General Information about Nehalem Core CPUs

Quickpath Interconnect Technology:
- Uses on-die memory controller
- Measured in Giga Transfers per second instead of MHz
- Giga Transfers are a measure of bandwidth instead of speed
- Fail-safe design!  Even if paths between the CPU and motherboard features fail, the data will be re-routed through other paths and keep you up and running in a degraded mode.  Good news for PCs… Great news for servers!!!

Direct Media Interface:
- Released in 2004 it started on the ICH6 Southbridge and is used to link the Northbridge and Southbridge together on Intel Chipset motherboards
- It has now been put into the new role as a full system bus for the Socket 1156 Intel Motherboards
- Socket 1156 no longer has a Northbridge on the motherboard and all devices that would have previously reported to the Northbridge now report directly to the CPU

Understanding the translation of Gigatransfers:

Transfer or the more common derivatives Gigatransfer (GT) and Megatransfer (MT) are terms used in computer technology, referring to a number of data transfers (or operations). They are most commonly used for measuring transfer rates (usually as transfers per second, GT/s, MT/s, etc.). 1 GT/s means 109 or one (US/short scale) billion transfers per second, while 1 MT/s is 106 or one million transfers per second. In order to calculate the data transmission rate, one has to multiply the transfer rate by the information channel width. For example if we have a data bus of 8 bytes with transfer rate of 1 GT/s then the data rate would be 8x109 bytes/s, or approximately 7.45 GiB/s.

i5 and i7 Socket 1156:
- All Socket 1156 CPUs have a maximum bus speed of 2.5 GT/s DMI
- i7-800’s are quad core w/ hyper threading
- i5 is quad core with no hyperthreading
- PCI Express now pipes directly into the CPU with nothing in between
- Currently only has support for 2x PCI Express x8 electrical!
- Socket 1156 uses Dual Channel DDR3 technology

- Currently available motherboards:
- DP55KG Extreme Series ATX w/ SLI & Xfire
- DP55SB Extreme Series MicroATX w/ SLI & Xfire
- DP55WG Media Series ATX
- DP55WB Media Series MicroATX

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i7 Socket 1366:
- All Socket 1366 CPUs vary in bus speed from 4.8-6.4 GT/s QPI
- All Socket 1366 CPUs are quad core with hyper threading
- Utilizes Quickpath Interconnect Technology for the largest bandwidth pipeline possible
- Originally designated as the new Xeon Socket, the i7 1366 is designed for high end workstation tasks such as graphics/audio development, CAD development, and premium gaming PCs
- Currently supports 2x PCI Express x16 electrical!
- Socket 1366 uses Triple Channel DDR3 technology

- Only Intel motherboard available is DX58SO Extreme Series w/ SLI & Xfire
- Pyrinex tested and approved solution EVGA x58 w/ 3 way SLI support and 6x RAM slots

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Single Socket Xeon solutions are available in both socket 1156 and 1366!

X3400 Socket 1156 Xeon:
- Based on the Socket 1156 i5/i7
- Supports Dual Channel DDR3 RDIMMs and UDIMMs validated by Intel
- X3400 series systems will function with Non-ECC RAM but it is NOT an Intel validated solution and NOT recommended!  Due to the pricing of DDR3 Non-ECC vs. UDIMM vs. RDIMM there is no reason to not put ECC in this motherboard!
- Max memory support of 32GB w/ RDIMMs and 16GB w/ UDIMMs (motherboard dependent)
- All X3400 Xeons have a bus speed of 2.5 GT/s DMI

- Currently available motherboards:
- S3420GPLC baseline motherboard
- S3420GPLX more expandable solution

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W3500 Socket 1366 Xeon:
- Based on the Socket 1366 i7
- Supports Triple Channel DDR3
- Max memory support of 16GB
- Intel motherboard solution very similar to the already familiar DX58SO
- Key difference is added support for ECC RAM
- W3500 series systems will function with Non-ECC RAM but it is NOT an Intel validated solution and NOT recommended!    Due to the pricing of DDR3 Non-ECC vs. UDIMM vs. RDIMM there is no reason to not put ECC in this motherboard!
- Utilizes Quickpath Interconnect Technology for the largest bandwidth pipeline possible
- W3500 Xeons have a bus speed of 4.8-6.4 GT/s QPI

- Only motherboard available is WX58BP (almost identical to DX58SO) w/ ECC support

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dual Socket Xeon solution available only in socket 1366!

(E/L/W/X)5500 Socket 1366 Xeon:
- Based on the Socket 1366 i7
- Utilizes Quickpath Interconnect Technology for the largest bandwidth pipeline possible
- 5500 Xeons have a bus speed of 4.8-6.4 GT/s QPI

- Currently available motherboards:

Memory Configuration for 5500 Xeons
- Each 5500 Xeon natively supports triple channel DDR3
- Dual Socket Xeon motherboards work very much like two separate servers
- Each socket on a dual socket motherboard has its own memory banks
- A CPU installed in socket 1 cannot see RAM installed in the banks next to socket 2 and vise versa!!

Let’s go through an example with the Intel S5500HCV:

- When you read the specs for the S5500HCV, it states that it supports 6 channel memory.  This is because if you have 2 CPUs installed and each CPU supports triple channel, the end result is 6 channel.
- It has 2 sockets with 9 total memory slots
- Socket 0 has 6 slots assigned to it (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2)
- Socket 1 has 3 slots assigned to it (D1, E1, F1)
- Note that while Socket 1 has less available slots, both sockets support triple channel!
- If you were to spec a single CPU (planning to populate the second socket later), you would want to populate memory slots A1, B1, and C1 first with equal size modules.  So if you only wanted 3GB of RAM you would want to spec 3x 1GB modules.
- If you were to spec dual CPUs then you would want to populate A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, and F1 first with equal size modules in A1, B1, and C1 and equal size modules in D1, E1, and F1.
- In a dual CPU configuration, slots A2, B2, and C2 should only be populated once all of the other slots are populated, and again, they should be populated with matching modules.

- One of the big things that is coming up quite frequently is a lot of people are saying that they want a dual 5500 Xeon server but they only want 4GB of RAM.  Unfortunately, this is not possible without truncating the overall performance of the server.  The only 2 ways to populate a dual CPU S5500HCV with 4GB of RAM is to either run 1x CPU with in triple channel (3x 1GB) and 1x CPU in single channel (1x 1GB) or run each CPU in dual channel (2x 1GB).
- As an industry, we have all become accustom to everything running dual channel and just spec’ing out everything with 4GB of RAM but the dual 5500 Xeon platform is the end of that convention.
- It is now the industry standard with this platform in a dual configuration that 6GB should be known as the minimum amount of RAM.

- Very important.   All S5500 series motherboards (except for the S5500BC) require 2x 8pin EPS connectors to be attached to the motherboard from the power supply when running 2x CPUs.  If the second 8pin connector is not plugged in, the server will not POST.
- Some of you may already own an S5500 platform server (purchased here or otherwise) with a single CPU.  If you are planning to upgrade with a second matching CPU then you may find you do not have a 2nd 8pin EPS connector.
- The biggest reason to remember this is because it is not yet a standard feature of power supplies (server or otherwise) to have 2x 8pin EPS connectors.  Adapters are readily available!

There is one and only one exception to these rules…the S5500BC!

- The SS5500BC is the base line dual socket 1366 motherboard.
- It supports dual channel on each CPU for a total of 4 channel memory support when using 2x CPUs
- Warning!  Due to the physical design of the S5500BC, when both sockets are populated, the maximum length of expansion card that will fit is 6.6”!!!  If you are using a RAID controller, please also take into consideration the position of the data cable exit.  If it is a 6.6” long controller, it must have a side exit!

Launch news from Intel:

- 1st Quarter 2010 new Core i5 and Core i3 are scheduled for launch
- Both are Socket 1156 and will have CPU integrated graphics
- The launch of these will also result in the launch of the newest generation of Socket 1156 motherboards which will have an onboard breakout port for graphics that come from the CPU integrated graphics

- Next year will also bring the launch of the much anticipated Intel ‘Larrabee’ project
- It is Intel’s first entry into the discrete graphics card market
- It is a reported 32 Core graphics controller designed to compete with the top of the line graphics adapters (i.e. the current ATI HD4870 X2 and Nvidia GTX295)
- No reported price for launch yet as many details about it are still kept secret but assumed price range will likely be $500-$700.
- One other big potential for the ‘Larrabee’ will be to see a sliding scale of lower end models with blocked off cores etc.
- As many know, when Intel produces for example a Socket 1366 i7 CPU it starts out as an i7-975 (the best and fastest i7 CPU that Intel produces).  Through a series of stress tests, certain portions of the CPU will be found defective and then blocked off to cause the CPU to act in a stable manner.  This means that an i7-975 that would run at 3.33GHz and 6.4 GT/s could be downclocked to an i7-920 that would run at 2.66GHz and 4.8 GT/s.  We should be likely to see the same trend from the ‘Larrabee’ project.

- January 2010 Intel’s 40GB consumer marketed SSD is due to hit the market.  With performance ratings surprisingly close to that of the $400+ Intel Extreme SSD with an expected launch price of only $100, we are quickly approaching the point of overall replacement of moving parts hard drives as operational storage in everything down to basic PCs!

Windows 7:

- Functionality is virtually identical to Windows Vista
- Kernel size significantly reduced from Vista (Now smaller than Windows XP)
- Windows Update is vastly improved!  It now searches out and downloads not only hardware drivers but full software installations for many pieces of hardware.
- Windows 7 installs much cleaner without all of the Vista trinkets running by default such as the sidebar etc.
- Average commit charge of less than 1GB vs. pushing 2GB as Vista did
- Better driver support throughout!
- Windows 7 OEM still retains downgrade rights whether downgrading to Vista or XP

- Windows 7 Home Premium -> No downgrade path!
- Windows 7 Professional -> Windows Vista Business -> Windows XP Professional
- Windows 7 Ultimate -> Windows Vista Ultimate/Business -> Windows XP Professional

- Windows 7 Retail does NOT have downgrade rights
- Downgrade rights for Windows 7 expire after Service Pack 1 is released or April 1st 2011, whichever occurs first.  If your copy of Windows 7 has not been downgraded by this time, it cannot be downgraded!
- After this point, Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft and it will no longer be available through distribution.
- For full details on Windows 7 downgrade rights, please refer to the provided packet.