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Supermicro New Zealand
Intel Roadmap & Tylersburg
29 August 2008
The information supplied below is a snapshot of the options available as far as chipsets and processors supplied by Intel are concerned. The snapshot has not covered AMD but there is no implication that AMD is inferior or superior. This snapshot is necessary because Intel has provided more options than AMD and many people may want to know what the options are and which option is the most appropriate. It will stay relevant for the rest of this calendar year although some finer details may change.
Let us assume that the targeted application of the technology options is for servers (centralized service units) and not workstations (personal use). The tables below show the options currently available as of September 2008 plus one new platform called Tylersburg which will be available in October 2008.
Table 1 for Single Processor Server Platforms
Chipset
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CPU
|
Front Side Bus
|
Memory Type
|
Bearlake / Bigby 3210
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Core 2
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1333MHz
|
DDR2
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X48
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Core 2
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1600MHz
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DDR2
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Tylersburg 36S
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Core i7
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QPI
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DDR3
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Table 2 for Dual Processor Server Platforms
Chipset
|
CPU
|
Front Side Bus
|
Memory Type
|
Blackford
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Xeon 5400
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1333MHz
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FB DDR2
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San Clemente
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As above
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13333MHz
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DDR2
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Seaburg
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As above
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1600MHz
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FB DDR2
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Tylersburg 36D
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Nehalem-EP
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QPI
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DDR3
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The tables show that Tylersburg is associated with a new family of processors. That is, Tylersburg motherboards are not backward compatible with existing CPU and existing motherboards are not forward compatible with Core i7 or Nehalem. This is a major consideration for all as it is a technology shift point. Let us examine Tylersburg a bit further.
The chipsets for single processor (S) and dual processor (D) share the same architecture but are configured differently. Both support 36 lanes of PCI Express Version 2 and thus the suffix of 36S and 36D. Both use ICH10 as the South Bridge and ICH10 supports an additional 6 lanes on PCI Express Version 1. High bandwidth cards inclusive of PCI-X will connect to PCIE V2 lanes.
QPI stands for QuickPath Interconnect and it is an Intel owned technology. It is for connecting the processor with the North Bridge and other processors on the same motherboard. The bandwidth is not expressed as a front side bus frequency but is 6.4GT/s at present where T is transactions per link.
The front side bus is no longer because the new family of CPUs will have an integrated memory controller and will connect to the memory modules directly like the AMD K8 arrangement. The tables above show that Tylersburg systems will take NON-FULLY BUFFERED DDR3 modules. This is a substantial change from existing platforms.
Information on Core i7 and Nehalem-EP will be available at a later date.
Editor
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Supermicro New Zealand
Managed by Compucon New Zealand
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