Xeon Phi compatibility

[cefstat]

I am trying to buy an Intel Xeon Phi 5110P card for a research project that I have. It is very difficult to find information on the compatibility of the Xeon Phi with specific workstations. I am interested in the Dell Precision T5600 workstation and I am trying to find if the Xeon Phi is compatible with it. Although Dell appears in Intel's "Where to buy list" for Xeon Phi, I have not been able to find this information from Dell (but it is possible to configure online the T5600 with a Nvidia Tesla K20C). Anybody has any experience / idea on whether the T5600 and the Phi 5110P are compatible?

[TimP]

Dell installations I'm aware of are in servers; did you notice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxGdzDOW1k

We rely heavily on OEMs providing the information directly to customers; I have no way to vouch for any internal information I might dig up, which might not be current. I think you have looked in the right place on Dell web site but would need to consult their live help.

[cefstat]

Thank you for the reply Tim. I already contacted Dell's live help and they claimed that it is possible to configure the specific workstation only with the options appearing on their website. They were not clear about compatibility if I would buy the Xeon Phi myself. They also told me that there is no Dell product officially supporting the Xeon Phi. I have asked for an HPC sales representative to get in contact with me but haven't heard back yet. Probably the fact that I want only one Xeon Phi does not help also. Actually, trying to find a reseller for a system with Xeon Phi has been extremely frustrating. Part of the problem is that I am work in China and another part that I look for a workstation sized enclosure but the only companies that have been responsive to my queries (such as Supermicro) offer 1U (and larger) enclosures.

[dingjun_chencmgl_ca]

My computer is Dell Precision T5600 (16 cores) and Windows 7 Professional is stalled. I also plan to buy a Intel 60-core Xeon Phi 5110P coprocessor for it in order to investigate the possibility of our oil reservoir  simulators running on the Intel MIC archtecture. Could someone from Intel tell me whether or not the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor can work very well with the Dell Precision T5600? If it works well, perhaps I plan to buy more to upgrade our oil reservoir simulator products.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

[TimP]

Assuming that you have a coprocessor which is physically compatible with T5660, you may have BIOS compatibility issues.  The BIOS must at least support the wide address range MMIO option.  The live help sales people may be correct to the extent that Dell had not tested and approved a workstation configuration for sale to support Intel(c) Xeon Phi(tm).

As you're probably aware, the Windows host support for Intel(r) Xeon Phi(tm) has just entered beta test phase, so there would not yet be any marketed products for Windows workstation, even on configurations already set up for linux.

[Snopok__Pavel]

These two do not work together, just learned it the hard way. Checked both PCIe slots, updated BIOS to the latest version (A12), checked again. The card is not recognized at all. Not enough power? MMIO issue? The only sign of life is the fast blinking blue LED at the end of the card.
 

[jimdempseyatthecove]

I do not have a Dell motherboard, however, on my ASUS motherboard, the settings for the enabling of PCIe devices with addresses in above 4GB was in an obscure place *** and not referenced in the user manual.

I suggest you boot to BIOS setup and walk the pages. I cannot help you as to the wording of the feature support. Something along the line of "Enable large Base Address", or if you are lucky "Enable Xeon Phi support".

The typical CSR for any company will not know what is a Xeon Phi coprocessor.

Jim Dempsey

[Andrey_Vladimirov]

A necessary (but not sufficient) condition for Xeon Phi compatibility is that BIOS must have support for MMIO above 4 GB. It is up to the motherboard manufacturers to issue the corresponding BIOS updates.

For someone wanting to try Xeon Phi, there are two options: wait for BIOS updates (assuming they come out at all), or upgrade the machine (i.e., get a new one). Little is it known that Intel has made the second option easier (and cheaper) by offering starter kits, where a new machine, a Xeon Phi, compilers and educational materials are bundled:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/xeon-phi-starter-kit