AMD’s EPYC Embedded 9006 Series SP7 (Fig. 1) tops out the embedded aspect of the EPYC 9006 series that also includes versions targeting AI data centers. It delivers 1.8X the throughput of the prior generation with up to 96 PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 6 lanes. These include support for CXL 3.1. The family is built for embedded applications like NVMe storage, firewalls, and embedded servers.

CXL provides communication with accelerators and memory via the PCIe connections. These days, AI data centers are taking advantage of the CXL memory support to provide access to additional memory needed for training and running large language models (LLMs). This can be useful even in embedded applications where artificial-intelligence applications are growing in size with a corresponding need for additional memory and compute.

Model 9976 packs in 256 Zen 6 cores (Fig. 2). It shares a 1-GB L3 cache. The base clock rate is 2.55 GHz with a max of 4.1 GHz. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Model 9556 with 64 cores and a 192-MB L3 cache.

These chips fit in the sP7 socket and support an extended 7-year lifecycle availability.

Advanced security is a major aspect of the 9006 Series. The AMD root-of-trust (ROT) supports LMS (Leighton-Micali Signature) stateful, hash-based, post-quantum cryptography (PQC). The security system works with the Caliptra open-source ROT to improve supply-chain security. It supports the Trusted Computing Group’s (TCG) Device Identifier Composition Engine (DICE).

The security hardware is designed to mitigate side channel and unauthorized key access attacks. The firmware support is designed to prevent firmware tampering and running malicious boot code. The AMD Security Processor includes a boot orchestrator, secure debug, and key management for virtual machine memory with regard to its secure encrypted virtualization (SEV) support.