Russia has local Baikal-S server CPUs. 6nm 128-core in the works

Locally designed Russian processors are catching up (somewhat)

In the summer we reported that Russia is now making (or rather designing, as fabbing will happen at TSMC) its own ARM Baikal-M CPUs, which are also being used in computers intended for state administration. It was an outdated SoC with Cortex-A57, the very first 64-bit ARM cores. But now the same company has a much cooler processor: a 48-core with a newer architecture that could replace the cheaper server Xeons and Epycs.

BE-S1000

Baikal has now officially unveiled the Baikal-S server processor, also bearing the designation BE-S1000 (or BE-S1000X as seen on some depictions; it is possible that this will be the final version, while BE-S1000 is the designation of the pre-production chips). It is a 48-core processor that runs at 2.0 GHz base and 2.5 GHz at max boost – it is not yet known whether this boost can be achieved on all cores (perhaps with some low stress FPU/SIMD workloads) or only with a lower number of active cores.

The architecture should be the 2017-vintage Cortex-A75 with 64/64KB L1 cache and 512KB L2 cache. This is the core that was featured in the Snapdragon 845, for example. It now supports the newer ARMV8.2A instruction set and should also have a much better IPC than the Cortex-A57 in the previous chip, although it won’t be as good architecture for a server SoC as the Neoverse N1 (which is a modified Cortex-A76) is. Here, the Russian company still has some implementation lag against currently available and already shipping technology from ARM.

Baikal BE-S1000 CPU Source: Baikal Electronics, via Dmitrii Kuznetsov/Twitter

The TDP of the processor is 120 W, which is not bad for 48 cores, but it should be remembered that the performance per core will not be much by today’s standards and more current ARM architectures would probably provide more performance within the same budget. The chips should be manufactured with TSMC’s 16nm process with FinFETs, which is not a current-generation technology anymore, but it still delivers significantly better performance and power efficiency when coming from older technologies like the outdated 28nm process (on which Baikal-M is produced).

The processor has 32MB of L4 cache, the cores are in 12 quad-core clusters where each core shares 2MB of L3 cache. A six-channel DDR4-3200 memory controller with ECC is integrated in the SoC, supporting up to 768GB of memory. The processor also has an 80-lane PCI Express 4.0 controller, where 48 lanes can also be used as a coherent CCIX interface instead. Two gigabit Ethernet interfaces and some USB, UARTs and GPIOs are also integrated.

Baikal BE-S1000 processor schematic (Source: Baikal Electronics)

As befits a server processor, multiple CPUs are supported on a single board, with a maximum of four processor (4S) setup, perhaps using those CCIX interfaces. The CPU uses the LGA 3467 socket and has similar dimensions to Xeons for LGA 3647, the CPU size is 58.0 × 75.5 mm. It is possible that the socket used has been made similar to save on manufacturing costs, and cooler mounting could be compatible with the Xeons.

Baikal BE-S1000 (Source: Baikal Electronics)

RISC-V management engine subsystem

Although the processor is based on ARM architecture, the free RISC-V instruction set has found its way into it as well. The processor’s control unit, which also takes care of Secure Boot and similar functions (perhaps also remote management technology), is not ARM-based, but uses a RISC-V core. It’s possible that in the future Baikal might look into abandoning the ARM architecture and switch to this instruction set altogether, but with the current state of the hardware and software ecosystem, that is probably be something that will not happen at least for several years, whereas ARM is now already quite well prepared for the server role today.

Baikal BE-S1000 to be able to compete with weaker older Xeons and Epycs Source: Baikal Electronics, via Dmitri Kuznetsov/Twitter

An alternative to older Xeons and Epycs

The company has also already shown some performance numbers of these CPUs, which you can see on the slides. According to the manufacturer, the Baikal BE-S1000 (or BE-S1000X) processor should be roughly capable of replacing older and cheaper x86 server processors, such as the Intel Xeon Gold 6148 (20-core Skylake-SP) or AMD Epyc 7351 (16-core Zen, “Naples” first-generation Epyc), both from 2017. Alternatively, the Huawei Kungpeng 920 (also ARM) from China. However, since the Baikal BE-S1000 probably doesn’t exist in its final form yet, these are probably just preliminary estimates, not actual measured performance.

Baikal BE-S1000 CPU Performance Estimate Source: Baikal Electronics, via Dmitrii Kuznetsov/Twitter

It must be said that this CPU is not quite ready for release yet. What is new at the moment is that the first working silicon samples are already available and have been successfully booted up (bring-up). From this stage, it may still be some time before relatively normal working engineering samples and then eventually mass-produced processors are available. But if everything moves quickly, commercial production and sales could start in perhaps 9-12 months (with sampling to customers happening earlier).

Planned production volume of Baikal BE-S1000 Source:Baikal Electronics, via Dmitrii Kuznetsov/Twitter

This is quite consistent with the plan actually announced by the company, which plans to have the first 10,000 units of these processors produced by the end of 2022 and then ramping a bit higher during 2023, when some 30,000 units should be produced. These are not particularly large batches, but it should be remembered that this is a product with a fairly narrow niche of serving Russian government agencies and similar entities. Outside the Russian market and in generally, when pitted agianst technologically superior off the shelf processors from AMD, Intel or even Ampere, there will probably be very little if any opportunity for it to sell to customers that are not impressed by the factor of coming from a local (and therefore controlled) supplier.

Next version with 128 cores at 6nm. But at least four years away

The company is planning much more powerful processors for the future. The second generation of these server CPUs, the Baikal-S2 (probably BE-S2000) is supposed to have an ARMv9 instruction set with Neoverse N2 cores clocked at 3.0 GHz or more. The chip is supposed to have 128 of these cores and be manufactured on a 6nm process, probably again at TSMC. This processor will have an eight-channel DDR5 controller and is supposed to be competitive against today’s Epyc 7003 Milan with Zen 3 cores. But unlike those, it will include PCI Express 5.0 support (up to 192 lanes).

Baikal server CPU roadmap showing the Baikal-S2 generation Zdroj: Baikal Electronics, via Dmitrii Kuznetsov/Twitter

This CPU won’t be ready for a long time however, it’s only scheduled in the roadmap for year 2025, meaning that the Russian company will still be behind the state of the art available from global CPU makers.

Sources: Baikal Electronics, techPowerUp, Dmitrii Kuznetsov/Twitter (1, 2)

English translation and edit by Karol Démuth, original text by Jan Olšan, editor for Cnews.cz


  •  
  •  
  •  
Flattr this!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *