Xeon
lastmod 2020-03-10created 2016-12-233 edits
Intel Xeon Microprocessor.
Intel's CPU series for servers, embedded systems, mobile, and workstations. It debuted in June 1998 under the name "Pentium II Xeon" as the successor to the Pentium Pro.
Xeon is the brand name of Intel's x86 CPUs for servers and workstations, and refers to numerous families of x86 CPUs. In the past, the name Xeon was added to the Pentium desktop processor brand, but now Xeon itself is used as the brand.
Differences from the Core i series
Core i for ordinary PCs, Xeon for servers.
Xeon processors are CPUs developed for special-purpose computers such as workstations and servers. They have completely different characteristics from Core i processors, developed for ordinary PCs, and Atom processors, developed for mobile devices. For this reason, Xeon processors provide features for workstations and servers, such as virtualization (VM), parallel processing, multicore, signal encryption, ECC memory support (error detection; servers use memory heavily, so the probability of errors is high, which makes a feature to find and correct errors necessary), and multiple CPU sockets.
- Virtualization
- Xeon processors provide various features for virtual machines (VMs), an essential requirement of cloud computing. Related performance is continuously being improved so that virtual machines can run faster and more efficiently. Virtualization features are useful not only for servers but also for workstations. Using the virtualization of Xeon processors, multiple operating systems can run faster on a single workstation. Processors for ordinary PCs can also run multiple operating systems simultaneously using virtual machines, but the more virtual machines are added, the slower things get, exponentially. It is a useful feature for server administrators and developers.
- Parallel processing
- Xeon processors support parallel computing, which connects many CPUs to raise performance (processing power). It is a feature for building HPC (supercomputer) or cloud computing systems. Xeon processors deliver optimal performance in applications that support parallel computing. For example, Google's cloud computing platform (GCP), which supports Google's artificial intelligence AlphaGo, connected 1202 Xeon processors in parallel to give AlphaGo enormous processing power.
- Multicore
- Xeon processors carry dozens of CPU cores. The newly introduced Xeon E5 V4 processor alone provides up to 22 CPU cores. This contrasts with processors for ordinary PCs, which usually carry only 2 (dual-core), or at most around 4 (quad-core) to 8 (octa-core) CPU cores. This is to maximize the parallel processing described above. Because there is a limit to improving the processing speed (clock) of a single core, current HPC and cloud computing environments focus on connecting as many cores as possible to improve parallel processing speed. Most Xeon processors are designed with lower per-core clocks than processors for ordinary PCs in order to reduce heat (= because of data center maintenance costs).
- Signal encryption
- Xeon processors support processing signal encryption for cloud computing security. They have not only software security capabilities but also hardware security capabilities.
- ECC memory
- Xeon processors support server ECC (error detection) memory to prevent processing errors that occur on servers. Most workstations and servers equipped with Xeon processors use ECC memory.
- Multiple CPU sockets
- To maximize the efficiency of parallel processing and save data center space, Xeon processors allow multiple CPUs to be connected to a single motherboard. The number of Xeon processors that can be connected to one board varies by model, but generally, the higher the model, the more CPUs can be installed on one board.