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In an interview at AMD In-Depth, Zen architect Mike Clark discussed the upcoming Zen 6 and Zen 6c core designs, explaining that the denser Zen 6c variant now serves as AMD's top performance core rather than just an area-optimized version. Clark noted this version includes a full 4MB of L3 cache per core, supporting 32 cores and 128MB of total L3 cache, along with a larger vector scheduler compared to previous generations.
AMD has disclosed that its upcoming Venice-X EPYC server processors will offer a 5.3 GHz boost clock, matching the top speed across the entire Venice lineup, while retaining the 96 cores and 1,152 MB of 3D V-Cache seen in the prior Genoa-X chips. The part is expected in the second half of next year and marks the return of AMD's stacked-cache technology to data center CPUs after Turin skipped an X-series variant, following Milan-X in 2022 and Genoa-X in 2023.
AMD acquired MEXT, a predictive memory engine that offloads cold DRAM pages to flash storage and uses an AI model to prefetch data before it's needed. AMD says internal tests, such as with Synopsys PrimeTime, show 95% of full-DRAM performance using only 50% of physical DRAM, and the company plans to scale deployment from 145 internal servers to 2,000 next year, alongside a rollout partnership with HPE.
AMD's chief Zen architect Mike Clark and corporate VP Madhu Rangarajan said in separate sessions that the company did not design its upcoming Zen 6 (Venice) EPYC CPUs specifically for agentic AI, since that workload trend only emerged around March this year. They contrasted this with Nvidia and Arm, who have described their newest data center CPUs as 'purpose-built' or 'designed for' agentic AI despite similarly long development cycles.
AMD's upcoming EPYC 'Venice' server processors, the first to use the Zen 6 architecture, have been benchmarked ahead of release. Built on TSMC's N2P node, Zen 6 introduces a redesigned vector engine with native FP16 support, split integer schedulers, dual I/O dies enabling 16 memory channels, and larger core-dense CCDs scaling up to 32 cores with quadrupled L3 cache. In testing, a 256-core, 1,024-thread EPYC 9996 outperformed the previous-generation 768-thread EPYC 9965 by 93% in SPEC CPU 2026 benchmarks.
AMD introduced Helion, a new 21-inch rack-scale reference design built to the Open Compute Project's ORv4 and DC-MHS standards, alongside last year's Helios design. Helion supports 44 OpenU trays and can house up to 128 EPYC 9996 'Venice' CPUs in a CPU-only configuration, totaling 32,768 Zen 6 cores per rack, with both air- and liquid-cooling options. AMD will not sell the racks itself; OEMs and ODMs will bring Helion-based systems to market, with partners to be named by CEO Lisa Su at the OCP Global Summit.
In 1171, Byzantine Emperor Manuel I ordered the mass arrest of Venetians across his empire, jailing more than 20,000 people and seizing their ships and goods, following decades of tension between Constantinople and Venice. Venice, then a thriving trading hub built on colleganza partnership contracts that let ordinary citizens invest in commerce, needed massive funds to respond to the crisis. To raise money quickly, the Venetian government turned to forced loans from its citizens, laying the groundwork for what would become the first government bond market.
AMD has published preliminary pricing for its upcoming Epyc 9006 Venice server processor lineup, spanning 31 models from an eight-core Epyc 9106 to a 256-core Epyc 9996 flagship priced at $14,904. The chips span two platforms, SP7 for high memory bandwidth and capacity and SP8 for greater PCIe connectivity, with dual-socket SP7 systems capable of housing 512 Zen 6 cores. AMD says the prices are not yet finalized.
AMD has released full pricing for its EPYC 9006 (Venice) server processor lineup, spanning 8 to 256 cores and ranging from $700 to $14,904. The SP7 platform tops the range with the 256-core EPYC 9996 at $14,904, while the 64-core EPYC 9556 starts the lineup at $8,008, according to a list obtained by StorageReview.
Bleecker Street Media has released the official trailer for Musk, a documentary by Alex Gibney that premiered at the Venice International Film Festival two weeks ago. The film remains on track for a US theatrical release despite earlier rumors that international distributor Universal Pictures was hesitant to release it abroad, and despite Elon Musk reportedly threatening a defamation lawsuit and calling the film a hit piece.
AMD released a white paper expanding on its earlier performance claims for the upcoming EPYC 'Venice' server CPUs, reiterating that a 96-core Venice chip is about 20% faster per-core than Nvidia's 88-core Vera on SPEC CPU 2026's Integer Rate test. The paper also details throughput results showing the 256-core EPYC 9996 outperforming Intel's Xeon 6980P by 2.37x and Vera by 2.24x, plus a 78% generational gain over the prior 192-core EPYC 9965.
A new four-hour documentary by Alex Gibney, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, includes interviews with Elon Musk's first wife Justine Musk, who says he referred to the mothers of his children as interchangeable "breeders." She also described incidents of gaslighting, including Musk misremembering who was holding their infant son when he died of SIDS, and recalled him calling himself "the alpha" at their wedding. Musk has publicly dismissed the film as a "hit piece."