Intel VCA1283LVV Installation manual

Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator VCA1283LVV
Product Specification and Hardware User’s Guide
A reference document used to provide a high level overview of product features and support
requirements.
Revision 1.4.2
August 2016
Intel® Server Boards and Systems

Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Specification and Hardware User’s Guide
i
Document Revision History
Date Published
Revision
Revision Change Description
October 2015
1.0
Production - First Public Release
November 2015
1.1
Added Max TDP data to Board Feature set table in section 2.2
March 2016
1.2
Removed Hynix from memory list in section 4.3
April 2016
1.3
Added Host BIOS and Memory requirements (Sections 2.3-2.4), updated URLs/QR codes
May 2016
1.4
Added BIOS/EEPROM compatibility matrix
July 2016
1.4.1
Updated System Compatibility list in section 2.6
August 2016
1.4.2
Change GPU maximum frequency from 1.15GHz to 1.0GHz

Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Specification and Hardware User’s Guide
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Disclaimer
Intel technologies’ features and benefits depend on system configuration and may require enabled
hardware, software or service activation. Learn more at Intel.com, or from the OEM or retailer.
You may not use or facilitate the use of this document in connection with any infringement or other legal
analysis concerning Intel products described herein. You agree to grant Intel a non-exclusive, royalty-free
license to any patent claim thereafter drafted which includes subject matter disclosed herein.
No license (express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise) to any intellectual property rights is granted by this
document.
The products described may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product
to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from
course of performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel Xeon, are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Copyright © 2015-2016 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Specification and Hardware User’s Guide
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Table of Contents
DOCUMENT REVISION HISTORY.........................................................................................................................................................I
DISCLAIMER ........................................................................................................................................................................................... II
1. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 DOCUMENT OUTLINE ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 OTHER REFERENCE MATERIALS.......................................................................................................................................................................... 1
2. PRODUCT OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................................................................2
2.1 ORDER INFORMATION........................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
2.2 FEATURE SET ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.3 HOST SYSTEM REQUIRED BIOS FEATURES ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.4 INTEL®VISUAL COMPUTE ACCELERATOR EEPROM/SOFTWARE RELEASE COMPATIBILITY MATRIX.................................................... 4
2.5 HOST SYSTEM MINIMUM MEMORY REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................................................................... 4
2.6 SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY LIST.............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
2.7 ARCHITECTURE BLOCK DIAGRAM ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6
3. BOARD SPECIFICATIONS & SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS .....................................................................................................7
3.1 MECHANICAL SPECIFICATION.............................................................................................................................................................................. 7
3.2 VCA CARD ASSEMBLY ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.3 THERMAL AND AIR FLOW SPECIFICATION......................................................................................................................................................... 8
3.4 POWER SPECIFICATION ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
3.4.1 12V AUX Power Connector Specification and Pinout ......................................................................................................... 10
4. MEMORY ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.1 MEMORY POPULATION RULES......................................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.2 SUPPORTED MEMORY ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.3 MEMORY COMPATIBILITY LIST......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
5. OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT ............................................................................................................................................. 14
5.1 SUPPORTED HOST OPERATING SYSTEMS ..................................................................................................................................................... 14
5.1.1 Reference boot OS on Visual Compute Accelerator ............................................................................................................ 14
5.2 SUPPORTED HYPERVISOR ................................................................................................................................................................................. 14
5.3 GUEST OS........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
6. LIGHT GUIDED DIAGNOSTICS................................................................................................................................................. 15
6.1 POWER LEDS..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
6.2 PROCESSOR CATERR LEDS........................................................................................................................................................................... 15
7. BIOS IMAGE SELECTION JUMPERS ....................................................................................................................................... 16
APPENDIX A: INTEL SERVER SYSTEM SUPPORT ........................................................................................................................ 17

Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Specification and Hardware User’s Guide
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Product Architectural Block Diagram......................................................................................................................6
Figure 2. VCA Card Power Connectors ................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 3. VCA Card DIMM Slots.................................................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 4. Light Guided Diagnostics - Power State LEDs.................................................................................................. 15
Figure 5. Light Guided Diagnostics - Processor CATERR LEDs .................................................................................... 15
Figure 6. VCA Card BIOS Recovery Jumpers........................................................................................................................ 16
Figure 7. 2-Slot PCIe Riser Card................................................................................................................................................. 17
Figure 8. Auxiliary 12V Power Cable (iPC AXXGPGPUCABLE) ...................................................................................... 18
Figure 9. Air Duct included in Intel® Accessory Kit AWTCOPRODUCT ..................................................................... 18
Figure 10. Shipping Bracket ........................................................................................................................................................ 19
Figure 11. Shipping Bracket Placement ................................................................................................................................. 20

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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 (VCA) card.
1.1 Document Outline
This document is divided into the following chapter:
Chapter 1 –Introduction
Chapter 2 –Product Overview
Chapter 3 –Board Specifications and Support Requirements
Chapter 4 –Memory Support
Chapter 5 –Operating System Support
Chapter 6 –Light Guided Diagnostics
Chapter 7 –BIOS Image Selection Jumpers
Appendix A –Intel® Server System Support Requirements
1.2 Other Reference Materials
Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Software Guide
For more information on the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator: http://www.intelserveredge.com/intelvca/
For more information on Intel server solutions visit: http://www.intelserveredge.com
For product specifications visit: http://ark.intel.com/
To obtain technical documents, please visit: http://www.intel.com/support/go/visual-accelerator
To obtain the latest download, please visit: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/87380/

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2. Product Overview
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card combines the Intel® Iris Pro Graphics capabilities of the Intel®
Xeon® E3-1200 v4 series processor with the power of Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 series processor based server
systems. Designed around visual computing workloads, this PCIe add-in card can handle the highest end
4K/HEVC transcoding jobs as well as many simultaneous AVC jobs. Built for cloud service providers, Telco
service providers and broadcasters who need media transcoding acceleration for the growing video market.
Outstanding Performance / Power / Price per transcode
Real time HEVC transcode performance delivered at low cost and power
Fit within Intel® Xeon® Processor E5 Infrastructure
Multiple 1U and 2U Server System options from several server system suppliers
PCIe* 3.0 x16 enables fast communication between host and adapter
Flexible and Portable software architecture
Full access to integrated CPU & GPU for best quality/performance
Virtual network allows host and card to communicate seamlessly
Strong ISV ecosystem for ease of solution deployment
2.1 Order Information
Intel Product Code
Order Information
Product Description
Product Type
iPC –VCA1283LVV
MM# –942876
UPC –0735858309493
EAN –5032037081986
MOQ –1
Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Card
(1) PCIe* add-in-card with 3 x Intel® Xeon®
processor E3-1200 v4 series product family,
6 DIMM slots –2 DIMMs / CPU
(1) Quick Start Guide
PCIe* Add-in Card

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2.2 Feature Set
Board Feature Set
Details
Form Factor
Full-Length, Full-Height, Double width PCIe* add-in card
CPU
3 x Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v4 series product family, 47W TDP, 2.9GHz, 4 cores
Max TDP
235 Watts
Graphics
GT3e, Intel® Iris Pro Graphics P6300, 128MB eDRAM
PCH
1 x Intel® H87 Express Chipset per CPU
Memory
DDR3L (1.35V), ECC SODIMMs
1 slot per channel, 2 channels per CPU, Up to 32GB per CPU
PCI Express Configuration
PCIe* 3.0 x16, 4 lanes per CPU
BIOS
1 x16MB SPI Flash per CPU
Operating System Support
CentOS* 7.1, Xen or KVM support if using hypervisor
Processor Feature Set
Processor Type
Intel® Xeon® E3 1200 v4 series product family
Cache
6 MB
DMI
5 GT/s
Instruction Set
64-bit
Instruction Set Extensions
SSE4.1/4.2 AVX 2.0
# of Cores
4
# of Threads
8
Processor Base Frequency
2.9 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency
3.8 GHz
TDP
47 W
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type)
32 GB
Max # of Memory Channels
2
Max Memory Bandwidth
29.8 GB/s
ECC Memory Supported
Yes
Processor Graphics ‡
Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics P6300
Graphics Base Frequency
300 MHz
Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency
1.0 GHz
Graphics Video Max Memory
16 GB
Execution Units
48
Intel® Quick Sync Video
Yes

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2.3 Host System Required BIOS Features
The host system BIOS must support the following features:
For Intel® VCA Software release 1.0:
Support for large MMIO space (minimum 192 GB per card)
Support for large BAR allocations (must support 64 GB allocation per device)
For Intel® VCA Software release 1.2:
Support for large MMIO space (3 GB + 768 KB per card)
Support for large BAR allocations (must support 1 GB allocation per device)
2.4 Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator EEPROM/Software Release Compatibility
Matrix
VCA SW-HW
Configuration Advisory
VCA SW 1.0
on host
VCA SW 1.2
on host
Host Server BIOS
Settings
VCA HW 1.0 PLX
EEPROM
(serial # QSVV549xxxxx /
PBA ending in -404 )
Valid
Configuration
Customer can
upgrade to
SW 1.2
Valid
Configuration
Customer can
upgrade to
card flashed
with PLX
EEPROM 1.2
Required:
MMIO: >= 192 GB per
Intel® VCA installed in
the host
BAR: >= 64 GB per
device
VCA HW 1.2 PLX
EEPROM
(serial # QSVV61xxxxxx /
PBA ending in -405)
NOT VALID
Host server
will not
recognize
VCA HW
Valid
Configuration
Required*:
MMIO: >= (3GB + 768
KB) per Intel® VCA
card installed in the
host
BAR: >= 1 GB per
device
* Note that VCA HW
1.0 PLX host BIOS
settings are
supported, as well, as
they are a superset of
these requirements
2.5 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 that will be simultaneously booted. (e.g., if a 2GB

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bootable image is to be booted simultaneously on 4 cards (12 nodes), there must be at least 24GB (2GB x 12
nodes) free RAM when the boot command is issued.)
2.6 System Compatibility List
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card is compatible with the following server systems. This section will
be updated as additional server systems are validated by Intel or by the specified server supplier.
Intel
oIntel® Server System R2000WT Family
Advantech*
oAGS-913
Dell*
oDell PowerEdge C4130
Sugon*
oW760-G20
Supermicro*
oSupermicro SuperServer SYS1028GQ-TR
oSupermicro SuperServer SYS1028GQ-TRT
Note: Please contact third party system manufacturers directly to verify ordering options required to support
Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator; the system names here may need OEM modifications to fully support this
device.

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2.7 Architecture Block Diagram
Figure 1. Product Architectural Block Diagram

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3. Board Specifications & Support Requirements
3.1 Mechanical Specification
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator 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.
3.2 VCA Card Assembly
The VCA card assembly consists of several detachable components to allow for card configuration and
serviceability. The following illustration displays the full card assembly.
Mechanical
Support Bracket

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Advisory Note:
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card 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 VCA card will get hot. The card covers must be in place to allow for proper air flow
over and through the card assembly. Failure to have the card covers installed will result in the card
overheating which may impact card performance or proper operation.
3.3 Thermal and Air Flow Specification
The following illustration and table identify the thermal, air flow, and air pressure requirements that must be
met by a chassis following a common front of system to back of system air flow pattern.
Card Inlet Temp
*Flow Rate
*Pressure Drop
45° C
25.5 CFM
0.476 “H2O
35° C
18.0 CFM
0.246 “H2O
*CFM=Cubic Feet per Minute
*“H2O= Inches of Water
Some custom chassis configurations may orient the card such that the air flow is reversed from the standard
air flow pattern shown above. In these non-standard system configurations the thermal, air flow, and air
pressure boundary conditions must meet the following requirements.
Air Flow In
(Card Inlet)
Air Flow Out
Standard Air Flow Pattern

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*CFM=Cubic Feet per Minute
*“H2O= Inches of Water
Note: VCA card CPU core temperatures must remain at or below 96° C (204.8° F). CPU’s will begin to
throttle once they reach 105° C (221° 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, system
administrators must make adjustments to the system fan speed controls to ensure increased air flow to the
VCA card.
System administrators can utilize the “vcactl temp” command of the vcactl utility to monitor VCA CPU core
temperatures.
Card Inlet Temp
*Flow Rate
*Pressure Drop
35° C
24.1 CFM
0.208 “H2O
25° C
19.0 CFM
0.196 “H2O
Air Flow In
(card inlet)
Air Flow Out
Non-Standard Air Flow Pattern

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3.4 Power Specification
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card has a max TDP of 235W. Per the PCIe* specification, the PCIe
x16 connector can support up to 75W. The remaining power to the card must be supplied via the 2x3 (75W)
and 2x4 (150W) 12V AUX power connectors on the card as shown in the following illustration.
Figure 2. VCA Card Power Connectors
Note: The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card does not ship with cables. Contact the system supplier for
12V AUX power cables appropriate for the system to which the card is being installed. See Appendix A for
Intel® Server System support.
3.4.1 12V AUX Power Connector Specification and Pinout
-2 x 3 Pin 12V AUX Power Connector
Vendor –Lotes*
Vendor Part # - APOW0001-P001C01
Pin#
Description
1
12V
2
12V
3
12V
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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-2 x 4 Pin 12V AUX Power Connector
Vendor –Lotes
Vendor Part # - APOW0002-P001C01
Pin#
Description
1
12V
2
12V
3
12V
4
GND
5
GND
6
GND
7
GND
8
GND

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4. Memory
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card includes three processors identified as CPU 1-3. Each of the
three processors include two memory channels identified as A and B. Each memory channel supports one
SODIMM socket. Each processor can support up to 32GB of memory. The illustration below identifies the
SODIMM sockets for each processor.
Figure 3. VCA Card DIMM Slots
4.1 Memory Population Rules
Note: Although mixed DIMM configurations may be functional, Intel only supports and performs validation
with cards that are configured with identical DIMMs installed across all CPUs
All DIMMs must be DDR3 DIMMs
Only Error Correction Code (ECC) enabled DIMMs are supported
All processors must have at least one DIMM installed
DIMM slots for each processor must be installed in order beginning with DIMM Slot A
When only one DIMM is installed for any given processor, it must be populated in the DIMM A slot.
4.2 Supported Memory
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card has support for the following memory type:
Memory Type
Memory Size
Speed
Ranks per DIMM
SODIMM DDR3 x8 ECC
8GB, 16GB
1333, 1600, 1866
SR, DR
CPU1 DIMM-A
CPU1 DIMM-B
CPU3 DIMM-A
CPU3 DIMM-B
CPU2 DIMM-A
CPU2 DIMM-B

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4.3 Memory Compatibility List
The following list of memory has been validated for use on the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator card. This
list will be updated as additional DIMMs are tested.
Vendor
8GB
16GB
Micron*
MT18KSF1G72HZ-1G6E2
MT18KSF2G72HZ-1G6A27E
Kingston*
KVR16LSE11/8
Samsung*
M474B1G73BH0- YK0

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5. Operating System Support
Note: All utility software and boot images referenced in this section can be downloaded from the following
Intel web site: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/87380
The Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator boots the operating system from the host using a technology known
as Leverage Boot. A “vcactl” utility is used to perform all boot operations. The utility loads the operating
system into a RAMDisk which the CPU’s boot from.
Users have the option of downloading one of several different boot images available from the Intel web site
or creating their own boot image. Refer to the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Software Users
Guide for instructions on how to build a boot image.
Alternatively, an option for building a guest OS with pass through graphics is available by using GVT-d
virtualization.
For the host operating system, a virtIO driver and a utility are required. The driver and utility are currently
tested with CentOS* 7.1 (kernel update require).
Disclaimer Note: As these drivers are open source, the option to build them for other Linux based operating
systems is available, however Intel cannot provide support for this option without official validation being
performed by Intel. Driver validation and performance tuning will be the responsibility of those that choose
to build drivers for Linux Operating systems beyond those supported by Intel.
5.1 Supported Host Operating Systems
-CentOS* 7.1 with kernel update
Note: specific kernel updates are documented in the Intel® Visual Compute Accelerator Product Software
Users Guide.
5.1.1 Reference boot OS on Visual Compute Accelerator
CentOS 7.1 with kernel update
-Persistent Image –Automatically mounts to pre-defined NFS partition on the host. Enables all
changes to remain persistent
-Baremetal Image –Full CentOS 7.1 image. By default nothing is persistent.
-w/ Xen Option
5.2 Supported hypervisor
-Xen
5.3 Guest OS
Any OS supported by Intel® Iris Pro Graphics, GVT-d virtualization, and the Intel® Media Server Studio