Raptor Computing Systems Community Forums (BETA)

General OpenPOWER Hardware => General CPU Discussion => Topic started by: pocock on July 29, 2020, 11:25:49 am

Title: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: pocock on July 29, 2020, 11:25:49 am

I notice that Raptor is only offering the 4 core and 8 core version of the v2 (stepping DD2.3) chips (https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Sforza).  The 22 core chip is only available in v1.

Is there any reason for this?

I decided to order the 8 core v2 CPUs with the intention that I will use them on a dual-CPU board until the 22 core v2.3 CPU is available.  Then I could move the 8 core CPUs onto Talos II Lite boards and upgrade to 22 core v2.3 chips on my primary workstation.
Title: Re: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: MPC7500 on July 29, 2020, 11:30:33 am
This will probably take some time (weeks). The same was the case with the 18 and 8-core POWER9.

Maybe IBM first.
Title: Re: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: ClassicHasClass on July 31, 2020, 10:09:05 am
I'll be very interested to hear how the 22's do in a workstation, especially since you'll really need two of them.
Title: Re: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: pocock on July 31, 2020, 10:15:10 am
I had the impression your comment may be a bit sarcastic but there are cases where 22 core CPUs are useful in a workstation

For example, a multi-seat configuration where 2 or 3 users have keyboards and monitors connected to the same workstation (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gnome+multi-seat&t=ffab&ia=web), somebody who is compiling a lot of C++ or Java, somebody who does a lot of data analysis.  For some people, it may be all of the above.  The Talos II dual CPU is really good value for money in such cases.
Title: Re: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: ClassicHasClass on July 31, 2020, 10:43:39 am
No, I wasn't really being sarcastic (maybe a little snarky).  ;) My concern here is the amount of cooling that would make it liveable as a workstation. The board is clearly able to handle it and I don't have any reliability concerns given how overengineered the II board is, but the HSFs will probably be whining all the time unless you have it parked somewhere else as a host where you don't have to listen to it. I would also imagine the TDP would cause a lot of heat in a typical room. I've always thought the 22s were better in server configurations.
Title: Re: v2 CPU availability?
Post by: pocock on July 31, 2020, 11:06:08 am
What is the idle power consumption of the 22 core chips?  Do they generate heat constantly or only when you throw work at them?

For a multi-seat configuration (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gnome+multi-seat&t=ffab&ia=web), one Talos II system running a little hot is probably putting out less heat than three separate Intel Xeon workstations.