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KNL coprocessor availability

Metzger__Don
Beginner
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Perhaps someone knows when the KNL in coprocessor form will be available?

As far as I can tell from the ARK website, all of the gen 1 coprocessors have been end of life'd. None of the gen 2 systems are available as coprocessors. That puts us in a difficult position. Because the gen 1 systems were primarily available as coprocessors (PCIe boards), we developed our systems with this expression in mind. However, we seem to be facing a situation where we must ship end of life'd systems to customers as new units. That is really not a very good position to be in.

I understand Intel wanting to venture into new markets, but the current product strategy is causing great difficulty for those of us who adopted Xeon Phi technology as a basis of our solutions. Without a coprocessor version of gen 2 systems, what are we supposed to do to ship new systems?

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Metzger__Don
Beginner
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Really, no one knows anything? I thought the Intel folks watching this forum might want to chime in to help out their customer.

We bought into Xeon Phi. We have developed innovative products using KNC coprocessors. Now we find ourselves in no-man's land. Can no one at Intel provide a little guidance?

 

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Loc_N_Intel
Employee
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Hi Don,

Marketing plans are not available to most people like us. I did some research, trying to answer your question but I haven't found anything about the future Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor yet.

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jimdempseyatthecove
Honored Contributor III
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IMHO a better technical solution would be to make KNL with QuickPath (or successor) to provide for multi-socked system...
... and additionally provide for the ability to mix KNL and Xeon's on the same motherboard. IOW a shared memory system with KNL and Xeon hosts.

Jim Dempsey

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Metzger__Don
Beginner
511 Views

Thanks to those who are responding.

I do like the idea of a motherboard that could mix Xeons with Xeon Phis. That is essential to us because our code has a mixture of serial and parallel code. To run serial stuff on a Xeon Phi only, is a BIG performance hit. That is why the socketed versions of KNL don't work for us.

The bottom line is that Intel created a form factor. We adopted it. In the move to KNL they put the existing form factor way down in priority. That leaves those of us who went along with Intel, high and dry. We cannot ship product.

Someone at Intel, please tell me what I should be shipping now.

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Kirsten_L_Intel
Employee
511 Views

Don,

I work on the Xeon Phi product marketing team. You are correct that the first generation Xeon Phi coprocessors are end of life. There is a second generation Xeon Phi coprocessor coming soon; however, since this product is still under embargo before launch, many details need to remain under NDA. We would encourage all customer to move over to the 2nd generation coprocessor or the first generation Xeon Phi processor. If you could, please contact me via email (Kirsten.a.linthwaite@intel.com), and we can talk more directly about your particular need for product.

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Bart_O_
Novice
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SC'16 starts in a few days. Often announcements are made there so watch the news...

(not promising anything of course, I have no idea what Intel will announce this year but they always announce something).

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jimdempseyatthecove
Honored Contributor III
511 Views

There is nothing in the way of modifying the KNC Offload programming paradigm from being used to offload via MPI to KNL or other host processor(s). IOW to provide a means whereby the only change to existing KNC code is to change the target system name. Note, if the program uses just 0, 1, 2, ... then these could easily be reused as MPI rank numbers. Then the only change could potentially be reduced to using a different load library with the existing app.

Jim Dempsey

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