson (bjorn.ragnar.delete@this.gmail.com) on January 1, 2021 8:41 pm wrote:
>
> Right now on the AMD side, as previously, we have ECC support for DRAM. ECC capable
> DRAM on the desktop had become nearly extinct as the wast majority of desktop CPUs
> were Intel and didn't support ECC at all, in any shape manner or form.
>
> Now that the "hot" (not thermally speaking) CPUs are from AMD and they do in fact support
> ECC, I have the distinct feeling from my wanderings on the Web that desktop ECC offerings
> are on the rise although I suspect that Crucial/Micron have at the same time been cutting
> back on their unbuffered ECC selection. Strange times indeed.
>
> I freely admit that I have not made a rigorous study of this market area recently. My
> excuse is that I'm tired and weary from years and decades of fruitless searching.
>
> I'm fervently hoping that we can see a resurgence in ECC offerings, where, as in the past you
> would be able to buy Parity/ECC memory at every market point at a 5-20% price premium.
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong.
>
Last year it was impossible to buy unbuffered ECC DIMMs at the 3200 MHz speed supported by AMD. The only available UDIMMs were at 2667 MHz, the speed supported by Intel Entry Xeons.
The Intel Comet Lake Xeons of this year have raised the support to 2933 MHz and the 2021 Rocket Lake Xeons will finally match AMD at 3200 MHz.
However, the availability of unbuffered ECC DIMMs has improved considerably in recent months, because not only 2933 MHz UDIMMs suitable for the latest Intel have appeared, but also the faster 3200 MHz UDIMMs suitable only for AMD can now be found.
So you are right, it appears that the DRAM vendors have finally decided to also support AMD Ryzen & Threadripper, even when they go beyond Intel (AMD Epyc was already supported with fast ECC RDIMMs, since a few years ago).
>
> Right now on the AMD side, as previously, we have ECC support for DRAM. ECC capable
> DRAM on the desktop had become nearly extinct as the wast majority of desktop CPUs
> were Intel and didn't support ECC at all, in any shape manner or form.
>
> Now that the "hot" (not thermally speaking) CPUs are from AMD and they do in fact support
> ECC, I have the distinct feeling from my wanderings on the Web that desktop ECC offerings
> are on the rise although I suspect that Crucial/Micron have at the same time been cutting
> back on their unbuffered ECC selection. Strange times indeed.
>
> I freely admit that I have not made a rigorous study of this market area recently. My
> excuse is that I'm tired and weary from years and decades of fruitless searching.
>
> I'm fervently hoping that we can see a resurgence in ECC offerings, where, as in the past you
> would be able to buy Parity/ECC memory at every market point at a 5-20% price premium.
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong.
>
Last year it was impossible to buy unbuffered ECC DIMMs at the 3200 MHz speed supported by AMD. The only available UDIMMs were at 2667 MHz, the speed supported by Intel Entry Xeons.
The Intel Comet Lake Xeons of this year have raised the support to 2933 MHz and the 2021 Rocket Lake Xeons will finally match AMD at 3200 MHz.
However, the availability of unbuffered ECC DIMMs has improved considerably in recent months, because not only 2933 MHz UDIMMs suitable for the latest Intel have appeared, but also the faster 3200 MHz UDIMMs suitable only for AMD can now be found.
So you are right, it appears that the DRAM vendors have finally decided to also support AMD Ryzen & Threadripper, even when they go beyond Intel (AMD Epyc was already supported with fast ECC RDIMMs, since a few years ago).