Hi all:
As we are know Intel® Xeon phi targets high-performance computing and other parallel
workloads.
Now qemu has supported phi virtualization,it is time for libvirt to support phi.
Different from the traditional X86 server, There is a special numa node with Multi-Channel
DRAM (MCDRAM) on Phi, but without any CPU .
Now libvirt requires nonempty cpus argument for NUMA node, such as.
<numa>
<cell id='0' cpus='0-239' memory='80'
unit='GiB'/>
<cell id='1' cpus='240-243' memory='16'
unit='GiB'/>
</numa>
In order to support phi virtualization, libvirt needs to allow a numa cell definition
without 'cpu' attribution.
Such as:
<numa>
<cell id='0' cpus='0-239' memory='80'
unit='GiB'/>
<cell id='1' memory='16' unit='GiB'/>
</numa>
When a cell without 'cpu', qemu will allocate memory by default MCDRAM instead of
DDR.
Now here I'd like to discuss these questions:
1. This feature is only for Phi at present, but we will check Phi platform for CPU-less
NUMA node.
The NUMA node without CPU indicates MCDRAM node. And for now MCDRAM is available only
for PHI.
However, there is no reason that any other platform couldn’t define CPU-less NUMA node
using libvirt, so there is no reason to check if PHI is used or not.
2. Type of memory of CPU-less NUMA node will not be checked during machine
creation/configuration step.
There is no reliable way to distinguish if the node is MCDRAM or regular DDR. This step
is not concerned with type of the memory, only with NUMA assignment.
3. Unlike traditional memory assign to a VM, MCDRAM do not support over commit
If the memory of a virtual NUMA node is going to be explicitly bound to physical NUMA
node then it shouldn’t exceed the size of its corresponding NUMA node, doesn’t matter if
it is MCDRAM or DDR.
4. Make sure at least one numa must include a CPU info field be passed to qemu.
At least one NUMA node must define list of CPUs assigned, or if none has it assigned by
default assign all CPUs to virtual NUMA node 0.
More info for phi:
Knights Landing Key Information
Software Resources
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Product Family Main
Page<http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-phi-d...
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor Press
Kit<https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kits/intel-isc/>
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor SKU
Details<http://mark.intel.com/products/family/92650/Intel-Xeon-Phi-Pro...
• Updated Intel® Xeon Phi™ Application Proof
Points<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-xeon-phi-proces...
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Public Performance
Data<http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/benchmarks/server/xeon-phi...
• Developer Access Program (
DAP)<http://dap.xeonphi.com/#platformspecs>
• Knights Landing – Public
Disclosures<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/what-disclosures...
• Intel® Modern
Code<https://software.intel.com/en-us/modern-code>
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Software Code
Recipes<https://software.intel.com/en-us/xeon-phi/x200-processor>
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ SW Tools and
Libraries<https://software.intel.com/en-us/xeon-phi/x200-processor>
• Machine
Learning<https://software.intel.com/en-us/machine-learning>
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor
Software<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-xeon-phi-proc...
• Intel® Software Tools Technical Webinar
Series<http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-software-tools-t...
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor – Applications and Solutions
Catalog<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-xeon-phi-copro...
• Intel® MIC Developer
Zone<http://software.intel.com/mic-developer>
• Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor Product Family Early Release Software and
Tools<https://software.intel.com/en-us/xeon-phi-nda/tools> (request access to the
site
here<https://software.intel.com/en-us/form/intel-xeon-phi-nda-site-acc...)
• Intel® Parallel Studio XE Tools and
Libraries<https://software.intel.com/en-us/free_tools_and_libraries>