Intel Xeon Platinum 8273CL Complete Info Guide

[RolloZ170]

as mentionned by others, manufacturers have removed the microcode needed to support these custom CPUs in their latest Bios versions

this is not correct.
removed is microcode cpuid 50655 A0 in BIOS of some HP WS
what is done shows the release notes:

Version: 2.04_04-18-2019 (2 Mai 2019)
Fixes
Upgrade Requirement:
Critical - HPE requires users update to this version immediately.

Important Notes:

This revision of the System ROM includes the latest revision of the Intel microcode which, in combination with operating system and/or hypervisor updates, provides mitigation for a new group of side channel vulnerabilities known as Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS).  This includes support for mitigating the following vulnerabilities:  CVE-2018-12126 – Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling, CVE-2018-12130 – Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling, CVE-2018-12127 – Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling, and CVE-2019-11091 – Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory.  These issues are not unique to HPE servers.  Note that MDS is addressed in hardware for systems utilizing the Intel Second Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors.

Firmware Dependencies:

None

Problems Fixed:

This revision of the System ROM includes the latest revision of the Intel microcode which, in combination with operating system and/or hypervisor updates, provides mitigation for a new group of side channel vulnerabilities known as Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS).  This includes support for mitigating the following vulnerabilities:  CVE-2018-12126 – Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling, CVE-2018-12130 – Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling, CVE-2018-12127 – Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling, and CVE-2019-11091 – Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory.  These issues are not unique to HPE servers.  Note that MDS is addressed in hardware for systems utilizing the Intel Second Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors.

This revision of the System ROM includes the latest revision of the Intel Reference code support that provides mitigations for a variety of security vulnerabilities.  The following vulnerabilities have been addressed in this System ROM release: CVE-2019-0119 and  CVE-and CVE-2019-0126.  These security vulnerabilities are not unique to HPE servers.

Addressed an issue where the system may experience a higher rate of boot time Memory training issues with Intel Xeon Scalable Performance Bronze, Silver and Gold 5x00 processors. This issue was first introduced with System ROM version 2.00. HPE recommends that any customer experiencing a memory issue immediately update to this version of the system ROM before replacing any components. This issue is not unique to HPE servers.

Known Issues:

None

BIOS U30_2.40_10_26_2020 includes still microcode B1 50657 rev 5003003
same than you run actualy, updated by OS not BIOS.

 

[RolloZ170]

for the proliant the ONLY bios that works is version 2.02 dated Mar 28, 2019
the next version, 2.04 dated May 2, 2019 no longer contains the microcode

2.02

2.04

 

[Rdel70]

ok then I don't know what HP modified in Proliant Gen10 bios 2.04 onwards that prevents the server from booting with the 6268CL

happy to test any settings you can think of that would allow the machine to boot with a newer bios

 

[RolloZ170]

ok then I don't know what HP modified in Proliant Gen10 bios 2.04 onwards that prevents the server from booting with the 6268CL

we have noticed some issue coming with microcode rev. step.
2.02 50657 rev.500017
2.04 50657 rev.500021
on asrock and supermicro boards it helped to change microcode to older rev.
unfortunaly on HP you can not inject cpuid microcode from BIOS 2.02 in later BIOS because of BIOS guard(signed)

 

[MilkyWeight]

2.02
View attachment 37244
2.04
View attachment 37245

@RolloZ170

I tried installing two 8273CL in my HPE Proliant Gen 10 xl270d (Apollo 6500), and got UPI initialization error. Did I physically install them incorrectly or is the issue the microcode?

 

[MilkyWeight]

@RolloZ170

I tried installing two 8273CL in my HPE Proliant Gen 10 xl270d (Apollo 6500), and got UPI initialization error. Did I physically install them incorrectly or is the issue the microcode?

I hadn’t righted the screws enough.

how do I downgrade the bios?

how do I get to f9 if it runs into the issue? Do I buy two CPUs that are supported, downgrade bios, and then swap?

 

[RolloZ170]

Do I buy two CPUs that are supported, downgrade bios, and then swap?

one should be enough to downgrade BIOS.

 

[Rdel70]

how do I downgrade the bios?

how do I get to f9 if it runs into the issue? Do I buy two CPUs that are supported, downgrade bios, and then swap?

from past experience I did not managed to downgrade the bios while the "unsupported" CPU was installed.
tried via iLO but it would not accept.
I had to first put back a supported cpu then downgrade and put back the CL Xeon
if you no longer have the original cpu at hand, a very cheap cpu like the Xeon 3104 will do the job

 

[ouankou]

Hi everyone. I followed the instructions in this thread and successfully installed dual 8273CL on Supermicro X11DHP-T. Thanks for the incredible information!
However, I have another question for my EVGA 850W Platinum PSU: with these CPUs, 12*32 GB RAM, one 2TB M.2 SSD, and 8 * 120mm fans, how much room is left for the GPU? There are three candidates: NVIDIA RTX 4060 8GB, AMD RX 7800 XT 16GB, and Intel Arc A770 16GB. It would be great to use this spare PSU under CPU+GPU full load safely. If I simply add all TDPs together, it's still under 850W, but I'm not sure whether that's the correct way to calculate.

 

[dracocephalum]

Hi everyone. I followed the instructions in this thread and successfully installed dual 8273CL on Supermicro X11DHP-T. Thanks for the incredible information!
However, I have another question for my EVGA 850W Platinum PSU: with these CPUs, 12*32 GB RAM, one 2TB M.2 SSD, and 8 * 120mm fans, how much room is left for the GPU? There are three candidates: NVIDIA RTX 4060 8GB, AMD RX 7800 XT 16GB, and Intel Arc A770 16GB. It would be great to use this spare PSU under CPU+GPU full load safely. If I simply add all TDPs together, it's still under 850W, but I'm not sure whether that's the correct way to calculate.

For Intel most likely the TDP value means the maximum value (if their documentation is correct):

Thermal Design Power (TDP) in Intel® Processors

Provides FAQs about Thermal Design Power (TDP) in Intel® Processors.

www.intel.com

However, someone observed an 88W power consumption on a 65W TDP AMD CPU under stress test, so the definition of TDP could be vendor specific.

Also note that your motherboard consumes (quite a bit of) power. A safe guideline for me would be adding up all TDP values, add 100W for the motherboard if the value is not known, and if the total is within 85% of the max wattage of your PSU then you are good to go. Otherwise in extreme situations it might spike through the max wattage of your PSU.

 

[RolloZ170]

However, someone observed an 88W power consumption on a 65W TDP AMD CPU under stress test, so the definition of TDP could be vendor specific.

AMDs TDP is cores only, use AMDs PPT(88W) to compare with intel's TDP
intel:
the CPU can draw some more for short times, that much "Thermal design" allows to keep temps down.

 

[ouankou]

For Intel most likely the TDP value means the maximum value (if their documentation is correct):

Thermal Design Power (TDP) in Intel® Processors

Provides FAQs about Thermal Design Power (TDP) in Intel® Processors.

www.intel.com

However, someone observed an 88W power consumption on a 65W TDP AMD CPU under stress test, so the definition of TDP could be vendor specific.

Also note that your motherboard consumes (quite a bit of) power. A safe guideline for me would be adding up all TDP values, add 100W for the motherboard if the value is not known, and if the total is within 85% of the max wattage of your PSU then you are good to go. Otherwise in extreme situations it might spike through the max wattage of your PSU.

Thanks for the useful information! I recently got a power socket with a meter. With NVIDIA RTX 4060, while the CPU and GPU were under full load stress test, the meter showed up to 660W. So, I decided to go with this GPU and leave some room for the PSU.

 

[saverio]

Hello,
Did someone tried 8273CL with Supermicro X11DPT-PS?

 

[HokyuKim]

thank you guys
my friend's asus ws c621e sage board work fine with 8273cl

c621e sage bios 5503 original rom(this contain rev.5000017) ->Work
c621e sage bios 7008 modified rom (downgrade microcode revision to 500001C) ->work

 

[saverio]

I patched BIOS 4.3 (X11DPT-PS) and I confirm it works with 8273CL.

 

[versatilist]

Do these microcode changes after 500001C make all xeons slower (due to security mitigations) or is the slowdown in particular for 8259cl (on T7920) due to its removal in 0x5000029 ?

no. afaik only 8273CL affected.
update on this:
Platinum 8259CL: is working but huge performance loss with microcodes later than 500001C

 

[RolloZ170]

Do these microcode changes after 500001C make all xeons slower (due to security mitigations)

yes.

is the slowdown in particular for 8259cl (on T7920) due to its removal in 0x5000029 ?

there must be special microcodes for some of these custom OEM SKU we not have, and the std. ones make trouble.

 

[mr-moonsilver]

Do you guys think this works for 8272CL and 8275CL as well or only for 8273CL?

 

[RolloZ170]

Do you guys think this works for 8272CL and 8275CL as well or only for 8273CL?

8272CL and 8275CL have not that issues.
for both you may need the VRM modd (ICC_MAX=255A)

 

[Stephan]

Here are some results from tests I just ran using different microcodes for Cascade Lake. All mitigations and latest microcode will cost you around 10% performance when compiling Linux. There are nasty bugs like JCC erratum which were fixed later on, so staying at the old 0500001C is a difficult decision, unless you have no other choice.

Compile of Linux Kernel 6.6.52 in RAM
CPU 8259CL, 23 cores (1 faulty and disabled), all-core turbo 3100 MHz
RAM 6x32 GB, DDR4-2666
Wattage 75W idle, 319W loaded

Linux kernel boot flags: rootflags=compress=zstd console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty msr.allow_writes=on crashkernel=512M audit=0 init_on_alloc=0 init_on_free=0 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt kvm-intel.nested=1 page_alloc.shuffle=1 rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 tsc=reliable cryptomgr.notests no_timer_check noreplace-smp delayacct

Microcode Source: GitHub - platomav/CPUMicrocodes: Intel, AMD, VIA & Freescale CPU Microcode Repositories

Microcode   Time    Delta       Comment
---------------------------------------
0500001C    12m13   baseline    mitigations=off
0500001C    12m17   +0.5%
0500002B    12m44   +4.2%       mitigations=off JCC erratum fix
05003003    12m43   +4.1%       mitigations=off
05003006    12m43   +4.1%       mitigations=off
05003102    12m45   +4.4%       mitigations=off
05003303    12m58   +6.1%       mitigations=off
05003303    13m22   +9.4%

Known 50657 microcodes sorted by date:

49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000013_2018-12-03_PRD_3B5B26B8.bin
49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000014_2018-12-17_PRD_E1FFC46B.bin
47104 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500001C_2019-01-28_PRD_E5C5BC5E.bin
47104 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000021_2019-02-27_PRD_14AE68DF.bin
48128 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000024_2019-04-07_PRD_080DED28.bin
49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000029_2019-06-14_PRD_5EA7E441.bin
51200 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500002B_2019-08-12_PRD_40E8A06B.bin
51200 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500002C_2019-09-05_PRD_5DD63003.bin
50176 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500012C_2019-11-24_PRD_5D145F8A.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05002F00_2020-01-14_PRD_C6A68CE6.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05002F01_2020-04-23_PRD_8026BDDF.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003003_2020-06-18_PRD_11302452.bin
53248 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003005_2020-11-25_PRD_66041F35.bin
53248 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003006_2020-12-31_PRD_B36FD6DE.bin

(53K -> 30K, what happened here?)

30720 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003101_2021-01-15_PRD_40827521.bin
30720 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003102_2021-03-08_PRD_DDE3B62C.bin
31744 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003103_2021-04-08_PRD_FB87A32E.bin
36864 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500320A_2021-08-13_PRD_17274AD8.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003302_2021-12-10_PRD_61A878D3.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003303_2022-08-26_PRD_F9CBA561.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003501_2022-12-21_PRD_D1B380EB.bin
38912 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003604_2023-03-17_PRD_E44A0B2A.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003605_2023-07-28_PRD_7F88A78A.bin
39936 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003707_2024-03-01_PRD_BD003F65.bin

Known 50657 microcodes sorted by size:

53248 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003005_2020-11-25_PRD_66041F35.bin
53248 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003006_2020-12-31_PRD_B36FD6DE.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05002F00_2020-01-14_PRD_C6A68CE6.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05002F01_2020-04-23_PRD_8026BDDF.bin
52224 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003003_2020-06-18_PRD_11302452.bin
51200 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500002B_2019-08-12_PRD_40E8A06B.bin
51200 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500002C_2019-09-05_PRD_5DD63003.bin
50176 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500012C_2019-11-24_PRD_5D145F8A.bin
49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000013_2018-12-03_PRD_3B5B26B8.bin
49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000014_2018-12-17_PRD_E1FFC46B.bin
49152 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000029_2019-06-14_PRD_5EA7E441.bin
48128 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000024_2019-04-07_PRD_080DED28.bin
47104 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500001C_2019-01-28_PRD_E5C5BC5E.bin
47104 cpu50657_platBF_ver05000021_2019-02-27_PRD_14AE68DF.bin
39936 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003707_2024-03-01_PRD_BD003F65.bin
38912 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003604_2023-03-17_PRD_E44A0B2A.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003302_2021-12-10_PRD_61A878D3.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003303_2022-08-26_PRD_F9CBA561.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003501_2022-12-21_PRD_D1B380EB.bin
37888 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003605_2023-07-28_PRD_7F88A78A.bin
36864 cpu50657_platBF_ver0500320A_2021-08-13_PRD_17274AD8.bin
31744 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003103_2021-04-08_PRD_FB87A32E.bin
30720 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003101_2021-01-15_PRD_40827521.bin
30720 cpu50657_platBF_ver05003102_2021-03-08_PRD_DDE3B62C.bin