After AMD and their L3 cache approaching 1 GB, Intel unveils the amount of HBM2e that will embark their next server processors: Sapphire-Rapids.
64 GB of HBM2e and three operating modes
At a professional event, the SC21(Supercomputing 2021), Intel has revealed new information on the next server processors named Sapphire-Rapids, to arrive for next year and equip the Aurora super computer.
The processor itself had already been presented several times this year, during the Architecture Day 2021 and Hotchips in particular. Using EMIB’s chiplet technology, Sapphire Rapids will use 4 DIEs (for a total of 56 Performance cores according to leaks), coupled with the latest advances such as PCIe 5.0, DDR5 or HBM2e, the latter of which is detailed today.
Indeed, it is revealed that SPR will embark 4 DIE of 16 GB of HBM2e, giving up to 64 GB of HBM2e on the largest models. The addition of HBM allows the processors to operate in three different modes. HBM-Only mode, allowing only processor memory to be used instead of DDR5. Flat Mode where the HBM and DDR5 run in parallel, and Cache Mode where the HBM will serve as a cache for the DDR5. Intel and AMD have two different approaches on the memory, with on one side, the blue using HBM2e allowing a large capacity and on the other, the red favoring low latency and high bandwidth at the expense of capacity with their 3D V-Cache. We will have to wait for the release of the processors of the 2 companies to see the gain of performances brought by these two solutions.
