Intel Phi 7120A SC7120A Data Sheet

Product codes
SC7120A
Page of 78
Document ID Number: 328209 003EN
Intel
®
 Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor Datasheet
65
The sensors available from the SMC vary within the Intel
®
 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor 
family of products. However, the IPMI SDR sensor names will not change from release 
to release.
T
inlet
 and T
outlet 
are derived numbers based on the Inlet and Outlet temperature 
sensors.
The sensors located on the Intel
®
 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor relate information about the 
CPU temperature as well as the temperature from three locations on the Intel
®
 Xeon 
Phi™ coprocessor. Currently, one sensor is located between memory chips near the PCI 
Express* slot while the other two are located on the east and west sides of the card. 
These are sometimes referred to as the “inlet” and “outlet” air temperature sensors but 
they do not actually indicate airflow temperature but rather the temperature of the 
board. The sensors are attached to the 12 inputs from the PCI Express* slot, the 2x3 
connector, and the 2x4 connector. Input power can be estimated by summing the 
currents over these three connections. For an actively cooled card, the SMC can also 
provide the fan percentage PWM being used. Fan speed is a simple PID control with 
setpoints set rather high to keep the sound level low when max cooling is not needed.
6.5
System and Power Management
The Intel
®
 Xeon Phi™ coprocessor PCI card supports both on-card power management 
and an option for system-based management. With on-card power management, the 
SMC adjusts system power using preprogrammed power throttle threshold values. With 
system-based management, the SMC receives power control inputs via in-band 
communication from a host application or out-of-band via IPMB commands from a host 
BMC.
The Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessor supports 2 power threshold levels, PL0 and PL1, 
which determine coprocessor power throttling points.  These are not to be confused 
with setting coprocessor power limits, that is, they do not change the absolute TDP of 
the product.
PL1 is defined as the first power threshold. When the coprocessor detects that the 
power consumption stays above PL1 for a specified time period, the coprocessor will 
begin power throttling. By default, the card's PL1 power threshold is set to 105% of the 
TDP, and the time duration allowed before throttling starts is 300 ms. When the SMC 
detects that these conditions have been met it will assert power throttling, causing the 
frequency to drop by about 100 MHz. Throttling will stop once the power consumption 
drops 15 W or 20 W (depending on card TDP) below PL1. The difference in the 
throttling assertion and deassertion thresholds will help prevent the coprocessor from 
continually cycling between throttling and running normally. For cards with a TDP of 
250 W or less, the deassertion point is 15 W lower than PL1. For 300 W cards the 
deassertion point is 20 W below PL1.
PL0 is normally set to a higher power threshold than PL1. By default, it is set to 125% 
of TDP, and the time duration allowed at this power level is 50 ms. If these conditions 
are met, the SMC will use the thermal throttling mechanism to force the coprocessor to 
the lowest operating frequency which is around 600 MHz. The power reduction from 
PL0 is expected to be much greater than PL1. The thermal throttling state will continue 
until the total coprocessor power has dropped 40 W below PL0. When PL0 is exceeded, 
the initial change in power consumption is a result of the lower operating frequency. 
The coprocessor will also reduce the CPU core voltage to a value that is appropriate for 
the lower frequency and this will provide additional power savings. The voltage 
reduction takes place 3-400 msec after PL0 throttling is asserted.