Cloudflare's Gen 13 servers: trading cache for cores for 2x performance
13 hours ago
- #Cloudflare
- #Server Performance
- #AMD EPYC
- Cloudflare deployed its 12th Generation server fleet two years ago, based on AMD EPYC™ Genoa-X processors with 3D V-Cache.
- The transition to FL2, a Rust-based rewrite of Cloudflare's core request handling layer, allowed unlocking the full potential of Gen 13 hardware.
- AMD EPYC™ 5th Gen Turin processors offer 2x core count, improved IPC, better power efficiency, and DDR5-6400 support but with reduced per-core cache.
- FL1, the legacy software stack, faced significant latency issues due to reduced L3 cache in Turin processors.
- FL2's architecture, with better memory access patterns, reduced dependency on large L3 caches, enabling linear performance scaling with core count.
- FL2 on Gen 13 achieved 2x throughput, 70% lower latency, and 50% better performance per watt compared to Gen 12.
- Gen 13 servers with AMD Turin 9965 processors are now being deployed globally, offering up to 100% higher throughput and improved power efficiency.