Now that Ryzen has been officially released, I've found some answers.

Ryzen does support ECC. The current batch of models does. However, AMD has not "certified" it to work in the same way they test their server models (of previous gens). Future Zen-architecture models for the server market will be "certified" by AMD to work with ECC.

This is no different from past architectures, meaning that like in the past motherboard manufacturers will produce AM4 boards which fully support ECC (at a reasonable price) and are "certified" to work with ECC *by the motherboard manfacturer*.

So, I'm just going to wait a few months for the dust to settle then buy a Ryzen with an ECC-capable motherboard.

Kevin

On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 1:49 AM, Trevor Cordes <trevor@tecnopolis.ca> wrote:
On 2017-01-28 Kevin McGregor wrote:
> The AMD FX series is definitely "enthusiast" as are the AM3+ boards
> that support it. The AMD Opterons are the server-class models. The FX
> series definitely supports ECC; I use them with ECC with no trouble.

I spent some time reading more about the upcoming Ryzen stuff and the
consensus regarding ECC support on "desktop" and "power user" boards is
that nobody knows.  Most people think there will be ECC options because
some previous gen boards did, but no company has committed to saying
the support will be in Ryzen.

It does appear that ECC is guaranteed if you use a "server" or
"workstation" board (i.e. probably over $200, or without x16 slot), but
then that puts Ryzen in the same boat as Xeon and for the same money
I'll just buy a Xeon.

So I guess we can hope, and wait and see.  It's like the world is a big
conspiracy to keep ECC out of "affordable" boards, when (from my
reading and MUUG discussions) ECC on the desktop is desired by tons of
people.  You'd think there'd be a niche in there somewhere if some
enterprising company can realize it...