Intel Announces Xeon D-1500 Network Series SoCs with QuickAssist, Four 10 GbE Ports

Intel’s Xeon D SoCs and supporting platforms for storage, web hosting and networking applications seem to be getting traction with actual hardware manufacturers as well as end users. This month Intel announced expansion of the lineup of these processors with several new models supporting QuickAssist accelerator and increased amount of 10 GbE ports. The new Xeon D SoCs for networking applications simplify creation of various devices due to higher integration.

The newest Intel Xeon D-1500-series products use Intel’s prowess in highly integrated SoCs, this time powered by up to 16 of the company’s high-performance Broadwell cores, featuring a dual-channel DDR3L/DDR4 memory controller as well as rich I/O capabilities (up to 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes, 6 SATA ports, two 10 GbE ports, USB, etc.). The Xeon D SoCs support the majority of RAS capabilities of the Xeon E5 v3 processors, including ECC, MCA, PCIe ECRC (end-to-end CRC), SMM and so on. At present, Intel offers two application-specific lineups of its Xeon D SoCs: for web hosting servers and for networking devices. The latter is going to receive several new models with improved feature-set in the coming months.

Firstly, Intel plans to integrate its QuickAssist accelerator with up to 40 Gbps of compression/encryption throughput into the new Xeon D SoCs. Today, developers of network equipment have to use Intel’s discrete QuickAssist hardware to speed up compression/encryption operations, which means larger footprint, higher power consumption and additional costs. The integration of the accelerator will enable designers to reduce dimensions of their motherboards and will reduce power consumption a bit, assuming they can feed it. Since Intel does not announce prices of the new SoCs right now, it is hard to tell how the integration affects the cost of the platforms (Intel does not mention that in its documents), but usually the elimination of one component can lead to the elimination of some other parts too, so BOMs get lower.

Secondly, Intel intends to integrate four 10 GbE controllers (at present, we do not know whether they can be grouped for 40 Gbps or split for 2.5 or 5 Gbps ports) into the new Xeon D SoCs, doubling the amount of 10 GbE ports supported by today’s Xeon D processors. Obviously, for applications that need over four 10 GbE ports, Intel’s FM10000 Ethernet PHYs will still be required, but for other devices having the integration will help to reduce extra chip count. Again, the integration here could mean a reduced footprint, lower chip count and power consumption.

The new Intel Xeon D-1500 SoCs with enhanced networking capabilities are currently sampling with Intel’s customers. The chipmaker expects its clients to start launching their products based on the new processors by mid-2017. 

(Ian: It’s worth noting that Xeon D-1500, as a family, has been around for a few years now. No news yet on updates to Xeon-D using Skylake or Kaby Lake cores.)

Related Reading:

• Intel’s Xeon D Product Family Updated with Storage and Networking-Specific SKUs
• Intel Xeon D Launched: 14nm Broadwell SoC for Enterprise
• The Intel Xeon D Review: Performance Per Watt Server SoC Champion?
• Netgear Brings Broadwell-DE to COTS NAS Units with New 10G ReadyNAS Lineup

Intel Launches Atom C3000 SoCs: Up to 16 Cores for NAS, Servers, Vehicles

Intel this week formally launched its Atom C3000-series processors (formerly codenamed Denverton). The new chips are designed for inexpensive storage servers, NAS applications, as well as autonomous vehicles. The C3000 series features up to 16 low power x86 cores, integrated 10 GbE, rather rich I/O capabilities, as well as Intel’s Quick Assist technology.

Intel’s Atom C3000 processors are based on Intel’s current-generation Goldmont Atom microarchitecture, with SKUs offering between 2 and 16 cores and clockspeeds up to 2.2 GHz. Being designed for primarily for NAS and servers, the Atom C3000 SoCs fully support Intel’s VT-d hardware virtualization, Quick Assist compression/encryption technology (up to 20 Gbps throughput) as well as up to 64 GB of single-channel DDR4-1866 or DDR3L-1600 ECC memory. When it comes to I/O, the Atom C3000 features a PCIe 3.0 x16 controller (with x2, x4 and x8 bifurcation), 16 SATA 3.0 ports, four 10 GbE controllers, and four USB 3.0 ports.

Due to its rich I/O capabilities, the Atom C3000 is aimed at a wide range of devices, including servers/NAS (which they were originally designed for) as well as emerging applications like IoT and autonomous vehicles. For example, PCIe 3.0 bus may be used to connect various controllers, sensors and co-processors (e.g., a GPU) to the SoC. Last year we examined one of the server-oriented C3000-based designs that is going to be one of the many devices featuring the new chips.

Intel will offer various versions of its Atom C3000 SoCs with different TDPs starting at 8.5 W. The chips will support extended temperature ranges for storage, industrial and autonomous driving environments. In addition, Intel says that the processors feature “automotive-grade safety and security features,” but does not elaborate (generally, ECC, Quick Assist, virtualization, etc. can be considered as safety and security features too).

So far, Intel has only announced one Atom C3000-series SoC: the Atom C3338, which has two cores running at 1.5 – 2.2 GHz, 4 MB cache, 10 PCIe 3.0 lanes, 10 SATA 3.0 ports, four Gigabit Ethernet ports and so on. The chip has 9 W TDP and costs $27 in commercial quantities and is expected to be available to Intel’s customers already this quarter.

Intel’s partners have been testing the Atom C3000 processors since at least early 2016. The chipmaker expects its allies to start launching actual products based on the chips by mid-2017. In addition to the SoCs themselves, Intel will also supply a data plane development kit (DPDK) as well as a storage performance development kit (SPDK) to assist its partners in development of networking and storage applications.

Related Reading:

• Semi-Critical Intel Atom C2000 SoC Flaw Discovered, Hardware Fix Required
• Intel Announces Atom E3900 Series – Goldmont for the Internet of Things & More
• Intel Quietly Launches Apollo Lake SoC: Goldmont CPU, 6 SKUs, 6 & 10 Watts
• Spot The Denverton: Atom C3000 Silicon On Display

AMD Launches Ryzen: 52% More IPC, Eight Cores for Under $330, Pre-order Today, On Sale March 2nd

The biggest x86 launch for AMD in five years is today: Ryzen is here. As always before a major launch, AMD gives a ‘Tech Day’ for relevant press and analysts, and through this event AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su lifted the lid on one of the most anticipated products in the semiconductor industry. AMD knows how to control the level of enthusiasm for its fans, and today is the end result, with processors going on pre-order from major retailers today at 1pm EST, ready for a general hard launch on March 2^nd.

In a similar vein to launches of recent smartphones, AMD is doing a staggered announcement/launch with the products on their new microarchitecture. Where Samsung/Apple might give all the details for a product a few weeks before it’s available to buy, today on February 22^nd marks the day where AMD is giving consumers information about Ryzen, and specifically the Ryzen 7 family of eight-core products. All the information today is from AMD, and AMD’s internal testing, and pre-orders also start from today for users ready to put down their money for a launch day part. Reviews of the CPUs, as well as when the CPUs will ship to customers, is on March 2^nd. This also happens to be right in the middle of two annual shows, Game Developer Conference (GDC) and Mobile World Congress (MWC), making the time between receiving pre-launch samples and being able to provide independent verification of AMD’s performance claims relatively frantic. We’ll do our best!

The Ryzen Family

With a new processor launch, naming the parts and positioning them within the market is critical. So with Ryzen, the processor stack will be split into three based on performance and price: Ryzen 7 at the high end, Ryzen 5 in the middle, and Ryzen 3 for more price-conscious consumers. Both Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 are set to be launched later, and Ryzen 7 is the first portion of the family to be released.

Ryzen 7 will have three CPUs to start, all having eight cores and supporting simultaneous multi-threading:

• Ryzen 7 1800X: 8C/16T, 3.6 GHz base, 4.0 GHz turbo, 95W, $499
• Ryzen 7 1700X: 8C/16T, 3.4 GHz base, 3.8 GHz turbo, 95W, $399
• Ryzen 7 1700: 8C/16T, 3.0 GHz base, 3.7 GHz turbo, $329

Ryzen 7 1800X will be the high-end part, featuring a base clock of 3.6 GHz and a turbo of 4.0 GHz, within a TDP of 95W, and for $499. Next to this is Ryzen 7 1700X, launching at $399, with a base/turbo of 3.4/3.8 GHz. The final part for the launch is the Ryzen 7 1700, providing eight cores and sixteen threads for $329 at 3.0/3.7 GHz frequencies.

Processors will initially be available for pre-order from 185 retailers and OEMs worldwide, either as individual parts or pre-built systems.

What, not 40% IPC? 52% IPC??

Enthusiasts and analysts use the term IPC, or ‘Instructions Per Clock’, as a measure of how much the underlying microarchitecture improves from generation to generation. Two decades ago, a good design on a smaller node could net a healthy double-digit gain, whereas in recent years 5-10% gain has become the norm. When AMD initially announced that the new Zen microarchitecture they were developing was aiming for a 40% IPC gain, despite the low IPC they were starting from, users remained skeptical. AMD rehired Jim Keller to work alongside long-term AMD architect Mike Clark and produce a team with several goals in mind: high-performance x86, simultaneous multithreading, and a product to be relevant in the computing, PC, server and mobile space again. So despite this, 40% IPC always seemed a somewhat lofty goal, because Bulldozer was so underwhelming, and despite this low starting point. For the Ryzen launch today, AMD is stating that the final result of that goal is a 52% gain in IPC.

This is something we will need to test in due course!

The Ryzen Silicon, and the Future

AMD pointed out that the new 8-core silicon design runs 4.8 billion transistors and features 200m of wiring. Through previous announcements we’ve examined parts of the microarchitecture including cache sizes, threading, front-end/back-end design, and so on.

AMD Zen Microarchiture Part 2: Extracting Instruction-Level Parallelism
AMD Gives More Zen Details: Ryzen, 3.4 GHz+, NVMe, Neural Net Prediction, & 25 MHz Boost Steps

AMD’s CEO was keen to point out that this is a from-scratch design for AMD, using the knowledge gained from features developed for previous products but ultimately under the hood it looks like ‘a typical x86 high-performance core’, with AMD-specific features and tweaks. We were told that AMD’s roadmap extends into the multi-year range, so while the focus for 2017 will be on this family of products, back at HQ the next two generations are in various stages of development.

BENCHMARKS PLEASE

So despite the 82+ motherboards going to be available, 19 initial PC system builders moving into 200+ through the first half of 2017, the big question on everyone’s lips is how exactly does it perform?

Well, AMD gave us the following numbers:

AMD’s benchmarks showed that the top Ryzen 7 1800X, compared to the 8-core Intel Core i7-6900K, both at out-of-the-box frequencies, gives an identical score on the single threaded test and a +9% in the multi-threaded test. AMD put this down to the way their multi-threading works over the Intel design. Also, the fact that the 1800X is half of the price of the i7-6900K.

In a similar vein, again with the Cinebench 15 multi-threaded test, the Ryzen 7 1700X scores over and above the Core i7-6800K (its price competition) and higher than the Core i7-6900K which costs 2.5 times as much.

We’ll tell you what our benchmarks say, with official retail processors. But you will have to wait until March 2^nd. Sorry.

Gallery: Ryzen Launch Announcement Slide Deck