[QUOTE=ldesnogu;430793]I don't know if this was known, but it looks like Xeon Phi Next Gen will land in Q3'16: [URL]http://www.computerbase.de/bildstrecke/71377/2/[/URL]

This page is also useful: [URL]https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/what-disclosures-has-intel-made-about-knights-landing[/URL]
[/QUOTE]

At least some of the newer specs I've seen helped clarify how many VPU's these things will have.

Consider the top of the line 72 core chip:[LIST][*]36 tiles, 2 cores per tile = 72 cores[*]Each core has *two* VPUs, so there are a whopping 144 AVX512 units.[*]Each pair of cores (each tile) shares a 1MB L2 cache...not huge, but oh well[*]Each core has 4 threads, so there would be 288 threads total[/LIST]
It will be interesting to see which memory mode would be best for Prime95, although I'd guess that using the 16GB of MCDRAM in flat mode, and telling Prime95 to address the MCDRAM directly, would be fastest.

Clearly Prime95 is in the same boat as other programs where it'll need customization/modification to get the most out of it, starting with AVX512 itself, but then just the sheer quantity of VPUs and the fast on-chip memory...figuring out what works best.

Exciting times ahead with these, definitely.

[QUOTE=ldesnogu;430793]Ernst, did you get anything back from Intel regarding early access to KL?[/QUOTE]

Nothing since the initial hopeful-sounding e-mail contacting. But it's all good - gives me time to do a second round of AVX2-focused optimization experiments, the 'obvious benefit' ones of which should also be helpful in an AVX512 context.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;430824]Nothing since the initial hopeful-sounding e-mail contacting.[/QUOTE]
Too bad...

Now if have $5K to spend, you can get a KNL machine with 100 GB of RAM. Liquid cooled... That's less than what I would have expected (perhaps Intel is making a very low introductory price).

[url]http://dap.xeonphi.com/[/url]

$4500 if you configure it with no SSD/hard drives.

Too bad there isn't a way to specify less memory. Perhaps that is the smallest configuration?

You need 6 RAM modules to get the 6-channel DDR4, and less than 16 Gb per module are probably not available.

[QUOTE=ATH;431630]You need 6 RAM modules to get the 6-channel DDR4, and less than 16 Gb per module are probably not available.[/QUOTE]

$4500 for a diskless isn't bad, but it is too bad they don't have alternates to 16GB modules. There are cheaper, lower capacity DDR4 ECC Registered modules in at 2133 or 2400, but oh well. They probably want their own modules in there since that's their tested configuration.

Before I would personally spend that much on a system I'd rather see some real world benchmarks, but I think it's safe to say Prime95, even if it does good as-is, would need plenty of new code to really take advantage.

We should start a fund to buy George one of these. :smile:

[QUOTE=Madpoo;431647]$4500 for a diskless isn't bad, but it is too bad they don't have alternates to 16GB modules. There are cheaper, lower capacity DDR4 ECC Registered modules in at 2133 or 2400, but oh well. They probably want their own modules in there since that's their tested configuration.

Before I would personally spend that much on a system I'd rather see some real world benchmarks, but I think it's safe to say Prime95, even if it does good as-is, would need plenty of new code to really take advantage.

We should start a fund to buy George one of these. :smile:[/QUOTE]
I would happily contribute decent chunk to a 'shared development' system hosted by some kind soul in a cheap-electricity area, along the lines of my previous proposal to that effect. Split the cost among (say) 10 people keen to do AVX512 coding, and it instantly becomes quite reasonable, roughly the same as that of Intel NUC or budget desktop/laptop.

Since some of us will be doing Linux development and George will be doing both Win and Lin, that dual-OS issue would need to be addressed - but my guess/hope is that such pricy server-style systems are set up for that sort of multi-OS-running-simultaneously setup. We might also need to shell out for an Intel compiler license (maybe could get that on 'student' discount terms?) if it is the case that GCC will not fully support KL for the foreseeable future. Can anyone comment on the latter issue?

[QUOTE=ewmayer;431676]We might also need to shell out for an Intel compiler license (maybe could get that on 'student' discount terms?)[/QUOTE]
The machine comes with a license, but I think it's only valid one year.

[quote]if it is the case that GCC will not fully support KL for the foreseeable future. Can anyone comment on the latter issue?[/quote]I guess that if you stick to intrinsics and assembly language, you won't need icc. But you might still need the other tools that come with the compiler (e.g. vtune) to get the best out of the beast.

I wouldn't mind contributing to a shared development system.

The machine comes with a free one-year license for the Intel compilers, but the licensing is for a single named user which isn't terribly helpful on a multi-user computer.

[QUOTE=fivemack;431715]The machine comes with a free one-year license for the Intel compilers, but the licensing is for a single named user which isn't terribly helpful on a multi-user computer.[/QUOTE]

What about this?
[URL="https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software/opensourcecontributor"]https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software/opensourcecontributor[/URL]

Unfortunately, Prime95 isn't "officially" an open source product... doesn't that mean it has to follow some guidelines about where the code is checked in and all that jazz? I don't know much about that aspect.

I don't think that merely making the source publicly available is enough to count.

I wonder if George himself would qualify for this:
[URL="https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software/academicresearcher"]https://software.intel.com/en-us/qualify-for-free-software/academicresearcher[/URL]