<jsav...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
> I was excited when I heard the news that the Xeon E7 chip would bring
> to the x86 platfom the kind of RAS features that had previously only
> been available for the Itanium (and, of course, other architectures
> like SPARC and IBM mainframes).

> However, currently, in looking for servers, I find that the E7 is only
> available in blade or rack servers, not in the humbler tower servers.
> Is the E7 so expensive, or are the RAS features of such limited use
> except in very large-scale systems, so that this makes sense?

> John Savard

Mark F <mark53...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:42:59 -0800 (PST), Quadibloc
><jsav...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:

>> I was excited when I heard the news that the Xeon E7 chip would
>bring
>> to the x86 platfom the kind of RAS features that had previously
>only
>> been available for the Itanium (and, of course, other architectures
>> like SPARC and IBM mainframes).

>> However, currently, in looking for servers, I find that the E7 is
>only
>> available in blade or rack servers, not in the humbler tower servers.
>> Is the E7 so expensive, or are the RAS features of such limited
>use
>> except in very large-scale systems, so that this makes sense?

>> John Savard
> Intel Xeon Processor E7 Family:

>http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-processor...

>Click on: "See detailed product specifications"
>on the right under: "Product Specifications"

>and get to:

>http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-processor...
>  "Intel Xeon Processor E7 Family Specifications",
>which shows a list of processors with some of the features.  I don't
>know if the list is complete.

>I think the E7-28nn is for up to 2 sockets, which I think is what
>you
>want.

>I think E7-48nn are for up to 4 sockets, E7-88nn for up to 8
>sockets.

>Using www.froogle.com seems to indicate that the price depends mainly
>on the L3 cache size.

>I think about US$1500 to US$4500 depending on cache.
>(I've left out the 6 core stuff in the prices and features)

>Add about US$200 to US$400 for going from  -2nnn to -8nnn

>I'm not sure what differences there are beyond:
> . number of cores (6, 8, 10)
> . threads per core (1,2=HyperThreading)
> . cache size (18MB, 24MB, 30MB)
> . speed (2GH to 2.67GHz)
> . low power optimization
>       ( No =  105W or 130W , yes 95W)

> . maximum sockets (2,4,8)

>I don't know if any or all have RAS.

>This has a nice table of functionality and some prices for
>1000 units from about 2011 June:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/19/xeon_e7_analysis/page2.html
>  "Xeon E7 servers run with the big dogs
>   Gives chase to RISC and Itanium foxes"
>   By Timothy Prickett Morgan
>   Posted in Enterprise Tech, 19th June 2011 11:00 GMT