Consider the three Dell machines described in the following table.
| Model | Latitude 3440 | Precision Mobile 7780 | Precision 7960 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Laptop | Laptop/Workstation | Workstation |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-1335U | Intel Core i9-13950HX | Intel Xeon w9-3495X |
| Memory (RAM) | 8GB - 3 200 MT/s - DDR4 (1 × 8GB) | 32GB - 5 600 MHz - DDR5 (1 × 32GB) | 512 GB - 4 800 MHz - GDDR6 (8 × 64 GB) |
| GPU | Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (integrated) | NVIDIA RTX 3500 | NVIDIA RTX A6000 |
| Storage | SSD 256 GB | SSD 1 TB | RAID 5 : 4 × SSD 4To |
| Dimensions | 14" - 1920 × 1080 | 15.6" - 3840 × 2160 | -- |
| Weight | 1.5 kg | 2.5 kg | -- |
| Price | 900 € | 4 600 € | 32 100 € |
| Specs | click here | click here | click here |
The first computer is a light laptop suitable for personal and/or office use. The second is a laptop workstation that can support applications requiring computing and graphics. The third is a powerful server capable of working on massive calculations, such as deep learning.
Computers compared in 2020
| Model | Latitude 3410 | Precision Mobile 7550 | Precision 7920 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Laptop | Laptop/Workstation | Workstation |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-10210U | Intel Core i9-10885H | 2 × Intel Xeon Gold-5220 |
| Memory (RAM) | 8Go 2667MHz DDR4 (1 × 8Go) | 32Go 2933MHz DDR4 (2 × 16Go) | 128Go 2933 MHz DDR4 (8 × 16Go) |
| GPU | UHD620 (integrated) | NVIDIA Quadro T2000 | Nvidia Quadro GV100 |
| Storage | SSD 128 Go | SSD 512 Go | RAID 5 : 8 × SSD 1 To - SATA |
| Dimensions | 14" 1366 × 768 | 15.6" - 3840 × 2160 | -- |
| Weight | 1.6 kg | 2.5 kg | -- |
| Price | 500 € | 1 500 € | 7 500 € |
| Specs | click here | click here | click here |
Discuss the fundamental concepts related to the main components of a computer: processor, memory (RAM), and storage.
Look at the specification of the first two computers (link in the last row of the table). How many screens can be simultaneously used with these laptops, regardless of the characteristics of the GPU?
What are the data transfer rates on the available connections of the two laptops?
We now compare the processors of the three computers. The following table summarizes the key points. An official and exhaustive comparison is available here.
| Intel Core i5-1335U | Intel Core i9-13950HX | Intel Xeon w9-3495X | |
| Number of cores | 2 + 8 | 8 + 16 | 56 |
| Base frequency | 1.7 GHz | 2.20 GHz | 1.90 Ghz |
| Turbo frequency | 4.60 GHz | 5.50 Ghz | 4.80 Ghz |
| Cache | 12 MB | 36 MB | 105 MB |
| Power | 15W | 55W | 350W |
| Max. memory size | 64 GB | 128 GB | 4 TB |
| Max. memory channels | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Recommended price | $340.00 | $590.00 | $5889.00 |
| Geekbench 5 single-core score (cpu-monkey) | 1628 | 2108 | 1734 |
| Geekbench 5 multi-core score (cpu-monkey) | 7240 | 19759 | 56911 |
Computers proposed for comparison in 2020
| Intel Core i5 10210U | Intel Core i9 10885H | Intel Xeon Gold 5220 | |
| Number of cores | 4 | 8 | 18 |
| Base frequency | 1.6 GHz | 2.40 GHz | 2.20 Ghz |
| Turbo frequency | 4.20 GHz | 5.30 Ghz | 3.90 Ghz |
| Cache | 6 MB | 16 MB | 25 MB |
| Power | 15 W | 45 W | 125 W |
| Max memory size | 64 GB | 128 GB | 1 TB |
| Max memory freq | 2 667 MHz | 2 933 MHz | 2 667 Mhz |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 | 6 |
- Discuss the differences between the three processors. Can you guess what the different features listed in the table mean?
- Look at the CPU limitations with memory. Are these limitations respected in the hardware configuration of the three computers? Can we still add memory to the three configurations?
The size of a memory block of the Intel Core i5-1335U is 64 bytes. How many blocks can the L3 cache store?
We now look at the graphics processing unit (GPU). The following table describes the features of the GPUs in the three computers.
| Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (integrated) | NVIDIA RTX 3500 | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
| Number of cores (CUDA) | 80 | 5 120 | 10 752 |
| Clock speed | 1 250 MHz | 1 545 MHz | 2 505 MHz |
| Memory | 8 GB (shared) | 12 GB | 48 GB |
| FP16 performance | 768.0 GFLOPS | 15.82 TFLOPS | 38.7 TFLOPS |
| FP32 performance | 384.0 GFLOPS | 15.82 TFLOPS | 38.7 TFLOPS |
| FP64 performance | 96.0 GFLOPS | 247.2 GFLOPS | 1.21 TFLOPS |
| Tensor cores (Deep learning) | -- | 160 | 336 |
| Max power consumption | < 15W | 100W | 300 W |
Computers compared in 2020
| UHD620 (integrated) | NVIDIA Quadro T2000 | Nvidia Quadro GV100 | |
| Number of cores (CUDA) | 192 | 1024 | 5120 |
| Clock speed | 1150 MHz | 1785MHz | 1627MHz |
| Memory | 32GB(shared) | 4GB | 32GB |
| FP16 performance | 768.0 GFLOPS | 7.3 TFLOPS | 29,6 TFLOPS |
| FP32 performance | 384.0 GFLOPS | 3.6 TFLOPS | 14,8 TFLOPS |
| FP64 performance | 96.0 GFLOPS | 114.2 GFLOPS | 7,4 TFLOPS |
| Tensor cores (Deep learning) | -- | -- | 640 |
| Tensor performance | -- | -- | 118,5 TFLOPS |
| Max power consumption | < 15W | 60W | 250 W |
Compare the features of the three GPUs. Can you understand the meaning of each feature listed in the table?