On June 20, 2017, AMD announced the release of the AMD EPYC™, AMD’s new server processor targeted at data centers. It is stated to be 52% faster than current server processors with up to 32 cores, 128 lanes of PCI Express (PCIe) lanes and support up to 2TB of DDR 4 memory via eight channels. The processor package is a 14nm system-on-chip (SoC) part. Four silicon dies make up a single processor package. There are up to eight cores per silicon die. AMD stated that making the AMD EPYC using this method helps keep its costs down, making this processor less expensive than their competition with faster individual cores.
This is considered by many to be AMD’s return into the server market. Our server-class UEFI BIOS firmware, Aptio® V was selected to be the reference BIOS on all AMD EPYC™ platforms. As the shipping reference BIOS provider on all AMD EPYC™ platforms, we worked closely with AMD and their partners and customers during Bring Up, to help test and debug their systems. Collaboration during this key phase has helped create a powerful, robust and stable data center platform.
The communication for Out-of-Band (OOB) firmware management uses DMTF’s Redfish® (Redfish) API, an open industry standard specification and schema. We have tested our Out-of-Band (OOB) firmware management on AMD EPYC™ platforms using Aptio® V and MegaRAC® SP-X, our BMC firmware solution. Our BIOS and BMC firmware are highly integrated, allowing data center administrators to simultaneously, remotely and securely manage a number of server platforms right out-of-box.
While the Redfish specification and schema coverage is extensive, it does not address every OOB scenario. Because of this, the Redfish specification and schema allows for OEM specific commands. These commands are what make our BIOS and BMC a well-integrated solution.
Such features include remote operating system unattended installation, system recovery, system diagnostics and firmware updating.
Please contact your AMI representative for information on how to get BIOS and BMC firmware images for testing at 1-800-828-9264, or visit ami.com/aptio.