Intel Larrabee - a prototype

Slaventus86 said:
Xeon Phi driver tries to load Linux image for Knights Corner into the card, but Tom Forsyth told me that Larrabee cards were working with an instance of FreeBSD inside. So without correct software it is not possible to launch that card.
Click to expand...


Yah,

just curious if you can get more verbose output during the boot up by removing the quiet tag from global.xml ...


X:\Program Files\Intel\MPSS\global.xml

"
<!--Remove the quiet element for more verbose boot logging-->


<quiet/> "
 
Slaventus86 said:
I tried to launch my Larrabee card
Click to expand...


Are you sure that that is a Knight's Corner generation of card? The memory arrange doesn't appear to be 512 bit wide (looks 256 bit) and the '09 copy right date would imply that this could be the earliest generation: Knight's Ferry. Considering that Intel only released drivers publicly for the Knights Corner and Knights Landing generation, anything relating to Knights Ferry mostly would have been under NDA. A few select developers and a couple of HPC centers got them. It looks like the micctrl command is always trying to load the OS image for Knights Corner which as seen fails. Perhaps trying a Linux distribution with an earlier driver is in order? Intel has MPCC v2.1 on their site. If you're lucky it'll include a Knights Ferry base OS image to try loading onto the card.

What memory chips and capacity are used on this board? I've heard of 1 GB and 2 GB versions of Knights Ferry.

There is also a debug port on the underside of the card near the DP connector. Is that for JTAG or something else?

At the top of the card there appears to be another connector? Any indication of what this could be for (genlock)?

If you're lucky, there could be a simple RS232 header some where that'd permit you to console into the card's firmware/bootloader.

Also do you have Above 4G Encoding enabled on that test motherboard? Knights Corner requires it to be enabled to work, obviously unsure about Knights Ferry.
 
This card is from the same time as Knights Ferry, but actually not Knights Ferry. Here is what is written on the labels:

Product: Visual Computing SDV D3CA4 Family
Codename: Aubrey Isle Gfx POC C0
Board = Fab E POC; GPU = C0 - E1

And here is the citation from Tom Forsyth:

“Aubrey Isle” is the name of the whole system, and it means the same thing as “Knights Ferry” – the only difference is the “XXX Isle” cards have video connectors, the “Knights XXX” cards did not. “Cherrypeak” is the name of the board design itself, and as far as I know the exact same Cherrypeak board (and Larrabee 1 chip of course) was used for both the Xeon Phi/Knights Ferry version and the Aubrey Isle version, the only difference was whether they put the video connectors on the board!
Click to expand...

Also Tom said that normally it runs FreeBSD instance, but it also can run Linux.

All available drivers are only for Knights Corner and above, so there is now Linux/FreeBSD image for earlier cards in public access.

This card has 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM (Samsung chips) and 32 cores running at 1.2 GHz speed.

I can see 3 different connectors with unknown purpose labeled as J2UC, J1DB, J1DV, and 2 jumpers near power connectors.

Now I'm going to try with verbose logging
 
power666 said:

It looks like the micctrl command is always trying to load the OS image for Knights Corner which as seen fails. Perhaps trying a Linux distribution with an earlier driver is in order? Intel has MPCC v2.1 on their site. If you're lucky it'll include a Knights Ferry base OS image to try loading onto the card.


Also do you have Above 4G Encoding enabled on that test motherboard? Knights Corner requires it to be enabled to work, obviously unsure about Knights Ferry.
Click to expand...


I was also going to suggest getting the absolute earliest driver and hope for the possibility of it having support for Knights Ferry

check this out :

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-composer-xe-2013-compilers-fixes-list

DPD200172440 C Intel(R) MIC Architecture users cannot move their code from KNF Alpha 6 (MPSS 1.0) to KNF Alpha 7 (MPSS 2.0.964) because latest compiler cannot parse c++0x extensions in gcc 4.7.0 headers
 
I'm seeing some references to a "MPSS 1-2.1.4982-15-rhel-6.3" ... still searching
 
It appears that KNF support was dropped mid 2012 per this post on Intel's developer forum. That gives us a reference to how far back in time we need to go at a minimum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
Even if we will find KNF drivers this will not help to launch the card as videocard. I think KNF drivers are only for Linux and will give us only a co-processor card as a result. So I see only two ways to get needed drivers for Larrabee as videocard:

1) Find Intel's ex-employee who still have the drivers - I asked at least 3 persons, but with no result;

2) Intel's Premier Support - access to this support is only for chosen Intel's partners, probably the device Visual Computing SDV D3CA4 Family (as mentioned above this is how my card is labeled) will be listed there and it will be possible to download drivers. I do not have access to this support and do not know anyone who has.

Of course there are additional ways, for example to get the whole Larrabee SDK computer, probably this PC's were also not destroyed at recycling factories.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
If we were to follow that path, it would take us right by the old rumor that Sony was going to use Larrabee in the PS4. That would imply that early PS4 concept/prototyping was done using Aubrey Isles and there would be numerous units in service. Downside is that they'd mostly be found in Japan with a couple found in SCEA's offices. Even if you couldn't get the hardware, the people involved may still have the drivers.

As far as ex-employees, have you gone over some of their old SIGGRAPH presentations and the like? The authors for them at the very least had drivers at one point in time. Ditto for some of their HPC papers, though that wouldn't get the card functioning as a GPU we'd at least get some where. Intel was very active about promoting Larrabee in its research phase in the 2008-2010 time frame.
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
Slaventus86

have you tried this?

Micctrl’s new verbose options: micctrl added new verbosity options, -vv and -vvv, to the previously available -v option.


---

micctrl --start -vvv
 
^ Interesting proposition - too rich for my blood, though I hope they can buy it from him.
However, erek, I might have another historic opportunity for you:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Playstation-3-CECHP01-Console-No-Hard-Drive-Linux-Workstation-PLS-READ/202402261238?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

These are the same PS3 units used in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Condor Supercomputer, which was the 33rd fastest supercomputer in the world circa 2007 and in operation up until circa 2015.
They have an early firmware on them that allows them to still run OtherOS and GNU/Linux (YDL, Fedora, etc.), and the seller has 9 of them left as of this posting.

While I am not the seller, he did state that he won them in a military auction recently, and they are all in working condition, though they ship without the disk drives or disk caddies - I have four myself from him and they are now in a fully operational Beowulf cluster with 1 master node and 3 slave nodes.
Well worth the $56 USD each, and especially for the historic value they represent!

The IBM Cell (PowerPC) CPU is capable of around 200GFLOPS (each SPE is around 25GFLOPS), and with one SPE disabled and one SPE dedicated to the PS3 OS (or OtherOS hypervisor), these units are still capable of ~150GFLOPS of computational processing.



Look at the units behind the interviewee and you can see the same tags/stickers/tape on those that are the same as the ones being sold. ;)
Happy computing!
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Red Falcon said:
^ Interesting proposition - too rich for my blood, though I hope they can buy it from him.
However, erek, I might have another historic opportunity for you:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Playstation-3-CECHP01-Console-No-Hard-Drive-Linux-Workstation-PLS-READ/202402261238?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

These are the same PS3 units used in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Condor Supercomputer, which was the 33rd fastest supercomputer in the world circa 2007 and in operation up until circa 2015.
They have an early firmware on them that allows them to still run OtherOS and GNU/Linux (YDL, Fedora, etc.), and the seller has 9 of them left as of this posting.

While I am not the seller, he did state that he won them in a military auction recently, and they are all in working condition, though they ship without the disk drives or disk caddies - I have four myself from him and they are now in a fully operational Beowulf cluster with 1 master node and 3 slave nodes.
Well worth the $56 USD each, and especially for the historic value they represent!

The IBM Cell (PowerPC) CPU is capable of around 200GFLOPS (each SPE is around 25GFLOPS), and with one SPE disabled and one SPE dedicated to the PS3 OS (or OtherOS hypervisor), these units are still capable of ~150GFLOPS of computational processing.



Look at the units behind the interviewee and you can see the same tags/stickers/tape on those that are the same as the ones being sold. ;)
Happy computing!
Click to expand...


""The cart boots up, and contains 2 strange test programs on the first 2 slots, which appear to contain artwork and graphics from the game Mini Ninjas for Wii.""

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-G...028239?hash=item41ebaf9a0f:g:e84AAOSwtOZbhKjw
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
we have an update... the Revision 2 card has a chip that other Revision 1 cards that we know of are missing... "winbond"


Revision 1:

upload_2019-3-23_18-52-11.png


Revision 2:

8E2PrilOM_1O4hSVz8illJZ5lsRqa1WtLM9WOB3rxxWLWGRUtMn02O8CRwEbmyKifiLfD0xw&_nc_ht=scontent.fagc1-1.jpg
 
likely if you back trace the silicon info, that is actually a very good bargain price as Larabee was only ever test bed stuff, i.e not for RTM status .. average joe and jane .. the silican amount of cores, transisotr scale all that fancy stuff, likely puts even ~$500 today "discounting" not meant for gaming on etc etc, still a fair bargain, especially those that might be able to make it live again to do something functional, as, at it's heart, beats - many many cores/hearts, will be interesting to see what Intel cobbles/comes up with for 2020s dGPU

suppose they have to find a place for them stupid hot running cores or them slow as molasses in january ones LOL
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
Renato said:
I thought in the video Linus said a contractor found it in a garbage bin waiting to be destroyed.
Click to expand...

#1. I forgot all about this thread. I don't visit HF much these days.

#2. I didn't watch the Linus video, and frankly I don't care to. But interesting to read the comments.

#3. If that is indeed what happened, at the very minimum, it's a violation of Intel policy and could cost someone their job. Here is why;

It's against company policy to throw anything technology related into a "garbage bin" at Intel. Intel has very strict recycling policies and disposition policies in place for technology, especially engineering samples.
So any employee who just put it in the trash knew damn well they were doing something wrong, especially given it's an engineering sample. The same would go for throwing away a hard drive.
Removal of company property, especially for personal sale/profit, is definitely another company policy violation and likely also a crime. It says "not for sale or resale" and "Intel internal use only" right on the card.
If a contractor "found it", they could also not only be let go for their actions, but could potentially even risk the contract with Intel for whatever company that contractor works for.
It's just very very unlikely that Intel said "sure, you have/take this and sell it on eBay" or that it was "found in the trash." Which means it was stolen, aka taken without permission.

Basically any technology item that is no longer being used/required for whatever reasons, rather it be a keyboard or a motherboard or a full server rack, must go through the disposition process.
This is conducted in one of several ways, most commonly through submission of a surplus ticket and subsequent pickup, pickup from a designated surplus storage location (usually each floor of a building will have a designated spot), or dropped off (usually in pallet form) for processing by a contract company like in the event of a lab or floor renovation for example.

From there, each item is separated and disposed of in a specific way, depending on what it is. For example, batteries must be disposed of in a dedicated container only for batteries, usually a metal oil drum.
In the case of confidential materials, for example a hard drive, prototype motherboard, engineering sample video card or some other non-public technology product, those are disposed of in their own designated containers, usually a locked metal oil drum.
These items are shipped to and disposed of by a 3rd party recycle company. If an employee of one of these companies "found it," well the same rules and consequences would apply as earlier stated.

There are also dedicated trash/recycle bins for any paper that might container confidential information. Generally disks (CD's and DVD's) are also put into these bins.
They are also picked up and disposed of by a 3rd party vendor. Usually one of the companies that have those trucks with mobile shredders on board.

So fourth and so on. The point is, Intel takes privacy and security very seriously. Anyone who works there, would know that.
 
Last edited:
IMG_20191211_211800.jpg
Hi!
OP of the Reddit post here.

This Larrabee is probably the final revision before Knights Corner was developed. Board is Cherrypeak Fab F. It does not have any video ports soldered to the board, however the solder points are there.

The card is recognised by system as a coprocessor, however MPSS does not work with it. Intel weren't very helpful, effectively saying "we know nothing".
Basically stuck at a dead end at the moment.

I'm not looking to get any video from the card as of yet (simply just want it working as a coprocessor, not that I can get video in the first place with there being no outputs), though as the card was developed as a video card of sorts I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to use it for visual rendering.
 
Man, if you're going to spend thousands on a Larrabee card/rehabbing the BIOS chips, the least you could do is spend money on a 4k fixed position camera. Maybe with a light source turned on? :D

That Self-help Steadicam was vomit-inducing, and the 720p meant most of it was all a blur.
 
defaultluser said:
Man, if you're going to spend thousands on a Larrabee card/rehabbing the BIOS chips, the least you could do is spend money on a 4k fixed position camera. Maybe with a light source turned on? :D

That Self-help Steadicam was vomit-inducing, and the 720p meant most of it was all a blur.
Click to expand...
they want between 3500 and 10,000 Euros for that Larrabee
 
Does anyone happen to have a BIOS for a card they know is working?
Bought a chip reader the other day and I've had a look at two of the cards I have.

Interestingly, the card that doesn't seem to work properly has a blue LED flash when reading, yet the card that at least gets recognised in Windows has the red "reset" LED light up instead..
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
BinaryOfTheNexus said:
Does anyone happen to have a BIOS for a card they know is working?
Bought a chip reader the other day and I've had a look at two of the cards I have.

Interestingly, the card that doesn't seem to work properly has a blue LED flash when reading, yet the card that at least gets recognised in Windows has the red "reset" LED light up instead..
Click to expand...
1609350701708.png
 
erek said:
View attachment 548819
View attachment 548818
Click to expand...
If Linus wanted it so badly, why didn't they just bid enough to win the auction?

I don't see what's so wrong with them trying to reach out to the person who did win the auction and come to some sort of arrangement, though. If they're really offering to pay more, the auction winner could probably rent it out to them for some period of time and make some easy money.
 
RazorWind said:
If Linus wanted it so badly, why didn't they just bid enough to win the auction?

I don't see what's so wrong with them trying to reach out to the person who did win the auction and come to some sort of arrangement, though. If they're really offering to pay more, the auction winner could probably rent it out to them for some period of time and make some easy money.
Click to expand...
You would think, but LTT is getting pretty scummy as of late.
Them effectively taking what I rightfully won originally, paying what I had won the bid for to the seller, and then claiming in the video they "paid about $40 USD for it" (it was 10 times that) is just utter bullshit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top