China's new Hygon C86-7490: based on AMD Zen 1, custom CPU with 64C/128T, DDR5, SP5 socket

Chinese company Hygon has just teased its new C86-7490 CPU, which is based on the Dhyana x86 IP (AMD Zen architecture) in customized form: up to 64 cores and 128 threads, DDR5 memory support, and on the SP5 platform.

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There has been a joint venture between AMD, HMC, Hygon, and Global Foundries for a few years now, with custom-designed chips to meet the domestic needs of Chinese companies. Hygon has a CPU family of up to 32 cores, based on the first-gen Zen core IP, but the new family of CPUs are going to offer upgrades across the board.

Hygon is now offering its new C86-7490 and C86-7390, which are CPUs based on the customized Zen 1 core very similar to Zen +. The first-gen Zen core architecture topped out at 32 cores and 64 threads max, but Hygon's new custom Zen 1-based CPU offers up to 64 cores and 128 threads of Zen 1 processing power.

The company has dived into the details of its new processors, but leaker "Everest" posted on X that the Hygon Dyhana C86-7490 processor has 4 x 16-core CCDs which make up the 64 cores and 128 threads, with the chip also packing two IO dies, whereas the original Zen and Zen+ EPYC processors only featured a single IOD.

Another nifty thing to see with the custom-designed Hygon CPU is that they support the SP5 socket, which as Wccftech says, could explain how the Zen 1-based chip has two IO dies instead of one. The SP5 package is a bit bigger than the SP3 sockets that the Zen 1-based EPYC processors went into, and there's also extra space on the package since only 4 x CCDs are on the entire chip.

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Now that we're on the SP5 socket, Hygon's new C86 series CPUs support up to 12-channel DDR5 memory support, and while we're on the topic of DDR5, the original Zen EPYC processors didn't use DDR5, they used DDR4. Another nice touch of a custom-designed Zen 1-based processor.

Now, let's talk about pricing: Hygon's new C86 processors range between 35,000 RMB (around $4900 USD or so) up to 42,000 RMB (around $5900 USD or so), respectively.