https://www.servethehome.com/first-i...ased-analysis/

Microsoft publicly released the first Intel Skylake-EP Purley platform motherboard this week as part of its Project Olympus platform. The company is releasing the motherboard specs which can be found on the Open Compute Project website. Microsoft calls this its next-generation platform which from Intel roadmaps we know is Skylake-EP. By publishing this specification, Microsoft also released a slew of new information on the upcoming Purley platform that was previously confidential. At STH, we have seen several next-generation motherboards but we have abided by Intel?s embargo by not publishing pictures of said platforms as those were in closed-door sessions. This seems to be one of, if not the first sanctioned set of information on the Purley platform although Microsoft did go through some steps to hide the platform.





Much of this is expected as Purley is already deployed with Intel?s hyper-scale customers and there have been plenty of leaks thus far. Hyper-scale customers such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Baidu and others make up such a large portion of the overall server market these days that it is not surprising we are seeing Microsoft debut a Skylake-EP platform well before we will see an official launch from Intel or its traditional server partners such as HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and Supermicro. Perhaps a harbinger of things to come as the hyper-scale players are publicly announcing Intel product many quarters before the company officially shares details to the public. At least we now have the first concrete system based on Intel?s next-generation server platform.