02-24-2018, 02:48 PM
Hello everyone,
I am trying to use a ES Xeon Platinum 8124 on X11DPi motherboard. These are customized chips for Amazon AWS C5 platform. The one I have has Q-spec QLJV. I believe it's a stepping 2 chip. Attached is a photo of the product detail from Intel database.
This chip was known to work on X11DPH motherboard with certain BIOS but I'm trying to use it with X11DPi. I have tried released Bios 1.0, 1.0b and 2.0 however it does not post. I used a debug card module and it shows 00. The motherboard is brand new and tested good with other CPUs.
I think there are two issues. Firstly, as you can see in the photo, this chip has a 240W TDP and this would exceed the power limit for the socket. This could prevent the motherboard from starting up. Secondly would be the microcode. I dig into the microcode and I compare all the BIOS versions, including non release version of X11Dpi, and they are have the same microcode patch for Pre-production CPUs. Screen shot attached and as you can see, CPU ID 0654 is production and 0650, 0651 and 0652 are all Pre-production codes. I flashed the BIOS and it still shows 00.
I also dig into AWS C5 platform information and apparently this is what I found.
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 85
model name : Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8124M CPU @ 3.00GHz
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x100013a
cpu MHz : 3000.000
cache size : 25344 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx avx512f rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb avx512cd xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 ida arat
bugs :
bogomips : 6000.00
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
Looks like it needs a different microcode 0x100013a and it shows family 6 model 85 which matches stepping 3 or 4 Skylake-EP/W processor.
I have experience using AWS processors with both Haswell and Broadwell architectures on X99 boards so I know for sure that they do work on consumer motherboards. Could anyone help me with the issue? I am willing to donate if anyone could modify the BIOS and make it work. Thanks!
Picture added.
I am trying to use a ES Xeon Platinum 8124 on X11DPi motherboard. These are customized chips for Amazon AWS C5 platform. The one I have has Q-spec QLJV. I believe it's a stepping 2 chip. Attached is a photo of the product detail from Intel database.
This chip was known to work on X11DPH motherboard with certain BIOS but I'm trying to use it with X11DPi. I have tried released Bios 1.0, 1.0b and 2.0 however it does not post. I used a debug card module and it shows 00. The motherboard is brand new and tested good with other CPUs.
I think there are two issues. Firstly, as you can see in the photo, this chip has a 240W TDP and this would exceed the power limit for the socket. This could prevent the motherboard from starting up. Secondly would be the microcode. I dig into the microcode and I compare all the BIOS versions, including non release version of X11Dpi, and they are have the same microcode patch for Pre-production CPUs. Screen shot attached and as you can see, CPU ID 0654 is production and 0650, 0651 and 0652 are all Pre-production codes. I flashed the BIOS and it still shows 00.
I also dig into AWS C5 platform information and apparently this is what I found.
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 85
model name : Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8124M CPU @ 3.00GHz
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x100013a
cpu MHz : 3000.000
cache size : 25344 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx avx512f rdseed adx smap clflushopt clwb avx512cd xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 ida arat
bugs :
bogomips : 6000.00
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
Looks like it needs a different microcode 0x100013a and it shows family 6 model 85 which matches stepping 3 or 4 Skylake-EP/W processor.
I have experience using AWS processors with both Haswell and Broadwell architectures on X99 boards so I know for sure that they do work on consumer motherboards. Could anyone help me with the issue? I am willing to donate if anyone could modify the BIOS and make it work. Thanks!
Picture added.