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Full blown Xeons on a PCI-e card? Lately, I've been wondering as to why we don't see computers physically built more like old workstations, with processors on
by theandrewbailey 7y ago
Full blown Xeons on a PCI-e card?
Lately, I've been wondering as to why we don't see computers physically built more like old workstations, with processors on cards plugging into I/O backplanes. The modern incarnation might be CPU+RAM on a PCI-e x32 card, and a simple "motherboard" with power and PCI-e. (Does 32 lane PCI-e exist? I've never even seen photos.)
- digikata 7y agoSee standards proposals for various next gen links. https://www.openfabrics.org/images/eventpresos/2017presentations/213_CCIXGen-Z_BBenton.pdf https://www.openfabrics.org/images/eventpresos/2017presentat...
- dogma1138 7y agoMore like 3 iGPUs with some extra baggage the CPUs on those aren’t accessible directly in any way and not used for what needs to be offloaded from the fixed pipeline encoders/decoders and even that might be offloaded to the main CPU.
- theandrewbailey 7y agoNot directly accessible? There's ethernet ports on the card, and the article mentions you can SSH into them.
- dogma1138 7y agoThe SSH is used to manage the images running on the VCA’s you aren’t adding CPU’s to the host.
- rbanffy 7y agoThey aren't beefy Xeons - look more like desktop-like E3's with some HBM. Still nice, though. Never saw one of these, but they may present themselves as one or more computers the same way a Xeon Phi coprocessor did.
- dogma1138 7y agoThey aren’t using HBM they are using DDR4 SODIMMs. They don’t present themselves as CPUs to the host, they run a self contained Linux image the only thing that is accessible to the host is the streaming interface.
- close04 7y agoI think OP was referring to the on-package eDRAM. It helps quite a bit with bandwidth and latency.
- rbanffy 7y ago> they run a self contained Linux image the only thing that is accessible to the host is the streaming interface. That's more or less how the Phi coprocessors presented themselves, with the exception you could ssh into the coprocessor and install software on it.
- banana_giraffe 7y agoThe Intel NUC Compute Element[1] is somewhat like that. I have no reason, however, to think this will last beyond this generation of the NUC. 1: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/elements/nuc-compute-elements.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits...
- chx 7y agoLook up the Intel Intel NUC 9 Extreme (aka Ghost Canyon), it's a very small form factor gaming PC in the arrangement you are talking of. The motherboard is one PCIe card, the graphics card is another with a dumb I/O plate connecting the two. As a concept it's interesting, however the 238 x 216 x 96 mm size is just too big when the Velkase Velka 3 is 227 x 187 x 97 and uses an off the shelf ITX motherboard, same PSU and graphics card to achieve the same for much cheaper overall. A very powerful and quiet flex ATX PSU can be had at https://www.sfftec.com/product-page/enhance-enp-7660b-pro https://www.sfftec.com/product-page/enhance-enp-7660b-pro so that's not a problem either. Same can be had as taobao item 533119895425, use a proxy like superbuy and note modular PSUs with the modular plugs sticking out are longer than the flex PSU standard so not compatible with the Velka 3 but there are plenty variants of this item which are.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoYou see this all the time in industrial settings, based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactPCI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactPCI which looks like this https://www.kontron.com/products/boards-and-standard-form-factors/cpci https://www.kontron.com/products/boards-and-standard-form-fa... Some discrete GPUs in laptops/notebooks but also rackable systems are using it when it is pluggable/"built to order" based on a common board and not hard-soldered on.
- pjmlp 7y agoBecause other than an a few niche markets many are now using workstation level laptops and stuff like M2M or PCMCIA never got much adoption.