As with the rest of the industry, Gigabyte announced that its platforms support the 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable family and supporting technologies. We covered the 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable launch in detail including a key supporting technology Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory Modules (DCPMM.)
Gigabyte Adds 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Technology
Here are headlines from the Gigabyte press release:
- Overall Performance Enhancements: Higher CPU frequencies, improved turbo profiles vs. prior-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
- Increased DDR4 Memory Speed & Capacity: Up to 2933MHz (1 DIMM per channel on some SKUs), 16Gb based DIMM supported
- Intel Deep Learning Boost: A new feature that can significantly accelerate inference performance for deep learning workloads optimized to use VNNI (Vector Neural Network Instructions)
- Security Enhancements: Including hardware mitigations for side channel analysis methods (such as Meltdown / Spectre security vulnerabilities), offering higher performance over software-only mitigations.
- Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory support for 128GB to 512GB DCPMM can be addressed by the OS or application either as memory (Memory Mode) or storage (Application Direct Mode).
In the heart of the CPU stack, Intel increased core counts and clock speeds which can add 20-40% more performance at the same price range as the first generation parts. We analyzed the changes in our Second Generation Intel Xeon Scalable SKU List and Value Analysis. Beyond this, we also showed how Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory adds new capabilities to updated platforms.
At STH, we reviewed several Gigabyte servers that will see support for the new 2nd gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Gigabyte G481-S80 8x NVIDIA Tesla GPU Server Review the DGX1.5 and Gigabyte R181-NA0 1U 10x U.2 NVMe Server Review and our Gigabyte R281-G30 Versatile Compute Platform Review. Gigabyte has been pushing boundaries on NVMe storage and GPU compute offerings that will benefit from the new processor families as well as Intel Optane DCPMM support.
