Intel Quick Sync hardware for Linux

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Hello. I’m going to build a new server for Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0.5 and I’d be happy to utilize Intel Quick Sync technology for transcoding. So I have following questions by now:

  1. What kind of CPU will I need? Is it true that the only “Intel Xeon Processor E3-1285 v3 with Intel HD Graphics P4700” on C226 chipset is supported?

  2. Do I have to pay additional fees to Intel for their Media SDK for Linux servers?

  3. Can I transcode with Quick Sync on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS?

  4. Is there any Intel multi CPU chipset that supports Quick Sync?

Thanks in advance.

2

Hi,

  1. QuickSync may work with v2 E3-1285 processors or v3 Intel core processors however the kernel version may need to be downgraded. For this reason, we recommend the v3 E3-1285 or v4 Intel core processors.

  2. There shouldn’t be any extra fees with using the Intel Media SDK.

  3. Yes, it should work with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS however, you may need to watch the kernel version that is used.

  4. QuickSync is only available on certain E3 & Intel Core processors which are only designed for motherboards with a single CPU socket and a maximum of 32GB ram.

For more info, please refer to the following.

Server specifications for Intel Quick Sync acceleration with Wowza Transcoder AddOn

How to configure Quick Sync accelerated encoding on Linux

Intel’s Processor information website

Roger.

3

Hi,

Correct, you don’t require such processors to run Transcoding with NVIDIA cards. If you did have such CPUs as well, they could still act as additional Transcoding resources, where some streams could use NVENC and others could be configured to use QuickSync. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any sort of driver contention.

Daren

4

Roger, thank you for your prompt reply. Intel has released E3-1285 v3 “refreshment” recently as E3-1286 v3 and the there are only few differences I’ve noticed: 100MHz higher clock speed, DMI2 bus type(instead of DMI in E3-1285 v3) and the lack of Intel® Flexible Display Interface (Intel® FDI). Here’s link to CPUs comparison http://ark.intel.com/compare/75465,80913 So my questions now are:

  1. Do you think Wowza Streaming Engine can leverage Quick Sync capabilities on E3-1286 v3 or I should better go with E3-1285 v3 CPU?

  2. In Wowza server specs for Quick Sync stated that chipset should be Intel C226, is it the same as Intel® C226 Express PCH listed in Supermicro motherboards specs?

  3. What is better in terms of CPU load and performance:

A. To get a single CPU system with Quick Sync enabled.

B. To get a multiple CPUs system.

C. To get multiple or single CPU system with Nvidia Kepler GPU.

P.S. We’re going to have ~10 incoming RTSP IP cameras connected, 1 or 2 incoming Teradek encoders and VOD. And Wowza Streaming Engine should output everything in HLS.

5

Any thoughts about the E3-1286 v3 CPU?

6

Related to this linux scenario, if my servers have the NVIDIA K4000 card(s), are the v3 E3-1285 or v4 Intel core processors absolutely required? Is there an advantage to having this CPU if the transcoding work is done by the cards?

7

Cheers Daren.