- Oct 14, 2003
- 8,686
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Why do I think this way? We're increasingly in an era where one size fits all is not enough. Intel will not be able to rely just on general purpose CPUs and cores for servers anymore. They will have to add in functionality and blocks that currently differentiate FPGA/GPU/Coprocessors from CPUs.
I believe Cannonlake will start adding iGPU/Media blocks on server CPUs. First, a picture from Intel's Purley slide: https://www.nextplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/intel-kdm-roadmap-2.jpg
"Optional Integrated Accelerators"
-QuickAssist encryption and compression offloads
-Skylake + FPGA
-Cannonlake graphics and media transcode
If that's not a confirmation from Intel, there's this: http://www.intelserveredge.com/intelvca/
"The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card integrates three Intel® Xeon® E3 processors with Intel® IrisTM Pro graphics and Intel® Media Server Studio-enabled hardware accelerated video processing into a PCIe* card form factor that fits into Intel® Xeon® processor E5-based servers."
There must have been quite a demand for such a product to exist. Now putting 3 Xeon E3 chips into a PCI Express card seem like a very barbaric solution, but they may be preparing for what's coming. Putting an Iris Pro class block to Xeon E5/E7 die variations would be just that.
It seems 3D graphics-wise, Intel aren't too interested in greatly advancing their iGPUs since Haswell. But what seems like an inefficient engine for graphics might have been a very compelling product for media server product above to exist. It seems natural that they would further advance into that. If Intel can't make a product that's a top tier one compared to AMD/Nvidia(more latter, because they are with no question perf/watt leader), there's no point in putting a lot of resources into top 3D performing GPUs. Why not focus on where the money is?
The E5 chips are also available in 1P configurations as well. The equivalent consumer chip is used on the HEDT platform. We'll no doubt see it there, meaning iGPU/Media for their entire line of CPUs.
I believe Cannonlake will start adding iGPU/Media blocks on server CPUs. First, a picture from Intel's Purley slide: https://www.nextplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/intel-kdm-roadmap-2.jpg
"Optional Integrated Accelerators"
-QuickAssist encryption and compression offloads
-Skylake + FPGA
-Cannonlake graphics and media transcode
If that's not a confirmation from Intel, there's this: http://www.intelserveredge.com/intelvca/
"The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card integrates three Intel® Xeon® E3 processors with Intel® IrisTM Pro graphics and Intel® Media Server Studio-enabled hardware accelerated video processing into a PCIe* card form factor that fits into Intel® Xeon® processor E5-based servers."
There must have been quite a demand for such a product to exist. Now putting 3 Xeon E3 chips into a PCI Express card seem like a very barbaric solution, but they may be preparing for what's coming. Putting an Iris Pro class block to Xeon E5/E7 die variations would be just that.
It seems 3D graphics-wise, Intel aren't too interested in greatly advancing their iGPUs since Haswell. But what seems like an inefficient engine for graphics might have been a very compelling product for media server product above to exist. It seems natural that they would further advance into that. If Intel can't make a product that's a top tier one compared to AMD/Nvidia(more latter, because they are with no question perf/watt leader), there's no point in putting a lot of resources into top 3D performing GPUs. Why not focus on where the money is?
The E5 chips are also available in 1P configurations as well. The equivalent consumer chip is used on the HEDT platform. We'll no doubt see it there, meaning iGPU/Media for their entire line of CPUs.
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