What is AVX512? AVX512 (Advanced Vector eXtensions) is the 512-bit SIMD instruction set that follows from previous 256-bit AVX2/FMA3/AVX instruction set. Originally introduced by Intel with its “Xeon Phi” GPGPU accelerators – albeit in a somewhat different form – it has finally made it to its CPU lines with Skylake-X … Read more…
What is NUMA? Modern CPUs have had a built-in memory controller for many years now, starting with the K8/Opteron, in order to higher better bandwidth and lower latency. As a result in SMP systems each CPU has their own memory controller and its own system memory that it can access … Read more…
What is “Threadripper”? “Threadripper” (code-name ZP aka “Zeppelin”) is simply a combination of inter-connected Ryzen dies (“nodes”) on a single socket (TR4) that in effect provide a SMP system-on-a-single-socket – without the expense of multiple sockets, cooling solutions, etc. It also allows additional memory channels (4 in total) to be … Read more…
What is “Threadripper”? “Threadripper” (code-name ZP aka “Zeppelin”) is simply a combination of inter-connected Ryzen dies (“nodes”) on a single socket (TR4) that in effect provide a SMP system-on-a-single-socket – without the expense of multiple sockets, cooling solutions, etc. It also allows additional memory channels (4 in total) to be … Read more…
We are pleased to release SP1a (Service Pack 1a – version 24.30) update for Sandra Platinum (2017) with the following updates: Sandra Platinum (2017) Press Release Tools update allowing further ports of benchmarks to AVX512, e.g.: CPU Multi-Media: 128-bit (octa) floating-point benchmark CPU Scientific: GEMM and N-Body (single and double … Read more…
We are pleased to announce SP1 (Service Pack 1 – version 24.27) for Sandra Platinum (2017) with updated hardware support and benchmark optimisations: Sandra Platinum (2017) Press Release Updated hardware support to including: Intel HEDT/Workstation/Server Skylake-X/Kabylake-X Intel Core Cofeelake AMD HEDT/Workstation/Server Threadripper Updated DDR4, NVMem (non-volatile), PMem (persistent) memory support … Read more…
What is “SKL-X”? “Skylake-X” (E/EP) is the server/workstation/HEDT version of desktop/mobile Skylake CPU – the 6-th gen Core/Xeon replacing the current Haswell/Broadwell-E designs. It naturally does not contain an integrated GPU but what does contain is more cores, more PCIe lanes and more memory channels (up to 6 64-bit) for … Read more…
What is “SKL-X”? “Skylake-X” (E/EP) is the server/workstation/HEDT version of desktop/mobile Skylake CPU – the 6-th gen Core/Xeon replacing the current Haswell/Broadwell-E designs. It naturally does not contain an integrated GPU but what does contain is more cores, more PCIe lanes and more memory channels: Server 2S, 4S and 8S … Read more…
We are pleased to announce two updates: SP4 for Sandra 2016 and RTMc for Sandra 2017, both with updated fixes and optimisations. Sandra 2017 Press Release Sandra 2016 Press Release Updated hardware support to current Sandra 2017 standard including: AMD Ryzen (and future arch) Intel Core KabyLake (and future arch) … Read more…
We are updating Sandra Platinum (2017) to RTMa (version 24.18) with a few important fixes and optimizations. Please update to this version as soon as applicable. Sandra 2017 Press Release * Windows 7/Server 2008 R2: failure to launch due to missing TPM support. If the BitLocker/TPM2 update was not installed … Read more…
What is FP16 (“half”)? FP16 (aka “half” floating-point) is the IEEE lower-precision floating-point representation that has recently begun to be supported by GPGPUs for compute (e.g. Intel EV9+ Skylake GPU, nVidia Pascal) while CPU support is still limited to SIMD conversion only (FP16C). It has been added to allow mobile … Read more…
Why test GPGPU performance Intel Core Graphics? Laptops (and tablets) are still in fashion with desktops largely left to PC game enthusiasts and workstations for big compute workloads; most laptops (and all tablets) make due with integrated graphics with few dedicated graphics options mainly for mobile PC gamers. As a … Read more…
Today marks the day AMD’s latest Ryzen 5 series launches (6C/12T 1600X, 1600 and 4C/8T 1500X, 1400) and the reviews – including Sandra benchmarks have hit the web: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 & 1400 CPU Review @ HardOCP AMD Ryzen 5 1600X CPU Review @ Tom’s Hardware AMD Ryzen 1600X … Read more…
What is “Ryzen”? “Ryzen” (code-name ZP aka “Zeppelin”) is the latest generation CPU from AMD (2017) replacing the previous “Vishera”/”Bulldozer” designs for desktop and server platforms. An APU version with an integrated (GP)GPU will be launched later (Ryzen2) and likely include a few improvements as well. This is the “make … Read more…
