[QUOTE=ewmayer;440894]

I filled out the online form for the Xeon Phi developer access program at the link I posted, hope to hear back on Monday (i.e. next business day). But, that sounds like one is getting in line for the opportunity to *buy* an early-release system, and I can't justify shelling out $5000 (roughly whee I expect the proce range to start) - I signed up mainly in hopes of getting info on the price range of a complete system with-build-software-installed.[/QUOTE]

It sure looks like the Colfax dap systems come complete with a full Intel Parallel Studio XE suite of software already configured and part of the price quoted. Looks like 5k dollars for a system. I'd bet they would get wiggy if they found out a whole bunch of people were using it rather than the one person who bought it due to software license wording.

[QUOTE=airsquirrels;440867]how active is the interest/available is George et al.'s time to get prime95 using those avx-512 opcodes?.[/QUOTE]

I dread doing this development:

1) MASM does not support AVX-512 opcodes. This means I need to learn NASM macros (and rewrite many of my current MASM macros) or I need to learn Intel intrinsics assuming I can get down to register level programming in C. Merging the 2 environments into one library will be messy, rewriting all the existing MASM code would be even worse.
2) AVX2 code took a year to develop. I've not been in a coding mood recently.
3) All KNL code will have to be re-optimized when AVX-512 comes to the desktop. Let's face it KNL is a niche product, so the KNL optimized code would be little used.

[QUOTE=tServo;440922]It sure looks like the Colfax dap systems come complete with a full Intel Parallel Studio XE suite of software already configured and part of the price quoted. Looks like 5k dollars for a system. I'd bet they would get wiggy if they found out a whole bunch of people were using it rather than the one person who bought it due to software license wording.[/QUOTE]

Once at least one of us signer-uppers gets price quotes, assuming our $5K estimate is not way off the mark on the low side, I suggest we try the crowdsourced approach I mentioned previously - see if we can get ~10 want-to-developers to share the cost, one of whom - preferably in a locale with cheap electricity - would physically host the system and provide accounts for the rest.

George, your comment re. reoptimizing for later desktop releases - you expect that to be necessary even at the micro (instruction) level? My take is that thread-related optimizations would be the bigger-picture issue here.

=====================

[b]Edit:[/b] Neglected to check my Spam folder 'til just now, the Colfax quote is in there:
[i]
System Configuration Base Platform : Colfax KNL Ninja Air Cooled Pedestal Developer Platform(15979)
Memory Socket 1: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
Memory Socket 2: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
Memory Socket 3: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
Memory Socket 4: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
Memory Socket 5: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
Memory Socket 6: DIMM 16384mb 2133MHz Registered ECC DDR4(14007)
SSD Drive 1: Intel DC S3510 Series 240gb SSD SATA 6.0Gb/s(15150)
SSD Drive 2: A option only, no default(1419)
Disk Drive 1: HGST 0F23005 7K6000 ISE 4000gb 7200rpm 128mb Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s(15110)
Disk Drive 2: A option only, no default(1419)
Operating System SW: CentOS 7.2(15904)

Notes:
Est. Cost As Configured $4,705.32[/i]

Perhaps someone else could sign-up to get a quote on the liquid-cooled variant of the above basic platform.

p.s.: I hope they aren't treating my signup as an ironclad commitment to buy - I first wanted to see pricing, and the sign-up form was the only way I saw to doing that.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;440940]p.s.: I hope they aren't treating my signup as an ironclad commitment to buy - I first wanted to see pricing, and the sign-up form was the only way I saw to doing that.[/QUOTE]

You understand how contracts work, correct?

[QUOTE=ewmayer;440928]George, your comment re. reoptimizing for later desktop releases - you expect that to be necessary even at the micro (instruction) level?[/QUOTE]

Probably. They are completely different architectures. They will probably have different instruction latencies and different throughputs (e.g. will each KNL core have 2 FMA units?). Will KNL require different striding through memory or L1/L2 prefetching? If so, this too can affect the low-level macros.

Then there is the next level up optimizations for cache sizes. I expect KNL has smaller caches which might mean writing a 3-passes-over-memory instead of the current 2-passes-over-memory used presently.

[QUOTE=chalsall;440942]You understand how contracts work, correct?[/QUOTE]

I understand the difference between a "request for quote" and a "commit to purchase" - but Colfax's messaging could use a little help in that regard. Here is what their auto-reply of last night, resulting from my signup based on their no-prices-listed frontpage - said:
[i]
Thank you for your order. Below is the information submitted by you towards the order of the Ninja Developer Platform for Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor codenamed Knights Landing (KNL) at our website dap.xeonphi.com
We will email you with schedule details and payment information in the next few weeks. If you have questions you can reach us at [email]dap@colfax-intl.com[/email]
[/i]
Just got a followup which makes it clear that that was in fact a RFQ, as I expected when filling out the online signup:
[i]
Thank you for your interest in the Intel KNL developer access program.
Your quote is attached. The current lead time is about ten days.
Please call in at your convenience with your credit card details if you wish to proceed.
[/i]
The detailed quote was basically same info I posted above, plus CA state sales tax, an eye-watering 8.75%.

Bottom line: Around $5K as I surmised, including all the sweet Intel compiler&tuning tools. If we can get 10 people together and 1 to play physical host, that's $500 each, roughly what I paid last year for my little Intel 2-core Broadwell NUC. Who's interested on those terms?

Est. Cost As Configured $4,576.53

FWIW, liquid cooled without the 4TB spinny disk.

I'm willing to participate. I can also offer the colo as needed.

[QUOTE=airsquirrels;440951]Est. Cost As Configured $4,576.53

FWIW, liquid cooled without the 4TB spinny disk.

I'm willing to participate. I can also offer the colo as needed.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for offering to host the beast. For code-dev purposes doubt we need the large HD - is the SSD for the liquid-cooled system the same 240 GB as for the air-cooled?

With respect to the software, I followed up on the quote with a query about noncommercial multi-user licensing - here is reply I got:
[i]
The Platform includes a single user license for the cluster edition of Parallel Studio XE 2016 with latest updates included.

We have free software license for Students & additional programs for researchers at
[url]https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software[/url]
[url]https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software/student[/url]

Based on the institute/research type you may qualify for free/discounted software if you are wanting access beyond the single user license the system comes with.[/i]

I'm also willing to participate.

[QUOTE=Prime95;440925]3) All KNL code will have to be re-optimized when AVX-512 comes to the desktop. Let's face it KNL is a niche product, so the KNL optimized code would be little used.[/QUOTE]

Maybe it depends. Sixteen-core machines are currently a niche product, but they're the underlying hardware for virtual machines on the cloud, for Amazon and Google and Microsoft.

When those companies eventually get around to offering virtual machine instances on an architecture having AVX-512, I wonder will the underlying hardware be KNL? Or is KNL more of a specialty high-performance computing architecture only?

Is it possible that there could be three versions of AVX-512 to optimize mprime for? Desktop, the "general server" market, and KNL? Or just two?