xeon

Intel chip hits eight-core milestone

Intel is integrating the largest number of processing cores onto one chip in its history, a boon for server makers looking to squeeze more performance into less space.

The Xeon 7500 offers what Intel is saying is the largest performance leap in the history of its Xeon line, with an average three-fold jump in performance. And the feat of putting eight cores on one die--the raw chip--offers practical advantages to data centers. As a yardstick, data centers can replace 20 single core, four-chip servers with a single new Xeon 7500 processor series-based system, according to Intel.

Servers using the Xeon 7500 can use up to 256 chips per server, Intel said.

Like other Intel Core i series processors, the Xeon 7500 features a technology called "hyper-threading," which can double the number of tasks--or threads--a processor can execute. So, an eight-core processor can handle 16 threads. This technology is not offered on prior-generation Core 2 chips.

Intel is also supporting more memory. New servers based on the 7500 will boast a four-fold increase in memory capacity, with support for up to 1 terabyte in four-processor configurations.

The Xeon 7500 follows an announcement from Advanced Micro Devices on Monday of a 12-core processor, which combines two six-core die.

"Both AMD and Intel are demonstrating huge leaps in performance per watt," said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, adding that this represents the biggest challenge to high-end RISC server suppliers to date. RISC, or reduced instruction set computer, is chip technology offered in servers from… Read more

IBM, Dell, HP adopt Intel 6-core chip for IT, games

Intel officially introduced its 6-core processor on Tuesday and both server and game box suppliers are deploying the chip, boasting more speed for gamers and better cost-efficiency for IT departments.

As previously reported, the Core i7- 980X desktop processor, aka the Xeon 5600 for servers, is based on Intel's newest 32-nanometer process technology. Generally, the smaller the manufacturing process, the better the performance. To date, most Intel processors have used "fatter" 45-nanometer technology. More processing cores--six versus the prior generation's four--can also hike performance.

"We've already shipped hundreds of thousands of these (processors). We build up the supply chain (beforehand)," said Boyd Davis, general manager for Server Platforms Group Marketing at Intel. Prices for the 6-core processors range from $999 for the Core i7 980 to $1,663 for the Xeon 5680.

For server customers, the message from Intel is more bang for the buck. "Eighty percent of the (server) installed base is up for a refresh. And the installed base is a lot of old, inefficient, single-core servers," said Davis.

"Take 15 old single-core servers and replace them with a single server based on the Xeon 5600. You get roughly the same performance level and a 95 percent reduction in energy costs. As well as getting a payback in as little as five months," he said.

Intel has also added security. AES-NI, or Advanced Encryption Standard New Instruction, is a technology for improving security by increasing encryption performance. On older chips, encryption processing could bog down a system, AES is more efficient at handling these workloads, according to Davis.

Dell is one of the first major vendors… Read more

The factor factor, part 2

In the first part of this series, I claimed that a great secret in the microprocessor industry largely determines whether new products succeed or fail.

I noted that this secret shouldn't be a secret at all because many people (including myself) have talked about it over the years, but clearly a lot of people are in the dark because they continually disregard it and develop products that are doomed.

I gave several examples of products that failed because their creators didn't know the great secret. Those products included RISC processors, media processors, and intelligent RAM chips, in which processor cores were integrated with memory to eliminate one of the great bottlenecks in computer performance.

During my eight years at Microprocessor Report, I covered the markets for media processors, 3D-graphics chips, network processors, and what I coined extreme processors--chips with large numbers of simple cores running in parallel. Many of these chips were cheaper, easier to design, and twice as fast as competing products--and still failed.

However, some did succeed. The critical factor that made the difference in most of these cases is the essence of the so-called secret.

One of those successes is the graphics processing unit, or GPU.

I was reminded again of the secret at Nvidia's recent GPU Technology Conference, where many of the talks dealt with GPU computing.

(Disclosure: I recently wrote a technical white paper for Nvidia.)

Although the GPU field dates back only five or six years, GPUs have already earned a place alongside CPUs. Each is clearly superior for certain kinds of applications.

This is true in spite of the fact that GPUs aren't nearly as easy to program as CPUs. Like other forms of parallel programming, GPU programming requires new hardware (the GPU itself), significant new extensions for programming languages, and a different mindset for programmers--one that simply wasn't part of standard computer-science curriculum for most of the last 50 years.

Wolfram Alpha gets supercomputer boost

One of my concerns with the public launch of Wolfram Alpha later this month is withstanding the crushing load the Internet can impose. But Wolfram Research revealed Tuesday it's building the service on the world's 66th-fastest supercomputer.

The machine, built out of Dell hardware by a company called R Systems, can sustain performance of 39.6 trillion mathematical operations per second, according to the November 2008 list of the top 500 supercomputers. That muscle will come in handy for Alpha, which I think of as a combination of a graphing calculator, search engine, and reference library that not … Read more

Sun Microsystems debuts new x64 servers

Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled a line of new x64 servers and workstations, in a move to bolster its share of the data center.

The new Sun Fire x64 blade servers, rack servers, and workstations, which are powered by Intel's Xeon processor 5500 series, are expected to carry a starting retail price of $1,488.

"Our new x64 systems with integrated networking technologies, advanced thermal management, open software and Open Storage enhancements will give the data center an extreme makeover, boosting efficiency and maximizing IT investment," John Fowler, Sun's Systems Group executive vice president, said in … Read more

Sizing up new high-end machines from HP, Apple

Last week, I attended a press event in Los Angeles hosted by Hewlett-Packard's workstation business unit. Hewlett-Packard was preparing for this week's announcement of three new Z-series workstation models: the Z400, Z600, and Z800.

HP briefed the reporters and analysts with all the key details of the products (the speeds and feeds, as we say), took us to visit a couple of HP's key customers in the area, and hosted presentations by software partners and more customers.

The workstations are very nice, especially the Z600 and Z800: high-quality dual-processor systems based on Intel's newest Xeon 5500… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 943: Confickrolled

The whole world was fooled into fearing a huge storm of worminess that never happened. Was it because we were prepared or because it really wasn't that big of a deal at all? We also avoid most of the April Foolery and talk some Nehalem processors and BlackBerry App World.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 943

Want April Fool’s updates? Go watch Loaded. http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-50005651.html

Web 2.0 Expo http://news.cnet.com/webware/

Live blog: Countdown to Conficker http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10208722-83.html http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/conficker-war-r.html… Read more

Intel adds crush of new mobile, server chips

Intel updated its processor list Monday with new Core 2 chips for Macbook Air-class laptops and a crush of Xeon processors for workstations and servers.

The number of new processor models is 20 in all.

As reported earlier, Intel has introduced new power-sipping low-voltage (LV) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) processor models for laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and Dell Adamo.

The new LV and ULV processor models include the 17-watt SL9600 (2.13GHz, $316) and 10-watt SU9600 (1.6GHz, $289). More power-hungry Intel mainstream mobile processors are typically rated at 25 watts or 35 watts.

And over a dozen … Read more

Intel's Nehalem chip comes to servers

Updated on March 30 at 1:50 p.m. PDT with additional information throughout.

Intel's Nehalem-architecture chips will now try to make their mark in servers, after debuting in desktops in November.

On Monday, Intel is rolling out new Nehalem-based Xeon models targeted at servers using up to two processors. Nehalem offers some important firsts for Intel, including an integrated memory controller for better performance, hyper-threading for up to 16 virtual cores (which improves multitasking), and Turbo Boost Technology, which dynamically increases the processor's frequency (speed), as needed.

"Our most important server launch in well over a decade," said Intel Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger, speaking on Monday at the Nehalem server chip launch event in San Francisco, which was streamed live over the Web. Gelsinger said Intel has already shipped hundreds of thousands of quad-core Xeon 5500 processors--which pack in just over 730 million transistors--to mostly high-performance computing customers. Gelsinger also said future 32-nanometer "Westmere" versions will have six cores and be essentially drop-in replacements for the current 45-nanometer Xeon 5500.

The announcement is anticlimactic to some extent. Apple has already announced a new Mac Pro using the Nehalem Xeon 5500 processor and last month Intel discussed how Nehalem will be used in new "Willowbrook" servers in mega data centers.

But fresh announcements were made Monday from the largest server suppliers in the world, including IBM. "You can get anywhere from a 20 percent to a 200 percent performance improvement going from (Intel's) existing 'Harpertown' processor," said Alex Yost, vice president IBM BladeCenter. IBM is the largest server supplier in the world based on revenue, holding about a 33 percent share of the market, according to Gartner.

"We did install a bunch of early systems at key clients on Wall Street and I am very encouraged," he said. Yost added, however, that at the processor level Nehalem offers virtually no difference in power savings over previous generations of Intel chips. Improved power efficiency can be achieved other ways, though: for example, using virtualization to condense many virtual servers into a single physical server or using more power-efficient motherboards. Moving from rack-based servers to blade servers can also boost power efficiency.

Dreamworks has also been a high-profile early adopter of Nehalem. Prior to Nehalem, Dreamworks had to wait overnight to get an animation rendering project completed but this can be done almost in real time with the new processor, according to Intel and Dreamworks.

Josh Crowe, vice president of engineering at Savvis, an outsourcing business, said Nehalem offers better virtualization technology for customers whose budgets "have been cut to next to nothing" because of the tough economic times. "The consolidation ratios are going to be massively improved," he said, referring to the ability to bring many virtual servers into one physical server box.

Analysts don't expect Nehalem to cause seismic shifts in chip market share because Intel processors already claim a disproportionate chunk of the server market. "We expect only an incremental upside on a unit basis," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart. More importantly, Kumar is closely watching Cisco's entry into the server market. "If the Cisco relationship opens up new market opportunities, that's where the upside will be." … Read more

Apple beats Intel to Nehalem-EP chip launch

Ponder this: Is an Intel product launch still a launch, if the product debuts very publicly in an Apple computer?

I won't presume to answer that question. But the fact is that Intel will launch Nehalem-EP server processors later this month, despite their manifestation Tuesday in the new Mac Pro under their official model names: the Xeon 3500 and 5500.

The chips--in their desktop variant known as the Core i7--are being offered in eight-core or four-core configurations and, like all Nehalam-architecture processors, come with an integrated memory controller for (theoretically) better performance. (Intel's Core architecture does not integrate … Read more