Intel Xeon Scalable Debuts: Dual Xeon Platinum 8176 With 112 Threads Tested

Name: Intel Xeon Scalable
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, July 11, 2017, 12:15 PM EDT

While being briefed on the new Intel Xeon Scalable processor family, we also had the chance to get some hands-on time with systems equipped with the processors and were shown a handful of live demos. The demos consisted of various use-cases designed to illustrate the performance potential and efficiency of the processors and platform.

Intel 4U (Top) And 2U (Bottom) Xeon Scalable Servers

There were a number of 4U and 2U servers on hand, powered by Xeon Platinum series processors and packed with various amounts of RAM and storage. The servers themselves were non-descript development platforms, but we thought you’d like to take a look at them nonetheless.

Quad Xeon Platinum Series Processors And Gobs Of Memory

If you haven’t experienced a server of this type first hand, know that they are densely packed, and feature multiple processors, ultra-high speed fans, and accommodations for many drives. The machines pictured here were outfitted with dual or quad Xeon Platinum processors, each with 28 physical cores, for a grand total of 56 cores (112 threads) in a 2P system or 112 cores / 224 threads in a 4P system. They also featured 384GB or 768GB of Hynix DDR4 RAM (6 sticks per CPU) and all solid state storage, connected through Intel Lewisburg-based motherboards.

A system with all of those resources at its disposal will have some serious horsepower, as we'll show you a little later. If you’re a desktop enthusiast and would like like to experience a jaw-dropping moment, here’s a quick look at what a 112-thread, dual Xeon Platinum 8180-based system can do in Cinebench -- and we do mean quick...

Intel Xeon Platinum 8180, 112-Thread 2U Server Slays Cinebench

The performance and benchmark tests being shown in Intel's demos included Linpack, various big-data analytics, and heavy-duty storage workloads. Intel claims the Xeon Scalable Processor family delivers a 1.65x average performance increase (in a 2P configuration), across a broad range of benchmarks and applications versus the previous generation, and roughly 1.5x in a 4P configuration.

Django Workload (Top), Linpack (Bottom)

In a Django / Python workload, the 2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8180 processors-based server outpaced a 2P Xeon E5-2699 v4 based server by 1.43x (requests per second), in a battle of Intel's flagship server processors. Linpack was shown in action as well, in the bottom image. We were lucky enough to run some tests of our own, which we will outline for you on the next couple of pages.

Tags: Intel, Processors, Enterprise, Xeon, (NASDAQ:INTC), xeon scalable

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com