In this iteration of Gestalt Server News:
– A look at AMD and Intel’s surprisingly competitive server platforms
– HyperGrid’s on-demand on-site solution
– How VMs are still more portable than Docker containers
Intel Goes Metal With Xeon Scalable Processor Launch
Intel did most of what they needed to do with the Xeon Scalable launch. There’s enough of a speed boost to get noticed, some interesting new options for server builds, and some cool low-level features that are going to matter in HPC and ML. This may be the biggest datacenter platform in a decade for Intel but it’s not a massive advancement overall.
HyperThreading Bug in Intel Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs
Intel’s been having a tough go of it lately with some of their silicon. First their Atom SoCs were causing some Cisco gear to brick back in February. Now comes this news of issues with HyperThreading on Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs. This seems limited to a relatively specific workloads, but has a wide range of effected processors. Most desktop CPUs in the last couple years, and recent Xeon E3s are subject to the error.
Remembrances of Interfaces Past: Firewire
Ars Technica published a look back at the rise and fall of Firewire.
Some highlights that jumped out to me: the connector was based on the original Game Boy connector, down to the pins. The original working name of the standard was ChefCat. Sony didn’t use the name “Firewire” in Japan because they thought it made Sony sound boring.
AMD Attempts Epyc Return to the Data Center
AMD Epyc sounds pretty epic, with epoch-defining memory, I/O, and even cores of a dual-socket server in a single socket. And that’s something to get excited about, especially considering that the Zen cores inside these chips are almost at IPC parity with Intel’s latest, and can handle dual threads like Intel, too.
Back to the Storage Future with Intel’s SPDK
A decade ago, flash began changing the storage market in profound ways. We’re now seeing similar disruptions with NVMe. But the speeds of the new interface bring to light new bottlenecks for performance, especially at scale. Intel designed their Storage Performance Development Kit to specifically focus on driving down latency to allow for scaling that borders on linear.
The High-End Desktop Heats Up: Intel i9 and AMD Threadripper
The race for desktop CPU dominance has proceeded in fits and starts for three decades, with improvements in architecture, manufacturing process, and clock speed ratcheting up performance. Now Intel is announcing high-end desktop CPU’s with many, many cores, including the long-awaited Core i9 series.
The Last Itanium
Intel’s Itanium processors remind me of the promise of every musical supergroup. He see the individual parts and think, “how could this not be awesome?!” Yet in the end, you’re left with a whole less than the sum of its parts. An overly ambitious, bloated, and unnecessary being is usually the result.
Intel and Network Functions Virtualization: The On-Premise IT Roundtable
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:57 — 8.0MB)
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Intel isn’t known as a networking company, but they think they have a play in the network functions virtualization market. The round table discusses what future Intel has in the space, and how they compete with more historic players in the market.
The Cheapest PC
It’s a question that’s boggled the great minds of our age. What’s the absolute cheapest modern PC you can make? I decided to find out. Welcome to the grotesque world of bargain basement PC building.