Latest Xeon Phi to Feature 128 Threads and Support 384GB of DDR4

The Xeon Phi co-processor has always been a powerhouse, but the latest generation is expected to offer significant gains over the current line-up. With up to 72 cores on a single processor, as well as support for up to 384GB of DDR4 memory, with 36MB of shared L2 cache and up to 16GB of High Bandwidth Memory (HMB), the new Silvermont architecture is certainly showing its worth. For comparison, the current prototype Xeon Phi is capable of up to 32 cores and 128 threads, still significantly short of the upcoming hardware.

Compared to consumer hardware that currently maxes out around 8-cores, with 16 threads, this is obviously a big advancement and while it’s not much use to your average consumer, the extra processing power is great for the scientific and engineering communities, as it’ll allow them to run simulations and calculations much faster in a server environment.

A six-channel DDR4 memory controller, with speeds of 2400MHZ is impressive, although I must admit I wouldn’t like to foot the bill for 384GB of DDR4 to saturate the capabilities of this new hardware. However, with an expected 300% improvement in single-threaded performance, as well as a 300% improvement in efficiency, this kind of hardware could quickly pay for its self.

Thank you TweakTown for providing us with this information.