Earlier, AMD also suprise-restricted ECC to PRO versions of (non-LPDDR variants of) their Zen 4 laptop SOCs, as in the “yes” in the ECC row silently changed to “no” on the product pages for the 7640U and the 7840U at some point between when the 7x40U Framework 13 preorders opened and when it started shipping. (It happens to have been the first laptop with those SOCs.)
With laptop ECC, which is admittedly a very niche thing. I believe ECC on desktop Zen 4 does work but I’ve heard reports that it took about a year of BIOS updates before it became stable. (Zen 4 was the first generation that shipped a DDR5 controller so that is, if not reasonable, at least understandable.) Looking at Zen 5 specs on the AMD website now, there too ECC is supposed to be available all the way down to the Ryzen 9600.
I just finished specifying a new computer. Was planning to use that feature. Very disappointed to see this. AMD won me over when they added support for ECC memory in consumer CPUs, breaking up Intel's obnoxious market segmentation. It's sad to watch them engage in the same Intel tactics now.
Happy to consider ARM but those systems aren't known for being very open. Unfortunately, x86_64 still seems to be the best option for a high end home computer running Linux. Would be happy to be proven wrong about this...
Earlier, AMD also suprise-restricted ECC to PRO versions of (non-LPDDR variants of) their Zen 4 laptop SOCs, as in the “yes” in the ECC row silently changed to “no” on the product pages for the 7640U and the 7840U at some point between when the 7x40U Framework 13 preorders opened and when it started shipping. (It happens to have been the first laptop with those SOCs.)
They did this with ECC too?! I chose AMD for my new computer precisely because of its ECC memory support!
That's extremely scummy. I'm going to reconsider.
With laptop ECC, which is admittedly a very niche thing. I believe ECC on desktop Zen 4 does work but I’ve heard reports that it took about a year of BIOS updates before it became stable. (Zen 4 was the first generation that shipped a DDR5 controller so that is, if not reasonable, at least understandable.) Looking at Zen 5 specs on the AMD website now, there too ECC is supposed to be available all the way down to the Ryzen 9600.
I just finished specifying a new computer. Was planning to use that feature. Very disappointed to see this. AMD won me over when they added support for ECC memory in consumer CPUs, breaking up Intel's obnoxious market segmentation. It's sad to watch them engage in the same Intel tactics now.
Maybe arm?
Happy to consider ARM but those systems aren't known for being very open. Unfortunately, x86_64 still seems to be the best option for a high end home computer running Linux. Would be happy to be proven wrong about this...
Really sad seeing a company that used to love being a little bit extra change face now that they have massive market power.
[dead]