Intel have released the long awaited Ivy Bridge EX 'E7 v2' line of server CPUs. Hot on the heels of this, Dell, HP and IBM have released their E7 v2 range of servers. Allowing up to 6TB of main system memory, and up to 15 cores per socket, the E7 v2 delivers faster IO - and increases the amount of data that you can keep hot.

Intel Ivy Bridge E7 v2

Codenamed 'IvyTown', Intel have released two socket (E7-2800), four socket (E7-4800), and eight socket (E7-8800) versions of the Ivy Bridge EX processor. Intel promise a doubling of average processor performance over the Westmere (4 socket v2 VS 4 socket westmere) predecessors. Intel were keen to state this is an 'average 2x' not an 'up to 2x' performance increase.

Intel Xeon E7 v2 CPU

With up to 15 cores and a clock speed of between 2.2 and 2.8 GHz, the v2's have an unusual layout of cores. Arranged in 3 ranks of 5 cores, and a non-turbo limit of 2.8 GHz. The LLC (L3) is 37.5 MB in size, offered across all cores (2.5MB per core). Overall, this is good for a massive 450 GB/sec of LLC bandwidth. At 2.8 GHz, average latency sits at around 15ns, with latency ranging from 11-20ns. There will also be a low Wattage offering, and a 3.0 GHz base clock HPC chip, using up 130 W.

The dual-mode memory scheme is what's really interesting about the Ivy Bridge EX. Offering two modes, 'LockStep' and 'Performance', you could see memory speeds of 2667 MHz. This is done by using the 2:1 bus ratio, with memory at 1333 MHz.

HP Gen8 E7 v2 Servers

HP released their first E7 v2 server in the shape of a DL580 Gen8. Available today, the DL580 Gen8 is the first updated Gen8 version of the 4U 4 socket, high performance machine. HP will suport 6, 8, 12, and 15 core versions of the E7 v2, and once 64 GB DIMMs come on stream, up to 6 TB of main memory.

HP ProLiant DL580 Gen - with Intel E7 V2 CPU

HP state that the DL560 Gen8, and BL660c Gen8 will be along shortly. (March 2014)

IBM 'X6' E7 v2 Servers

IBM also put a couple of E7 v2 boxes out there this week in the form of an X3850 X6 and an X3950 X6. Offering 4 and 8 sockets respectively, these will be joined by 2, 4, and 6 socket compute nodes as part of IBMs Flex System.

IBM X3850 X6 - with Intel E7 V2 CPU

A feature IBM are keen to demonstrate, is their eXFlash system. eXFlash adds flash storage to a memory DIMM, offering extra flash storage but on the memory bus - maintaining performance by not requiring additional network or PCIe compute resource.

Dell Poweredge E7 v2 Servers

Lastly, Dell squeezed out its latest Poweredge R920 server, matching IBM and HP with 6 TB of main memory across 96 DIMM slots. It offers 8 PCI SSD bays for your chosen flavour of flash storage, plus 16 1.2 TB spinning disks.

Dell Poweredge R920 - with Intel E7 V2 CPU

Dell are keen to point to their agent free, out of band management on the R920, something that is seen as standard among compute hungry users.

For more information on E7 v2's, or the road maps for your chosen x86 vendors - please contact us, or your BSI account manager.