From Tom's Hardware: Noted leaker @g01d3nm4ng0 claims that AMD could release two motherboard platforms to support its next-gen Storm Peak Threadripper CPUs, instead of just one, with a workstation platform and an HEDT (High-End Desktop) platform for enthusiasts. Both platforms will reportedly get an upgrade to PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, with the HEDT platform supporting 64 lanes and the workstation platform getting 128 lanes. As with any leak, take this information with a grain of salt.
News of AMD returning to the HEDT market is surprising, as the company recently killed off its own HEDT platform with the introduction of its Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX CPUs, moving the entire platform to the 'Pro' branding for the workstation market exclusively. We don't what incentivized AMD to make this decision, but we suspect low consumer demand was a contributing factor.
It's no secret that the HEDT market as a whole has seen better days. When AMD restarted the core-count wars in 2017 (with first-gen Ryzen), mainstream consumer platforms saw unprecedented jumps in compute capabilities, with core counts matching and even outpacing previous-generation HEDT CPUs. This led to the mainstream platform eating up a lot of the HEDT market. In fact, Intel also left the market as well after Cascade Lake-X.
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