Physically the hardware is capable of it, the issue is getting a UEFI that will expose the correct functionality and the correct coherence/address maps to make it work. It would involve a fairly none standard Source Address Decoder and address map to make it work. It would also require writing a new software networking driver that worked in RAM. OTOH, the CPU interconnect would be roughly equivalent to ~200 Gbit/s ethernet per connected QPI port. But it would be a LOT of work. If you are going to use a dual socket, it would probably be easier to soft partition via a hyper-visor.
Thanks for the rapid insight.
It clarified an interesting Xeon-D configuration trade-off. In that case, I guess to avoid extra work it's either smccloud's original idea, which entails some waiting for the 1520 hardware to become available for purchase, or else it's the 10Gigabit SFP links already discussed in the other thread.
Edit: So, to put a finer point on the comparison, a 1520 (briefly ignoring the 10Gigabit capability), with what memory, would be roughly equivalent to which E3 with what memory? Then we could do a crude total dollar cost comparison (including cost of the respective motherboards) by adding in the $115 10Gigabit SFP upgrade option (or maybe 2x 10Gigabit SFP) to the "equivalent" E3 configuration. At the end of the day, isn't
that apples-to-apples what everyone
really wants to know, so that we can better judge whether upgrading/buying anytime soon is worth it or not?
Of course, it won't be a perfect comparison (e.g. power difference may favor the 1520, the 1520's 10Gigabit ethernet would have greater range, etc.). Nonetheless, unless someone knows of a better way to compare....