Extending Intelligence to the Edge

Cloud and telecom service providers are caught in a constant battle to speed new service delivery, handle rapid growth in numbers of users, and contain IT costs. To achieve these critical goals, service providers need to look for opportunities to optimize infrastructure for density and cost, both in the data center and at the network edge.

That’s the idea behind the new Intel® Xeon® processor D family, the first system-on-a-chip (SoC) in the Intel Xeon processor portfolio. Designed for dense, small form factors, this new SoC puts the performance and advanced intelligence of Intel Xeon processors into dense, low-power networking, storage, and microserver infrastructure.

This is an ideal SoC for cloud service providers operating hyperscale data centers who want to use microservers to process lightweight workloads, such as dynamic web serving, memory caching, web hosting, and warm storage. They can now pack more compute density into their data centers. Better still, with support for up to 128 GB of memory, the SoC allows service providers to meet the needs of more users per server.

The Intel Xeon processor D family is also a great choice for telecommunications service providers who want to replace fixed function, proprietary, network edge appliances with open-standards Intel® Architecture. They can now get the benefits of Moore’s law, which has lowered the cost of compute by 60x over the past 10 years alone. They also get the benefit of standard Intel Architecture that can run common software across Intel product lines, generation after generation.

Intel Xeon Intelligence in a Low-power SoC

When it comes to performance, don’t let the small size fool you. We’re talking about “big core” performance and intelligence in a microserver form factor. This new SoC delivers up to 3.4 times the performance per processor and up to 1.7 times the performance per watt of the Intel® Atom™ processor C2750 SoC for dynamic web serving workloads. (1, 2)  Here’s a good analogy to help translate the performance density of Xeon D: In a typical server rack, you could pack up to 150 of Xeon D processor and be able to simultaneously host the entire population of L.A. and Chicago combined — all 6.6 million people! (3)

Despite its dense design, the Intel Xeon processor D family delivers all the intelligence you’ve come to expect in Intel Xeon processors. The SoC includes server-class Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS), hardware-enhanced security and compliance features, and Platform Storage Extensions that offer new intelligence for dense, low-power storage solutions.

Looking ahead, you can expect more good news about the Intel Xeon processor D family in the coming months. Intel plans to release more Xeon D processor versions in the second half of 2015, to build on the 4- and 8-core SoCs that are available today. These processors will be available in thermal design points of near 20 watts to 45 watts, making them ideal for networking and Internet-of-things usages.

All of this gives cloud and telecom service providers a lot to look forward to. They will soon have a broader range of options to address the pressing need for low-power, high-density infrastructure—from the data center to the network edge.

For a closer look at the Intel Xeon processor D family, visit intel.com/xeond.

Intel, the Intel logo Xeon, Intel Atom, and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

 * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

1. Source: Intel performance estimates based on internal testing of Dynamic Web Serving (Performance and Performance per Watt)

New Configuration: Intel® Xeon Processor D-based reference platform with one Pre-Production Xeon Processor D (8C, 1.9GHz, 45W), Turbo Boost Enabled, Hyper-Threading enabled, 64GB memory (4x16GB DDR4-2133 RDIMM ECC), 2x10GBase-T X552, 3x S3700 SATA SSD, Fedora* 20 (3.17.8-200.fc20.x86_64, Nginx*1.4.4, Php-fpm* 15.4.14, memcached* 1.4.14, Simultaneous users=43843, Maximum un-optimized CRB wall power =114W, Perf/W=384.5 users/W . Note: Intel CRB (customer reference board) platform is not power optimized. Expect production platforms to consume less power. Other implementations based on microserverchassis, power=90W (estimated), Perf/W=487.15 users/W

Base Configuration: SupermicroSuperServer* 5018A-TN4 with one Intel Atom Processor C2750 (8C, 2.4GHz,20W), Turbo Boost Enabled, 32GB memory (4x8GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM ECC), 1x10GBase-T X520, 2x S3700 SATA SSD, Ubuntu* 14.10 (3.16.0-23 generic), Nginx* 1.4.4, Php-fpm* 15.4.14, memcached* 1.4.14, Simultaneous users=12896. Maximum wall power =46W, Perf/W=280.3 users/W

2. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. Intel does not control or audit the design or implementation of third party benchmark data or Web sites referenced in this document. Intel encourages all of its customers to visit the referenced Web sites or others where similar performance benchmark data are reported and confirm whether the referenced benchmark data are accurate and reflect performance of systems available for purchase. For more information go to http://www.intel.com/performance. http://www.intel.com/performance.

3. 150 servers * 43843 simultaneous users per at approximately 90Ws per server in a 15KW rack