ES Xeon Discussion

[RolloZ170]

I checked and software mentioned by nevee seems only to support MP2888A MP2965 MP5023. So he/she got lucky that his board has MP2965

nevee's C621 WD12 board has MP2968 (pre programmed MP2965) and the software was suggested by MPS.
and there is a universal MPS software(virtual_bench_pro_v4)

 

[Stephan]

just with a hex editor i found "MP2955A/56A/58A"

Check my previous post, and download both pastebins they will expire in 1 week.

 

[Stephan]

30,BC,2,True,FF04 <- ICC_MAX 2 bytes

Check if 0xBC is not MFR_PHASE_HYS in reality. If you google "MFR_PHASE_HYS" you will find a PDF called MP2949A_r1.0_AIT_(2).pdf which looks much closer to MP2955.

 

[Stephan]

• No warranties.
• Needless to say always make a backup of the original values, so they can be restored if needed.
• If this info is wrong, chances are high you will have a bricked motherboard.
• High TDP CPUs running hand-optimized AVX512 code to finally settle the question why there is something instead of nothing, require good airflow to cool the voltage regulator chips.
• Long live LGA 3647.
• No warranties.

How to read 2955 NV memory over SMBus:

• Switch to page 2: Cmd 0 Byte 2
• Send Cmd 22 (RESTORE_USER_ALL) to mirror copy NVM contents to RAM
• Wait 20ms
• Switch to page 0: Cmd 0 Byte 0
• In loop read all defined registers, 1 or 2 byte data
• Switch to page 1: Cmd 0 Byte 1
• Wait 20ms
• In loop read all defined registers, 1 or 2 byte data, provided RAIL2NOTREAD == NO

How to write 2955 NV memory:

• Switch to page 0: Cmd 0 Byte 0
• In loop write all defined registers which are R/W, 1 or 2 byte data
  • Exception for loop: If NVM pos is 229 (0xE5 MFR_FS, MFR_VBOOT, 2 bytes), send command 0x5 (BIOS_UPDATE) beforehand
  • You should never mess with switching frequency or number of phases in the first place
• Switch to page 1: Cmd 0 Byte 1
• In loop write all defined registers which are R/W and have RAIL2NOTREAD == NO, 1 or 2 byte data
  • Exception for loop: If NVM pos is 229 (0xE5 MFR_FS, MFR_VBOOT, 2 bytes), send command 0x5 (BIOS_UPDATE) beforehand
  • You should never mess with switching frequency or number of phases in the first place
• Switch to page 2: Cmd 0 Byte 2
• Send Cmd 21 (STORE_USER_ALL)
• Wait 500ms
• Switch to page 0: Cmd 0 Byte 0

Tentative procedure for a Raspberry Pi to rewrite MFR_ICC_MAX on 2955:

• Cmd 0x00 Byte 0x00 (Switch to page 0)
• Cmd 0xBF Read 2 Bytes (Read Vendor ID)
  • Bail out if returned value is not 0x2555
• Cmd 0xEF Byte FF (Set ICC to max value of 255)
  • Necessity to repeat this for page 1 rail 2 TBD, i.e.
  • Cmd 0x00 Byte 0x01 (Switch to page 1)
  • Wait 20ms
  • Cmd 0xEF Byte FF (Set ICC to max value of 255)
  • Wait 20ms
• Cmd 0x00 Byte 0x02 (Switch to page 2)
• Cmd 0x15 (Store RAM in NV memory)
• Wait 500ms
• Cmd 0x00 Byte 0x00 (Switch to page 0)

 

[foogitiff]

I found a WC621D8A-2T for a very cheap price, but I cannot find anywhere if this board can run ES CPUs. The EPC621D8A seems ok with some of them, but I don't know if the bios is the same between the board

 

[RolloZ170]

I found a WC621D8A-2T for a very cheap price, but I cannot find anywhere if this board can run ES CPUs. The EPC621D8A seems ok with some of them, but I don't know if the bios is the same between the board

BIOS is completely different. WC621D8A-2T is OC BIOS for W-3175X
WC621D8A-2T: stock BIOS don't support PRE stepping H0 ES (SKL B1, SKL B0, SKL A2, SKL A1, SKL A0)
you need modded BIOS to run SKL B0 ES

 

[foogitiff]

Is it easy to find this modded BIOS?

 

[RolloZ170]

Cmd 0x00 Byte 0x02 (Switch to page 2)

why ? 2955 lacks Page 2

 

[RolloZ170]

Is it easy to find this modded BIOS?

this modded BIOS makes no sense except you have an unlocked SKL B0 ES like QL2K,QL2H,QLJ1.
in that case you will get this BIOS from the seller of the unlocked B0 ES.

 

[foogitiff]

Thanks for your reply.

I am a bit lost between all the stepping. I ordered the card anyway, it seems a good deal.

Would this CPU work out of the box? Xeon w-3175x ES CPU processor 26 cores 52 threads 1.8 ghz-3.2ghz lga3647 | eBay

But something like that will not, correct? Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 ES QKG9 QJVX A2 24C 1.5GHz LGA3647 DL580 DL380 CPU | eBay

 

[RolloZ170]

Would this CPU work out of the box? Xeon w-3175x ES CPU processor 26 cores 52 threads 1.8 ghz-3.2ghz lga3647 | eBay

NO, W-3175X ES = QL2K SKL B0

But something like that will not, correct? Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 ES QKG9 QJVX A2 24C 1.5GHz LGA3647 DL580 DL380 CPU | eBay

NO, even not with modded BIOS.

 

[foogitiff]

Do you have a link where I could look at all the ES/stepping out there? Is there any ES CPU that could run easily on this board?

 

[RolloZ170]

Do you have a link where I could look at all the ES/stepping out there? Is there any ES CPU that could run easily on this board?

what about QS or production units ? (not ES)

 

[RolloZ170]

Is there any ES CPU that could run easily on this board?

Sure. any Cascade Lake ES/QS works out of the box.
look for QQ8A,QQ8B,QQ8M,QQ8Q...

 

[foogitiff]

I am just looking at the cheapest CPU that would run out of the box, until I can find a good deal on a big CPU

I am using a 2698 v4 right now, I guess it will be costly to find something better.

 

[RolloZ170]

I am using a 2698 v4 right now, I guess it will be costly to find something better.

look for QQ8Q, 18 Core 2.4Ghz base, 3,7 Ghz turbo. hexachannel DDR4-2666, DC Optane support.
Platinum 8124M is your friend

 

[Stephan]

why ? 2955 lacks Page 2

It's what the original software does.

 

[Stephan]

MPSDemo from their website. Software has NVM read/write functions and differentiates between different MPS chips within these functions. Since we know it doesn't work right and does not recognize all the other MPS chips on the bus, I would say forget and ignore.

 

[moep]

I found a WC621D8A-2T for a very cheap price, but I cannot find anywhere if this board can run ES CPUs. The EPC621D8A seems ok with some of them, but I don't know if the bios is the same between the board

I can only tell you that my WC621D8A-2T runs fine with a Xeon Platinum 8175M. But that's just a OEM CPU with normal stepping, so not an answer to your question...

 

[RolloZ170]

we need some clearance about WC621D8A-2T vs EPC621D8A
EPC621D8A was born 11/15/2017 - the first BIOS 1.20 includes microcodes for SkyLake A1,A2,B0,H0

WC621D8A-2T was born 12/11/2019 - the first BIOS 1.10 includes microcodes for SkyLake H0 - CascadeLake A0,B0,B1
(we see, NO microcodes for any SKL ES)

50650 = SKL A1 (QKGG...)
50651 = SKL A2 (QJVV,QJWW...)
50652 = SKL B0 (QL1M,QL1L...)
50653 = SKL B1 (P-8124,P-8136)
50654 = SKL H0 (6130,8124M,8175M...)

50655 = CLX A0 (QQ8A,QQ8M,QPKD...)
50656 = CLX B0 (QRAG,QRAN...)
50657 = CLX B1 (8222CL,8259CL,QTFC,...)