Intel’s Xeon family of processors dominates the November 2016 Top500 list. Intel holds over 92% market share in the most recent Top500 list. Extending on this lead Intel is launching a new Xeon E5-2699A V4. The company is also showing off Skylake-EP at the show.
The Intel Xeon E5-2699A V4 is a higher-clocked (200MHz) version of the Intel Xeon E5-2699 V4 we saw launched in March 2016. That clock speed increase, in turn, gives an increase in HPC performance.
![Intel Xeon E5 2699A V4 SC16](https://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Intel-Xeon-E5-2699A-V4-SC16-800x349.jpg)
We will have more from the SC16 show floor but Intel released more information on Skylake-EP. The company is targeting mid-2017 availability. They are also touting that the new architecture will have AVX-512 instructions included. Finally, the company is confirming the support for Intel Omni-Path interconnects.
![Intel Xeon Skylake EP Coming 2017 SC16](https://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Intel-Xeon-Skylake-EP-Coming-2017-SC16-800x381.jpg)
Given this, we can understand why Omni-Path made a huge move on the Top500 list in November 2016. For those looking toward 2017 deployments, Skylake-EP and Knights Landing/ Knights Mill Xeon Phi generation parts have integrated interconnects makes the interconnect a low-cost leader.
One new bit of information that Intel confirmed at the SC16 press briefing was that Skylake-EP will utilize the 14nm plus process introduced first with Kaby Lake. Intel claimed improvements over the original 14nm process so it is great to see this technology utilized on Skylake-EP.
Here is an excerpt from the Intel SC16 press release on the new processors:
Intel Xeon platforms are already powering virtually all HPC and machine learning workloads and to push that further, Intel is introducing its fastest two-socket processor, the Intel Xeon processor E5-2699A v4.
- The Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2699A v4 delivers industry-leading performance for demanding, data-intensive applications ideal for customers who need high performance from the world’s most-chosen data center processor family.
- At Supercomputing 2016, Intel will publically demonstrate an HPC cluster featuring an early version of the next-generation Intel Xeon processor utilizing integrated Intel OPA and Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions-512 (Intel® AVX-512), complemented by Intel Xeon Phi processors.
- Intel AVX-512 processor instructions, launched June 2016 with the Intel Xeon Phi processor, accelerates compression and encryption algorithms. It provides hardware-enhanced data protection and fast time-to-insight, and can accelerate floating-point operations used in a wide range of HPC applications.
Do you know how much it cost ?
The E5-2699A V4 is just under $5000