Earlier this year, we discussed the new Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors at a high level. I wanted to provide more details on the internals of these coprocessors.
For now, it’s best if Linux is your operating system of choice when testing Xeon Phi. Intel is working on support for Microsoft Windows (see below), but that effort is not as mature. Additionally, the Phi itself runs an embedded copy of Linux. In most cases, a Linux+Linux environment is going to be more seamless than a Windows+Linux environment.
Essentially, you should view each Xeon Phi card as a separate computer with its own processors, memory, storage, network stack and operating system. You can use the Phi as a traditional coprocessor – offloading work to it. You can also do more interesting things with them, such as connecting via SSH.
Xeon Phi 5110P under Linux
Intel’s tool for checking the status of Xeon Phi coprocessors is micinfo. When you first start using the cards, you’ll also need to use the micctrl and micflash utilities. For the output below, we were running CentOS Linux 6.3 with all updates. The Linux kernel module (mic kmod) for Phi was rebuilt using rpmrebuild. Here’s the information dump from Intel’s micinfo utility on the passively-cooled Xeon Phi 5110P*:
/opt/intel/mic/bin/micinfo
MicInfo Utility Log
Created Thu Feb 14 17:01:06 2013
System Info
Host OS : Linux
OS Version : 2.6.32-279.22.1.el6.x86_64
Driver Version : 4982-15
MPSS Version : 2.1.4982-15
Host Physical Memory : 32849 MB
CPU Family : GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 45 Stepping 7
CPU Speed : 1200.000
Threads per Core : 2
Device No: 0, Device Name: Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) Coprocessor
Version
Flash Version : 2.1.05.0375
UOS Version : 2.6.38.8-g32944d0
Device Serial Number : xxxxxxxxx820
Board
Vendor ID : 8086
Device ID : 2250
SubSystem ID : 2500
Coprocessor Stepping ID : 3
PCIe Width : x16
PCIe Speed : 5 GT/s
PCIe Max payload size : 256 bytes
PCIe Max read req size : 512 bytes
Coprocessor Model : 0x01
Coprocessor Model Ext : 0x00
Coprocessor Type : 0x00
Coprocessor Family : 0x0b
Coprocessor Family Ext : 0x00
Coprocessor Stepping : B1
Board SKU : B1PRQ-5110P
ECC Mode : Enabled
SMC HW Revision : Product 225W Passive CS
Core
Total No of Active Cores : 60
Voltage : 980000 uV
Frequency : 1052631 kHz
Thermal
Fan Speed Control : N/A
SMC Firmware Version : 1.7.4172
FSC Strap : 14 MHz
Fan RPM : N/A
Fan PWM : N/A
Die Temp : 47 C
GDDR
GDDR Vendor : Elpida
GDDR Version : 0x1
GDDR Density : 2048 Mb
GDDR Size : 7936 MB
GDDR Technology : GDDR5
GDDR Speed : 5.000000 GT/s
GDDR Frequency : 2500000 kHz
GDDR Voltage : 1000000 uV
Xeon Phi 3120A under Windows
Intel has announced beta support for Windows. While you will face a less-robust software stack, we are able to provide workstations and servers with Intel Xeon Phi co-processors. Here’s the output from the actively-cooled Xeon Phi 3120A*:
C:Program FilesIntelMPSSbin>MicInfo.exe
MicInfo.exe
Version: 6720-12
Copyright 2011-2013 Intel Corporation All Rights Reserved.
MicInfo Utility Log
Created Mon Jun 17 12:29:20 2013
System Info
Host OS : Microsoft Windows 7 x64
OS Version : Microsoft Windows 6.1.7601.2
Driver Version : 2.1.6720.12
MPSS Version : 2.1.6720.12
Host Physical Memory : 68667 MB
Device No: 0, Device Name: Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) Coprocessor
Version
Flash Version : 2.1.02.0386
uOS Version : 2.6.38.8-g5f2543d
Device Serial Number : xxxxxxxxx873
Board
Vendor ID : 8086
Device ID : 225d
Subsystem ID : 2500
Coprocessor Stepping ID : 3
PCIe Width : x16
PCIe Speed : 5 GT/s
PCIe Max payload size : 256 bytes
PCIe Max read req size : 512 bytes
Coprocessor Model : 0x01
Coprocessor Model Ext : 0x00
Coprocessor Type : 0x00
Coprocessor Family : 0x0b
Coprocessor Family Ext : 0x00
Coprocessor Stepping : B1
Board SKU : B1PRQ-3115A
ECC Mode : Enabled
SMC HW Revision : Product 300W Active CS
Core
Total No of Active Cores : 57
Voltage : 1037000 uV
Frequency : 1100000 kHz
Thermal
Fan Speed Control : On
SMC Firmware Version : 1.14.4616
FSC Strap : 14 MHz
Fan RPM : 2700
Fan PWM : 50
Die Temp : 49 C
GDDR
GDDR Vendor : Hynix
GDDR Version : 0x3
GDDR Density : 2048 Mb
GDDR Size : 5952 MB
GDDR Technology : GDDR5
GDDR Speed : 5.000000 GT/s
GDDR Frequency : 2500000 kHz
GDDR Voltage : 1501000 uV
Intel also provides a graphical monitoring utility for the MIC-based products called micsmc. It’s not as comprehensive, but is valuable for monitoring the real-time status of your coprocessor cards.
Screenshot of Intel micsmc Utility
Take note that these coprocessors require 225W to 300W of power per Phi card. If you’re not certain your existing systems will accept such a card, get in touch! At Microway, We Speak HPC™, and we speak Intel Xeon Phi. Contact us at WeSpeakHPC@Microway.com.
* Astute readers will note that these were pre-productions boards. The information output may vary slightly from the production models.
