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Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

cloudplatform.googleblog.com

31–40 of 214 posts

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#31

I would be quite nice if they actually advertised the particular type of CPU core you rent, rather than some abstract unit of computation. Or at least some kind of performance baseline.

We do! As mentioned up thread, each zone (today) has a consistent CPU platform:

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/regions-zones/regions-...

For example, in us-west1-a, you're getting a 2.2 GHz base clock E5 Broadwell.

Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#32

I'd rather wait for Ryzen. You won't know which Skylake processor you're getting - the gimped one or the non-gimped one. AMD tends to keep their features consistent across the line.

Zen doesn't even have full width AVX2 (256bit) units the comparison is quite invalid.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#33
post #23
post #11

Are these E5-skylakes?

"Yes", most systems are Google, including those in Cloud, are dual socket. [Edit: To be clear, we're not sharing the SKU, but this is a real server-class Xeon]. Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

Are E5 Skylakes available exclusively to Google? Can't find E5 v5 on Intel's site: http://ark.intel.com/#@Processors.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#34
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, there's precedent. Though that was the FPUs in Intel processors, not AMD. So it's not very good precedent.

Intel's FDIV bug was an outlier. Besides, nowadays most of the ISA is implemented in microcode[1]. There are two advantages to this approach: 1) it is much easier to verify the microcode unit (it's simpler/smaller), and 2) it allows CPU vendors to "fix" ISA implementation issues post-release by issuing microcode updates. [1]: ISA => microcode is equivalent in some respects to C => LLVM IR

Outlier? I would say uncommon but not an outlier. Here's a non-exhaustive list. http://wiki.osdev.org/CPU_Bugs

There was also an issue with transaction memory with both Haswel & Broadwell. The fix was to disable TSX support via micro code update. I wouldn't call disabling a fix personally. I doubt Intel even compensated the folks who bought it for the TSX support.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please relay back to your team that the moment you get Postgres for your Cloud SQL product you'll get a lot of AWS converts.

Out of curiosity, why would you prefer Google Cloud to AWS?

It's cheaper for many workloads, the products work together a lot more seamlessly, instance start times are faster, and the orchestration UI is way, way, way more intuitive and user-friendly (to this user, at least). There are definitely more knobs to turn in AWS, but Google is almost at feature parity with them, and most workloads won't see a difference between the services in terms of features.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#36
post #33
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yes", most systems are Google, including those in Cloud, are dual socket. [Edit: To be clear, we're not sharing the SKU, but this is a real server-class Xeon]. Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

Are E5 Skylakes available exclusively to Google? Can't find E5 v5 on Intel's site: http://ark.intel.com/#@Processors .

Purley is the big Skylake based server platform chipset reset for Xeon E5 and higher so Google must have early access to it.

Skylake Xeon E3 is on the current older server chipsets..

Purley is supposed to be a significant improvement.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#37
post #16

Just for reference, since you don't choose your processor explicitly on GCP, but instead choose your zone with homogenous processors, here is their current processor/zone layout: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/regions-zones/regions-... Since some GCP engineers are watching: Presumably we'll see some new zones to provide these processors, or will it be a limited release within existing zones? And if so, will yo…

Good question! We've made it possible for this whitelisted (Alpha) to let you make sure you're creating Skylakes. We'll hopefully have more details to share at NEXT in a few weeks (or immediately if you sign up!).

Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#38
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much confidence do you have that Rev. A Ryzen parts will even work?

That's a bit too extreme, don't you think? Disliking AMD is one thing, but claiming that the entire initial run of an AMD processor might be faulty is just silly. My guess is that you have no idea how much effort goes into verification and testing of something as complex as a microprocessor. A significant chunk of NRE costs goes into verification and test AFAIK.

My guess is you haven't been in this business long enough to comment. Rev. A AMD "Barcelona" parts did not work in any meaningful way. They all had to be thrown out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246780-28-issues-stop-ship...

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#39
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit too extreme, don't you think? Disliking AMD is one thing, but claiming that the entire initial run of an AMD processor might be faulty is just silly. My guess is that you have no idea how much effort goes into verification and testing of something as complex as a microprocessor. A significant chunk of NRE costs goes into verification and test AFAIK.

Not really. AMD's Phenom was a flop and the initial batch had a horrible TLB bug. Their FX processors were also hugely hyped and hugely disappointing.

OP said "will [they] even work?". That's a very different thing from a TLB bug. Although I concede that depending on the nature of the TLB bug, it may lead to a significant performance hit.

Regarding your criticisms of AMD's past processors, are you coming at this from a consumer standpoint, or are you just disappointed with their architecture and/or implementation?

I ask because the Phenom II seems quite loved by its users[1], and the FX series was also quite good for its price. I had a FX-8320 in my last PC and it was quite a capable CPU in my opinion, and many others seem to agree[2].

[1]: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681910...

[2]: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681911...

Re: Google Cloud Platform is the first cloud provider to offer Intel Skylake

#40
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are E5 Skylakes available exclusively to Google? Can't find E5 v5 on Intel's site: http://ark.intel.com/#@Processors .

Purley is the big Skylake based server platform chipset reset for Xeon E5 and higher so Google must have early access to it. Skylake Xeon E3 is on the current older server chipsets.. Purley is supposed to be a significant improvement.

Thanks!
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