AMD Celebrates Earth Day 2022

by Justin Murrill, Director, Corporate Responsibility at AMD
Apr 22, 2022 2:30 PM ET
Earth Day 2022 at AMD Austin

The theme for Earth Day 2022 is “Invest In Our Planet.” AMD has a long history of investing in environmental sustainability, dating back to our first sustainability report in 1995. Today, we are investing in a collaboration with Neighborhood Forest to plant 2,000 trees across North America. Five hundred AMD employees across nine sites volunteered to plant a tree seedling for Earth Day. In addition, 1,500 tree seedlings are being distributed by Neighborhood Forest to children who have requested a free tree. We are happy to celebrate Earth Day with our employees and share this experience with some of our world’s future leaders.

Throughout the year, we advance and invest in environmental sustainability in several ways, such as:

1. MINIMIZING environmental impacts at AMD and in our supply chain​

Last year, AMD announced the completion of several 2014-2020 goals, including a 38 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our global operations (scope 1 and 2) and a 31.7x increase in energy efficiency for our processors powering mobile devices. We also announced our next generation goals that include a 30x increase in energy efficiency for processors and accelerators powering servers for AI-training and high-performance computing (2020-2025); a 50 percent reduction in GHG emissions for our operations (2020-2030); and for 80 percent of our manufacturing suppliers to source renewable energy by 2025. We have been making progress and look forward to sharing an update in our 27th annual Corporate Responsibility Report.

2. ADVANCING environmental performance for IT users

At AMD, we design innovative technologies that help improve people’s lives and enable IT users to reduce their own energy use and GHG emissions. This includes collaborating with our customers and partners on product design and system-level optimizations. For example, AMD RyzenTM processors deliver energy-efficient laptops without compromise, including up to 43 percent better energy efficiency than Energy Star 8.0 requirements for our Ryzen 5800U processors.i In the data center, our world-record-setting energy-efficient AMD EPYCTM server processors can help reduce energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a broad range of workloads and may require fewer servers to do the same work as prior generation or competitive solutions. For example, delivering 10,000 units of integer performance using 2P AMD EPYC 7763 powered servers compared to 2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 powered servers can result in ~33 percent fewer servers using ~50 percent less space and ~42 percent less power while delivering an estimated 36 percent lower 3-yr total cost of ownership (TCO).ii

3. INNOVATING collaborative solutions to address environmental challenges

Through collaborations with CIOs, public leaders, academic researchers and others, AMD technology is used to advance various sustainability solutions. For example, AMD Embedded processors are being used to help individual wind turbines optimize the production of clean energy, while AMD EPYC server processors help optimize the orchestration of an entire wind farm through cloud-based solutions.iii While these and other AMD-enabled solutions are helping to reduce GHG emissions, AMD technology is also helping climate researchers and scientists better understand the interrelated forces contributing to climate change, and solutions to help mitigate the worse impacts. By analyzing massive and complex data sets, researchers and scientists can gain insights into the causes of climate change and perhaps predict the impacts of extreme weather to help save lives.

We thank our employees, customers and partners around the world for continuing to help invest in efforts to advance environmental sustainability.

For more information on environmental sustainability at AMD, please visit: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate-responsibility/environmental-stewardship.

[i] Based on measurements by AMD labs as of February 2022 of the AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5800U against Energy Star 8.0 requirements. CZM-146

[ii] MLNTCO-003a: This scenario contains many assumptions and estimates and, while based on AMD internal research and best approximations, should be considered an example for informational purposes only, and not used as a basis for decision making over actual testing. This estimate compares the selected AMD EPYC™ and Intel® Xeon® CPU based server solutions required to deliver a TOTAL_PERFORMANCE of 10000 units of integer performance based on the published scores for Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC CPU based servers. This analysis is based on AMD EPYC™ BARE METAL SERVER TCO ESTIMATION TOOL; VERSION: 05/21/2021 1.6 Master4. This estimation reflects a 3-year time frame. This analysis compares a 2P AMD EPYC EPYC_7763 powered server with a SPECrate®2017_int_base score of 839(1ku price $7,890), https://spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2021q1/cpu2017-20210219-24936.pdf; compared to a 2P Intel Xeon Platinum_8380 based server with a SPECrate®2017_int_base score of 565 (list price $8,099), https://spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2021q2/cpu2017-20210510-26021.pdf. Both AMD EPYC and Intel-based servers use the same cost for the following elements of the analysis: server chassis size of 2RU at a cost of $2500 per chassis; internal storage $380; physical servers managed per admin: 30; fully burdened cost per admin $110500; server rack size of 42; space allowance per rack of 27 sq feet; monthly cost of data center space $20 per sq foot; cost per kW for power $0.12; power drop per rack of 8kW; and a PUE (power usage effectiveness) of 2. The EPYC powered solution estimates are: 12 total 2P EPYC_7763 powered servers at a hardware only acquisition cost of $18988 per server, which includes total system memory of 64GB, which is 0.5GB of memory/core and a total system memory cost of $328; internal storage cost of $380. The total estimated AMD EPYC hardware acquisition cost for this solution is $227856. Each server draws ~423 kWh per month. For the 3 years of this EPYC powered solution analysis the: total solution power cost is ~$43857 which includes the PUE factor; the total admin cost is ~$132600, and the total real estate cost is ~$19440, requiring 1 rack. The total 3 TCO estimate for the AMD solution is $423753. The Intel-based solution requires 18 total 2P Platinum_8380 powered servers at a hardware only acquisition cost of $19406 per server, which includes total system memory of 64GB, which is 0.8GB of memory / core and a total system memory cost of $328; internal storage cost of $380. The total estimated Intel hardware acquisition cost for this solution is $349308. Each server draws ~484 kWh per month. For the 3 years of this Intel-based solution analysis the: total solution power cost is ~$75273 which includes the PUE factor; the total admin cost is ~$198900, and the total real estate cost is ~$38880, requiring 2 racks. The total 3 TCO estimate for the Intel solution is $662361. Delivering 10000 of estimated SPECrate®2017_int_base performance produces the following estimated results: the AMD EPYC solution requires 33% fewer servers [1-(AMD server count / Intel server count)]; 50% less space [1-(AMD rack count / Intel rack count)]; 42% less power [1-(AMD power cost / Intel power cost)]; providing a 36% lower 3 year TCO [1-(AMD TCO / Intel TCO)]. AMD processor pricing based on 1KU price as of February 2021. Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor data and pricing from https://ark.intel.com as of September 2020. All pricing is in USD. Product and company names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. SPECrate® scores as of 05/12/2021. SPEC®, SPECrate® and SPEC CPU® are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. See www.spec.org for more information. AMD EPYC performance numbers based on AMD measured internal estimates and are subject to change based on actual results.

[iii] https://www.amd.com/en/case-studies/vestas-wind-system