Intel VCA 2 Installation instructions

Intel® Server Products and Solutions
Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator 2
(Intel® VCA 2)
Product Specification and Hardware Guide
A reference document for server OEMs providing an overview of product features,
integration requirements, and validation guidelines.
Rev 1.3
November 2017

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Intel® VCA 2 Product Specification and Hardware Guide
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Document Revision History
Date
Revision
Changes
July 2017
1.0
Initial release.
October 2017
1.1
Edited for clarity. Removed sections on validation and operating systems.
November 2017
1.2
Updated supported memory to include non-ECC memory.
November 2017
1.3
Added section and appendix on validation.

Intel® VCA 2 Product Specification and Hardware Guide
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Disclaimers
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*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Copyright © 2017 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................7
1.1 Document Outline.............................................................................................................................................................7
2. Product Overview........................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Order Information.............................................................................................................................................................8
2.2 Feature Set...........................................................................................................................................................................8
2.3 Host System Required BIOS Features......................................................................................................................9
2.4 Host System Minimum Memory Requirements....................................................................................................9
2.5 Architecture Block Diagram.......................................................................................................................................10
3. Board Specifications and Support Requirements............................................................................................. 11
3.1 Mechanical Specification ............................................................................................................................................11
3.2 Card Assembly.................................................................................................................................................................12
3.3 Thermal and Airflow Specification.......................................................................................................................... 13
3.4 Power Specification.......................................................................................................................................................14
3.4.1 12 V AUX Power Connector Specification and Pinout ...................................................................................14
4. Host Server Validation Guidelines ....................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Quick Validation Guide for OEMs............................................................................................................................16
4.1.1 PCIe* Device Discovery and Enumeration ........................................................................................................... 16
4.1.2 Node Availability............................................................................................................................................................. 18
4.1.3 Ethernet Over PCIe* Network Performance........................................................................................................ 19
4.1.4 Transcoding Benchmark for Simultaneous AVC-AVC Transcodes...........................................................20
4.1.5 Temperature Profile......................................................................................................................................................20
4.2 Validating Hardware Compatibility.........................................................................................................................21
4.3 Host Server BIOS Guidelines.....................................................................................................................................21
4.4 Host Server PCIe* Reset Guidelines .......................................................................................................................21
5. Memory Support....................................................................................................................................................... 22
5.1 Memory Population Rules ..........................................................................................................................................22
5.2 Supported Memory ....................................................................................................................................................... 22
5.3 Memory Compatibility List .........................................................................................................................................23
6. Operating System Support..................................................................................................................................... 24
6.1 Supported Hypervisors................................................................................................................................................ 24
6.2 Guest Operating System .............................................................................................................................................24
Appendix A. Full PCIe* Dump ................................................................................................................................... 25
Appendix B. Glossary ................................................................................................................................................. 45
Appendix C. Additional Collateral........................................................................................................................... 46

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List of Figures
Figure 1. Product architectural block diagram .............................................................................................................................10
Figure 2. Intel® VCA 2 dimensions...................................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 3. Intel® VCA 2 detachable components ...........................................................................................................................12
Figure 4. Standard airflow pattern.....................................................................................................................................................13
Figure 5. Non-standard airflow pattern...........................................................................................................................................13
Figure 6. Intel® VCA 2 card power connectors.............................................................................................................................. 14
Figure 7. 2x3 pin 12 V AUX power connector pin diagram ..................................................................................................... 14
Figure 8. 2x4 pin 12 V AUX power connector pin diagram ..................................................................................................... 15
Figure 9. PCIe* device discovery......................................................................................................................................................... 16
Figure 10. Node PCIe* link health....................................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 11. PLX PCIe* link health ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 12. CPU status after host reset.............................................................................................................................................. 18
Figure 13. CPU status after booting operating system .............................................................................................................19
Figure 14. Temperature profile while transcoding .....................................................................................................................20
Figure 15. Intel® VCA 2 card DIMM slots..........................................................................................................................................22
List of Tables
Table 1. Order information ......................................................................................................................................................................8
Table 2. Board feature set ........................................................................................................................................................................8
Table 3. Processor feature set................................................................................................................................................................8
Table 4. Requirements for standard airflow pattern..................................................................................................................13
Table 5. Requirements for non-standard airflow pattern........................................................................................................13
Table 6. 2x3 pin 12 V AUX power connector pinout..................................................................................................................14
Table 7. 2x4 pin 12 V AUX power connector pinout..................................................................................................................15
Table 8. Bidirectional bandwidth measurement results...........................................................................................................19
Table 9. Transcoding benchmark results........................................................................................................................................ 20
Table 10. Supported memory types .................................................................................................................................................22
Table 11. ECC memory compatibility list........................................................................................................................................ 23
Table 12. Non-ECC memory compatibility list ............................................................................................................................. 23

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1. Introduction
This document provides a high-level overview of the product features, functions, and support requirements
of the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator 2 (Intel® VCA 2) (VCA1585LMV).
1.1 Document Outline
This document is divided into the following chapters:
Chapter 1 –Introduction
Chapter 2 –Product Overview
Chapter 3 –Board Specifications and Support Requirements
Chapter 4 –Host Server Validation Guidelines
Chapter 5 –Memory Support
Chapter 6 –Operating System Support

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2. Product Overview
The Intel®Visual Compute Accelerator 2 (Intel®VCA 2) equips Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor and Intel®
Xeon® processor E5-based platforms with Iris® Pro Graphics and Intel® Quick Sync Video media transcode
capabilities. Comprised of three Intel Xeon processors E3 1585L v5, this PCIe* add-in card delivers
outstanding total cost of ownership and is supported by a rich ecosystem of server OEMs, ISVs, and
solutions. Applications include:
Broadcast –Ultra-high channel density with high visual quality.
Remotely rendered graphics –High video quality, low latency graphics for enterprise productivity and
anytime anywhere gaming.
Multi-party communication –Video-enabled B2B, B2C, and C2C communication with massive scaling
2.1 Order Information
Table 1. Order information
Product Image
Details
Description
Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator 2
(Intel® VCA 2) VCA1585LMV
iPC
VCA1585LMV
MM#
954907
UPC
7 35858 33453 2
EAN
5 0320370 99127
MOQ
1
Product type
PCIe* Add-in Card
Includes:
(1) –PCIe* add-in-card with
(3) Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1500 v5
product family
(6) DIMM slots –(2) DIMMs/CPU
(1) –Quick Start Guide
2.2 Feature Set
Table 2. Board feature set
Feature
Description
Form factor
Full-length, full-height, double-width PCIe* card
CPU
(3) Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1585L v5
Max TDP
235 W
Memory
DDR4 ECC SODIMMs, 2 channels per CPU, up to 64 GB per CPU, up to 192 GB per card
PCIe* configuration
Gen3, x16, 8 lanes per CPU
BIOS
(1) 16 MB SPI flash per CPU
Operating system support
CentOS* 7.2 , Windows Server* 2016, Windows* 10, Xen or KVM support if using hypervisor
Table 3. Processor feature set
Feature
Description
Processor Type
Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1585L v5
Cache
8 MB
Instruction set
64-bit
Instruction set extensions
SSE4.1/4.2 AVX 2.0
# of cores
4
# of threads
8
Processor base frequency
3.0 GHz

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Feature
Description
Max turbo frequency
3.7 GHz
TDP
45 W
Max memory size (dependent on memory type)
64 GB
Max # of memory channels
2
ECC memory supported
Yes
Processor graphics
Iris® Pro graphics P580
Graphics base frequency
350 MHz
Graphics max dynamic frequency
1.0 GHz (capped in BIOS)
Graphics video max memory
32 GB
Execution units
72
Intel® Quick Sync Video
Yes
2.3 Host System Required BIOS Features
The host system BIOS must be configured to enable large memory-mapped input/output (MMIO), and allow
for large per-device base address register (BAR) allocations. BAR must have 64-bit address enabled.
The minimum requirements for BAR and MMIO are:
MMIO mapping above 4 GB is enabled
Minimum MMIO size is 4 GB/CPU (node)
For example, on Intel® Server Board S2600WT based systems, this can be enabled in BIOS setup by
configuring the following two options on the PCI Configuration screen.
Set Memory Mapped Above 4 GB to Enabled
Set Memory Mapped IO size to 256 GB
2.4 Host System Minimum Memory Requirements
The host system must have sufficient free RAM (after accounting for operating system, running services, and
applications) to load the bootable image for each node to be simultaneously booted. (For example, if a 2 GB
bootable image would be booted simultaneously on four cards (12 nodes), there must be at least 24 GB (2
GB x 12 nodes) of free RAM when the boot command is issued.)

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2.5 Architecture Block Diagram
Figure 1. Product architectural block diagram

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3. Board Specifications and Support Requirements
3.1 Mechanical Specification
Intel® VCA 2 is a “near” full-length, full-height, double-width PCIe* 3.0 x16 add-in card. It includes a bracket
that extends the card to full length for systems that fully support the PCIe specification.
Figure 2. Intel® VCA 2 dimensions

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3.2 Card Assembly
The Intel VCA 2 assembly consists of several detachable components to allow for card configuration and
serviceability. Figure 3 displays the full card assembly.
Figure 3. Intel® VCA 2 detachable components
Advisory Note: Intel VCA 2 must have the provided mechanical support bracket (or other custom support
bracket) mounted to the card to ensure proper support when installed in the system. Failure to properly
support the installed card may cause serious damage should the system be exposed to any level of shock or
vibration or is transported to the end user location.
When in operation, the card temperature will rise. The cosmetic cover, thermal module, and duct must be in
place to allow for proper airflow over and through the card assembly. Failure to have the card covers
installed results in overheating which may impact performance or proper operation of the card.
Cosmetic cover
Thermal module and duct
I/O bracket
Backplate and insulator
PCIe* extender
bracket
Main board

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3.3 Thermal and Airflow Specification
Figure 4 and Table 4 identify the thermal, airflow, and air pressure requirements that must be met by a
chassis following the front-to-back air flow pattern of a common system.
Figure 4. Standard airflow pattern
Table 4. Requirements for standard airflow pattern
Card Inlet Temperature
Flow Rate
(Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM))
Pressure Drop
(Inches of Water (“H2O))
45° C
25.5 CFM
0.476 “H2O
35° C
18.0 CFM
0.246 “H2O
Some custom chassis configurations may orient the card such that the airflow is reversed from the standard
airflow pattern shown above. In these non-standard system configurations, the thermal, airflow, and air
pressure boundary conditions must meet the following requirements.
Figure 5. Non-standard airflow pattern
Table 5. Requirements for non-standard airflow pattern
Card Inlet Temperature
Flow Rate
(Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM))
Pressure Drop
(Inches of Water (“H2O))
35 °C
24.1 CFM
0.208 “H2O
25 °C
19.0 CFM
0.196 “H2O
Note: Intel VCA 2 CPU core temperatures must remain at or below 96 °C (204.8 °F). CPUs begin to throttle
once they reach 100 °C (216 °F), impacting card performance. Should CPU temperatures continue to rise, the
card may shut down due to a CPU Thermal Trip event. Should such events occur, adjustments must be made
to the system fan speed controls to ensure increased airflow to the card. The vcactl temp command of the
vcactl utility may be used to monitor card CPU core temperatures.
Airflow in
Airflow out
Airflow out
Airflow in

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3.4 Power Specification
Intel VCA 2 has a maximum TDP of 235 W. Per the PCIe specification, the PCIe x16 connector can support up
to 75 W. The remaining power to the card must be supplied via the 2x3 (75 W) and 2x4 (150 W) 12 V AUX
power connectors on the card as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Intel® VCA 2 card power connectors
Note: Intel VCA 2 does not ship with cables. Contact the system supplier for 12 V AUX power cables
appropriate for the system to which the card is being installed. See 6 for Intel® Server System support.
3.4.1 12 V AUX Power Connector Specification and Pinout
3.4.1.1 2x3 Pin 12 V AUX Power Connector
Vendor –Lotes*
Vendor Part # - APOW0001-P001C01
Figure 7. 2x3 pin 12 V AUX power connector pin diagram
Table 6. 2x3 pin 12 V AUX power connector pinout
Pin #
Description
1
12 V
2
12 V
3
12 V
4
GND
5
GND
6
GND
(2 x 3) Pin 12V AUX
up to 75W
(2 x 4) Pin 12V AUX
up to 150W
PCIe* Edge
Connector
up to 75W

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3.4.1.2 2x4 Pin 12 V AUX Power Connector
Vendor –Lotes
Vendor Part # - APOW0002-P001C01
Figure 8. 2x4 pin 12 V AUX power connector pin diagram
Table 7. 2x4 pin 12 V AUX power connector pinout
Pin #
Description
1
12 V
2
12 V
3
12 V
4
GND
5
GND
6
GND
7
GND
8
GND

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4. Host Server Validation Guidelines
4.1 Quick Validation Guide for OEMs
For this section, the following example configuration is assumed:
Host
oSystem: 2U x 2 GPU server
oCPU: 2x Intel® Xeon® E5-2630 v4
oMemory: 16 GB per socket (2x DDR4 8 GB 2400 MHz DIMMs)
oFans set to meet CFM requirements defined in Section 3.3 at card inlet temperature 35 °C.
Intel® VCA
oSystem: 2x Intel VCA 2
oMemory: 32 GB per node (2x DDR4 16 GB 2133 MHz DIMMs)
oFirmware: VCA_EXT_2.0.283
4.1.1 PCIe* Device Discovery and Enumeration
When recognized, each Intel VCA 2 lists the set of PCIe* devices shown in Figure 9. B/D/F may change based
on the system setup, but the number of devices (13) and names should match. To display the device list, use
the following command:
lspci | grep “(rev ca)”
Figure 9. PCIe* device discovery
For a quick check on PCIe link health, check the link status properties for each device. For a full example
dump refer to Appendix A. Link speed should be Gen 3 8 Gt/s. Lane count for the main PLX 8749 device
depends on host configuration; x16 is the highest available lane count interfacing with the host. Individual
nodes are expected to be Gen 3 8 GT/s x8 links. Not every port from PLX 8746 is used, so expect one link to
be 0 lanes Gen 1.

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For the node, use the following command:
lspci –s 84:00.0 –vv
Figure 10. Node PCIe* link health

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For the edge connector PLX, use the following command:
lspci –s 82:00.0 –vv
Figure 11. PLX PCIe* link health
4.1.2 Node Availability
To quickly verify that each node is up, run a status command from the Intel VCA utility. Return data is
expected to be a list of CPUs per card and each individual state. It is expected that there are three CPUs
listed per card and all are in the same status after a successful boot. To display CPU status, use the following
command:
vcactl status
Right after host reset, it is expected to see the status shown in Figure 12.
After booting the node’s operating system and network services are up, it is expected to see the status
shown in Figure 13.
Figure 12. CPU status after host reset

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Figure 13. CPU status after booting operating system
4.1.3 Ethernet Over PCIe* Network Performance
This test is a bidirectional bandwidth measurement. Both node and server are listening to each other. There
are five runs for each load.
Tool: iperf3, default parameters, 5 loops by 300 s each, TCP
Environment: 3 nodes bidirectional MTU-64k on x16 slot, bare metal-bare metal
Server setup on host: iperf3 –s
Server setup on node: iperf3 –s
iperf run in host: iperf3 –t 300 –c 172.31.x.1
iperf run in node: iperf3 –t 300 –c 172.31.x.254
Target: Total average bandwidth > 14 Gbits/sec per node
Results: See Table 8
Table 8. Bidirectional bandwidth measurement results
Node
Run #
Host to Node
Node to Host
Data Sent
(GBytes)
Data Received
(GBytes)
Bandwidth
(Gbits/sec)
Data Sent
(GBytes)
Data Received
(GBytes)
Bandwidth
(Gbits/sec)
1
1
500
500
14.3
472
472
13.5
2
501
501
14.3
465
465
13.3
3
501
501
14.3
471
471
13.5
4
505
505
14.5
473
473
13.6
5
500
500
14.3
470
470
13.5
2
1
499
499
14.3
544
544
15.6
2
499
499
14.3
544
544
15.6
3
500
500
14.3
544
544
15.6
4
499
499
14.3
545
545
15.6
5
499
499
14.3
543
543
15.6
3
1
495
495
14.2
566
566
16.2
2
496
496
14.2
561
561
16.1
3
495
495
14.2
566
566
16.2
4
498
498
14.3
569
569
16.3
5
495
495
14.2
563
563
16.1
Average
14.28667
15.08667
Total Average
14.68667

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4.1.4 Transcoding Benchmark for Simultaneous AVC-AVC Transcodes
This test attempts to extract the maximum number of simultaneous AVC transcodes while maintaining a
minimum of 30 FPS using Intel® Media Server Studio and a web-available video sample.
Target: Most number of simultaneous AVC transcodes achieved while keeping 30 FPS (real-time)
Test configuration: 2x Intel VCA 2 with all 6 nodes running simultaneous transcoding
Environment: Bare metal, non-persistent image
Transcoding software: Intel Media Server Studio 2017 (available at https://software.intel.com/
en-us/intel-media-server-studio)
Input file: blue_sky_1080p25_3min.h264 (available at https://media.xiph.org/ldv/pub/
test_sequences/1080p/)
PAR file details:
-async 3 -hw -u 7 -cqp -qpi 24 -qpp 26 -qpb 28 -gop_size 61 -dist 3 -i::h264
/input/blue_sky_1080p25_3min_18.h264 -o::h264 /dev/null
Results: See Table 9
Table 9. Transcoding benchmark results
Node
FPS
Maximum Transcodes
Node 0-1
30.23
17
Node 0-2
30.32
17
Node 0-3
30.31
17
Node 1-1
30.32
17
Node 1-2
30.26
17
Node 1-3
30.35
17
4.1.5 Temperature Profile
The temperature while booted in idle mode is ~35 °C. Temperature during workload is expected to reach
~60 °C. During transcoding workload, the script runs the load twice to ensure frame rate achieved is correct,
hence the temperature curve between runs is expected.
Figure 14. Temperature profile while transcoding
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
040 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400 440 480 520 560
Temperature (°C)
Time (seconds)