What is AMD?

What it is

AMD's processors use the x86 architecture, so software written for an Intel machine runs on an AMD machine as well. AMD designs its chips and pays outside factories to make them.

Ryzen processors appear in business and consumer laptops and desktops. EPYC processors go into servers, and the larger models carry dozens of cores on one chip. AMD also designs graphics processors: Radeon for PCs and workstations, and separate accelerator cards for data-center computing.

What businesses use it for

• Office and workstation PCs: Ryzen chips in laptops and desktops from several makers.
• Servers: EPYC chips in rack machines for applications and databases.
• Dense virtualization: high core counts let one host run many virtual machines.
• Graphics: Radeon processors for display and visual workloads.

How KawaConnect works with AMD

Some of the servers and PCs we deploy run AMD processors, and others run Intel. When we size a virtualization host or a workstation, we start from the workload: how many cores it needs, how much memory, and how many drives and network cards the board must take. The brand follows from that.

Both brands run Linux and Windows without trouble. Our Linux and Kubernetes and Proxmox projects both start with that sizing step.

Learn more

• AMD on WikipediaA neutral overview of the company and its product lines.
• Ryzen on WikipediaAn explanation of the processor family used in PCs.
• EPYC on WikipediaAn overview of AMD's server processor family.
• AMD websiteProduct specifications, drivers and support for AMD processors and graphics.