Editor's Pick: CPU Replete With 64 Cores

AMD introduces the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX professional workstation CPU, which the company says is the first 64-core workstation CPU.  

The company says this newest Threadripper PRO is equipped with abundant storage and memory capacity, and vast expansion capabilities. Its base speed is 2.70 GHz, but can be boosted up to 4.20 GHz. Sixty-four cores and 128 threads allow it to perform CPU tasks that previously required two CPUs. Eight DIMM slots support up to 64GB DDR 4 3200MHz ECC RAM, for a total addressable RAM of 512 GB. Running only one CPU allows workstations to save on energy costs.

AMD says the highest core count for a professional workstation CPU from rival Intel is the Xeon 8280, which offers 28 cores. This Threadripper PRO is based on AMD’s AM4 CPU platform, a 1,331-pin socket that supports the latest computation technologies including PCIe 4.0, NVMe, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, and several RAID configurations. 

Workstation vendors using the new Threadripper PRO will be able to match it with top-of-the-line GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA. Lenovo, for example, is now offering the ThinkStation P620 using the Threadripper PRO. The professional workstation can be equipped with up to six drives and four GPUs. This new Threadripper-equipped professional workstation comes with software vendor certifications from Adobe, Altair, Autodesk, Aveva, Avid, Barco, Bentley, Dassault Systèmes, Eizo, McKesson, Nemetschek, PTC and Siemens.

In an early test of real-world performance, AMD used the Cinebench benchmark to record “fastest ever” single and multi-threaded performance in its class, the company reports. In another test using PTC Creo’s new Generative Design (GD) technology, one AMD Threadripper PRO 3995WX completed the benchmark in 43 seconds, while a workstation equipped with two Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 CPUs took 62 seconds to do the same tasks. Generative Design is a new method that leverages artificial intelligence to build optimal designs based on specific constraints. GD is a multi-threaded task that can take advantage of multiple CPU cores. 

For more about the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3995WX, click here.