When you think about Intel, you probably think of computers and servers. But did you know that the company also makes chips for mobile devices?
You might not have heard much about them, but these processors are pretty amazing. In fact, they’re so good that people don’t even realize they’re using one!
We’ve compiled seven surprising facts about the Intel EVO platform to help you understand why it’s such a big deal. If your phone or tablet has an “Intel Inside” sticker on it, then it uses this technology.
Here are the facts to know about the world’s most powerful chip for mobile devices!
What is the Intel Evo Platform?
The EVO platform is a set of Intel microprocessors designed for commercial-grade servers. There are so many different kinds of computers, and each computer has a different kind of processor. For example, the Xeon E5 2600 series became popular because it introduced many new technologies in this market. It is still a big part of the market now, but newer technology was invented and became available.
The Xeon E5 2600v4 found in most multipurpose servers today is an evolution of that same basic processor line. Unfortunately, these processors are often only differentiated by clock speed and number of cores.
While they are like their predecessors, new changes have been made to make them work better. They are more powerful because of architectural changes. This is because more people care about power efficiency now.
What to Expect from an Intel Evo Platform-Based Server
A server based on an EVO platform can be used for many different things. It can handle less intensive work, or it can handle more demanding workloads that require a lot of processing power. A server with this type of platform is usually able to handle moderate amounts of traffic and allow multiple people to use one machine.
The Intel Xeon E5 2600v4 (Lenovo platform) is the most popularly found processor within this class of server hardware. It is important to note that since these processors do not come with any integrated video capability, they will require a dedicated graphics card if you plan on using it for gaming or other graphic-intensive applications.
How Much Do They Cost?
Like most server components, pricing is largely dependent on volume. Chips come in large lots of 1 million or more, so the actual price per chip varies widely depending on the distributor. For Intel’s low-end processors, it can be as little as $15 for a single PCIe card, although it quickly increases as you move up the line.
Xeon E5 2698v3 and Xeon E5 2699v3 can be had for well over $1000, although the latter is only compatible with special motherboards.
At this point, we should note that Intel has a bit of a dicey history when it comes to pricing.
1: The Xeon E5 2600v4 is the Fastest Mobile Processor Currently on the Market.
In spite of its popularity as a server platform, the Xeon E5 2600v4 series has also been used in a number of laptops and even some desktops. One reason that it may not have seen much use outside the realm of servers until recently is that it had previously been too large to fit inside a laptop chassis, with its huge LGA 2011 socket making it unsuitable for standard motherboard mounting points.
Since there were no mobile versions of this generation, manufacturers needed to update their design guidelines. This was expensive because they had already been using old designs. Since then, Intel has made mobile versions of these processors which can fit into a standard LGA 1151 socket.
And, the scalability of servers is important to any business and something that can be achieved by way of upgrades and changes in the hardware. For providers, this means having a supplier with multiple components to choose from, giving you flexibility in how you scale up or down your infrastructure.
In order to be able to handle the demand, servers should also support hot-swapping components. This means that they can add and remove processors without shutting down the server.
2: The Xeon E5 2600v4 is More Energy-efficient Than Any Other Processor Currently on the Market.
The Intel Xeon E5 2600v4 series is not only the fastest processor family available but also one of the most power-efficient ones. While they may use more energy than their original counterparts did, newer technology has allowed for significant efficiency gains in the past few years which have negated this disadvantage and then some.
This results in processors that can handle demanding tasks while still consuming less overall power. If you want to run high-performance applications requiring maximum processing capability without breaking your budget on electric bills, these processors
3. It’s the World’s Smallest Server Footprint
Intel’s next generation of processors has the smallest ever server footprint. The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family (formerly codenamed “Broadwell”) is compatible with all existing LGA 2011v3 infrastructure, eliminating the requirement for the time-intensive, expensive motherboard and BIOS upgrades when upgrading to this platform.
Furthermore, these new laptop functions and processors are compatible with both DDR4 and DDR3 memory technologies.
4. It Delivers More PCIe* 3.0 Expansion Slots & I/O than Previous Platforms
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v4 Product Family has more PCI Express 3.0 expansion slots per CPU socket than any previous generation of Intel Xeon processors. That means they can support more NVMe* devices directly attached to the platform (up to 22 on a dual-socket system) and deliver up to 56 PCIe lanes of I/O for add-in cards such as network adapters, RAID controllers, and video capture cards.
5. It Offers 50 Percent More Cores & Cache Per Socket
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v4 product family has 25% more cores and cache than the previous generation of processors. This means that on a dual-socket server, you can have up to 50% more cores and cache than the previous generation of processors per socket. So your servers will be able to do more work in less time.
The new platform has double the memory bandwidth and more than double the floating point performance of the previous generation. This is a big difference! And, it has 50% more cores and cache per socket. That means that you will save money by using this platform!
6. It Offers 25 Percent Fewer Watts per Performance Point
This efficiency enables up to a 25% improvement in the total cost of ownership compared to Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v3 product family platforms. Additionally, the platform has significantly reduced power consumption, allowing smaller air-cooled solutions, reducing rack space requirements, and lowering data center power and cooling costs.
7. It’s Ideal for High-Performance Computing (HPC)
The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family is a great choice for high-performance computing (HPC). The platform has higher performance in a dense 180W thermal design point (TDP) form factor used in all Intel Rack Scale Architecture platforms from OEMs when compared to the previous generation of processors when used in the same 170W TDP form factor.
Lower TDP means less wasted energy for CPUs that are not fully utilized, resulting in significantly lower operating costs. In addition, these processors have a very low average TCase (measured in joules per square millimeter) which is ideal for workloads that require high FLOPS (floating-point operations per second) at the expense of heavy computations.
And, the new platform offers up to 41 percent more virtual machines per server than the Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v3 product family, meaning you can support more customers with better service levels and higher revenue without increasing your operational costs or energy usage.
The platform also provides important security features such as Secure Boot and Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d).
Want to Learn More About the Intel EVO Platform?
As you can see, the Intel EVO platform is built for a variety of power needs and applications. If you’ve been looking to upgrade your system or are just curious about what this new technology has to offer, we hope that our blog post was helpful in learning more about these 7 surprising facts about the Intel EVO Platform.
These seven surprises highlight that when it comes to the new Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v4 product family, there’s more than meets the eye.
With dramatically improved performance in compute-intensive applications over previous generations of processors, industry-leading memory bandwidth and capacity, enhanced reliability via built-in platform telemetry tools, lower power requirements per core, and baseboard management controller with energy-optimized designs available from OEMs, there is no better time to upgrade your server systems.
Don’t forget to check out our blog to learn more about the Lenovo platform and Lenovo services.