Sizing Up Servers: Intel's Skylake-SP Xeon versus AMD's EPYC 7000 - The Server CPU Battle of the Decade?
by Johan De Gelas & Ian Cutress on July 11, 2017 12:15 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Intel
- Xeon
- Enterprise
- Skylake
- Zen
- Naples
- Skylake-SP
- EPYC
Intel Expanding the Chipset: 10 Gigabit Ethernet and QuickAssist Technology
The refresh strategy from Intel on the chipset side has an ultra-long cadence. In recent memory, Intel’s platform launches are designed to support two generations of processor release, and in that time there is typically no chipset update, leaving the platform controller hub semi-static for functionality for usually three years. This is compared to the consumer side, where new chipsets are launched with every new CPU generation, with bigger jumps coming every couple of years. For the new launch today, Intel pushing the enterprise chipset ahead in a new direction.
The point of the chipset previously was to provide some basic IO support in the form of SATA/SAS ports, some USB ports, and a few PCIe lanes for simple controllers like USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, or perhaps an x4 PCIe slot for a non-accelerator type card. The new chipsets, part of the C620 family codenamed Lewisburg, are designed to assist with networking, cryptography, and act more like a PCIe switch with up to 20 PCIe 3.0 lane support.
The headline features that matter most is the upgrade in DMI connection to the chipset, upgraded from DMI 2.0 to DMI 3.0 to match the consumer platforms, having those 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the chipset, and also the new feature under CPU Uplink.
For the new generation of Lewisburg chipsets, if an OEM requires that a platform has access to a cryptography engine or 10 Gigabit Ethernet, then they can attach 8 or 16 lanes from the processor into the chipset via this CPU Uplink port. Depending on which model of chipset is being used, this can provide up to four 10 GbE ports with iWARP RDMA, or up to 100 GB/s IPSec/SSL of QuickAssist support.
Intel will offer seven different versions of the chipset, varying in 10G and QAT support, but also varying in TDP:
On the cryptography side, Intel has previously sold add-in PCIe cards for QuickAssist, but is now moving it onto the systems directly. By adding it into the chipset, it can be paired with the Ethernet traffic and done in-situ, and specifically Intel points to bulk cryptography (150 Gb/s AES256/SHA256), Public Key Encryption (100k ops of RSA2048) and compression (100+ Gb/s deflate).
With the GbE, Intel has designed this to be paired with the X722 PHY, and supports network virtualization, traffic shaping, and supports Intel’s Data Plane Development Kit for advanced packet forwarding.
The chipset will also include a new feature called Intel’s Innovation Engine, giving a small embedded core into the PCH which mirrors Intel’s Management Engine but is designed for system-builders and integrators. This allows specialist firmware to manage some of the capabilities of the system on top of Intel’s ME, and is essentially an Intel Quark x86 core with 1.4MB SRAM.
The chipsets are also designed to be supported between different CPUs within the same multi-processor system, or for a system to support multiple chipsets at once as needed.
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Shankar1962 - Thursday, July 13, 2017 - link
So you think Intel won't release anything new again by then? Intel would be ready for cascadelake by then. None of the big players won't switch to AMD. Skylake alone is enough to beat epyc handsomely and cascadelake will just blow epyc. Its funny people are looking at lab results when real workloads are showing 1.5-1.7x speed improvementPixyMisa - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
This IS comparing AMD to Intel's newest CPUs, you idiot. Skylake loses to Epyc outright on many workloads, and is destroyed by Epyc on TCO.Shankar1962 - Sunday, July 16, 2017 - link
Mind your language assholeEither continue the debate or find another place for your shit and ur language
Real workloads don't happen in the labs you moron
Real workloads are specific to each company and Intel is ahead either way
If you have the guts come out with Q3 Q4 2017 and 2018 revenues from AMD
If you come back debating epyc won over skylake if AMD gets 5-10% share then i pity your common sense and your analysis
You are a bigger idiot because you spoiled a healthy thread where people were taking sides by presenting technical perspective
PixyMisa - Tuesday, July 25, 2017 - link
I'm sorry you're an idiot.Shankar1962 - Thursday, July 13, 2017 - link
Does not matter. We can debate this forever but Intel is just ahead and better optimized for real world workloads. Nvidia i agree is a potential threat and ahead in AI workloads which is the future but AMD is just an unnecessary hype. Since the fan boys are so excited with lab results (funny) lets look at Q3,Q4 results to see how many are ordering to test it for future deployment.martinpw - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
I'm curious about the clock speed reduction with AVX-512. If code makes use of these instructions and gets a speedup, will all other code slow down due to lower overall clock speeds? In other words, how much AVX-512 do you have to use before things start clocking down? It feels like it might be a risk that AVX-512 may actually be counterproductive if not used heavily.msroadkill612 - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
(sorry if a repost)Well yeah, but this is where it starts getting weird - 4-6 vega gpuS, hbm2 ram & huge raid nvme , all on the second socket of your 32 core, c/gpu compute ~Epyc server:
https://marketrealist.imgix.net/uploads/2017/07/A1...
from
http://marketrealist.com/2017/07/how-amd-plans-to-...
All these fabric linked processors, can interact independently of the system bus. Most data seems to get point to point in 2 hops, at about 40GBps bi-directional (~40 pcie3 lanes, which would need many hops), and can be combined to 160GBps - as i recall.
Suitably custom hot rodded for fabric rather than pcie3, the nvme quad arrays could reach 16MBps sequential imo on epycs/vegaS native nvme ports.
To the extent that gpuS are increasing their role in big servers, intel and nvidea simply have no answer to amd in the bulk of this market segment.
davide445 - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
Finally real competition in the HPC market. Waiting for the next top500 AMD powered supercomputer.Shankar1962 - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
Intel makes $60billion a year and its official that Skylake was shipping from Feb17 so i do not understand this excitement from AMD fan boys......if it is so good can we discuss the quarterly revenues between these companies? Why is AMD selling for very low prices when you claim superior performance over Intel? You can charge less but almost 40-50% cheap compared to Intel really?AMD exists because they are always inferior and can beat Intel only by selling for low prices and that too for what gaining 5-10% market which is just a matter of time before Intel releases more SKUs to grab it back
What about the software optimizations and extra BOM if someone switches to AMD?
What if AMD goes into hibernation like they did in last 5-6years?
Can you mention one innovation from AMD that changed the world?
Intel is a leader and all the technology we enjoy today happenned because of Intel technology.
Intel is a data center giant have head start have the resources money acquisitions like altera mobileeye movidus infineon nirvana etc and its just impossible that they will lose
Even if all the competent combines Intel will maintain atleast 80% share even 10years from now
Shankar1962 - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link
To add onNo one cares about these lab tests. Let's talk about the real world work loads.
Look at what Google AWS ATT etc has to say as they already switched to xeon sky lake
We should not really be debating if we have the clarity that we are talking about AMD getting just 5% -10% share by selling high end products they have for cheap prices....they fo not make too much money by doing that.....they have no other option as thats the only way they can dream of a 5-10% market share
For Analogy think Intel in semiconductor as Apple in selling smartphones
Intel has gross margins of ~63%
They have a solid product portfolio technologies and roadmap .....we can debate this forever but the revenues profits innovations and history between these companies can answer everything