News & Analysis
Slideshow: Novel server CPUs glow at Hot Chips
Rick Merritt
8/29/2012 11:31 PM EDT
Sparc CPUs show 64 threads, 382 GFlops
In other talks Oracle described the Sparc T5, supporting up to 64 threads across eight cores on a 28nm die running at 3.6 GHz. Eight chips can be linked in a system, up from four in the prior generation.
The processor packs 8 Mbytes shared L3 cache and supports two x8 PCI Express Gen 3 links. It has hardware support for 16 cryptographic algorithms, more than any other general-purpose processor, the company claimed.
“This is the first product to be designed largely after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems and should put to rest any rumors Larry Ellison will get out of hardware,” said Brookwood. “From what I hear, they are adding to their technical staff,” he said.
For its part, longtime Sun partner Fujitsu showed its tenth Sparc design and pledged it will continue the line. Like the Oracle T5, the Fujitsu Sparc64 X (below) also packs 16 cores, a memory controller and support for PCIe Gen 3. It delivers up to 382 GFlops.
The Fujitsu cores support just two threads each and run at a slower 3 GHz but have access to 24 Mbytes of L2 cache. Four of the chips can be linked without glue logic.
The chip is working in the lab, “but to be frank it is running very hot,” said the Fujitsu presenter, declining to give its power dissipation figures. The EE got a round of applause for his honesty.
Oracle didn't have any great T5 slides so I just posted the overview of its chip at the bottom of the page.
Click on image to enlarge.
Click on image to enlarge.
In other talks Oracle described the Sparc T5, supporting up to 64 threads across eight cores on a 28nm die running at 3.6 GHz. Eight chips can be linked in a system, up from four in the prior generation.
The processor packs 8 Mbytes shared L3 cache and supports two x8 PCI Express Gen 3 links. It has hardware support for 16 cryptographic algorithms, more than any other general-purpose processor, the company claimed.
“This is the first product to be designed largely after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems and should put to rest any rumors Larry Ellison will get out of hardware,” said Brookwood. “From what I hear, they are adding to their technical staff,” he said.
For its part, longtime Sun partner Fujitsu showed its tenth Sparc design and pledged it will continue the line. Like the Oracle T5, the Fujitsu Sparc64 X (below) also packs 16 cores, a memory controller and support for PCIe Gen 3. It delivers up to 382 GFlops.
The Fujitsu cores support just two threads each and run at a slower 3 GHz but have access to 24 Mbytes of L2 cache. Four of the chips can be linked without glue logic.
The chip is working in the lab, “but to be frank it is running very hot,” said the Fujitsu presenter, declining to give its power dissipation figures. The EE got a round of applause for his honesty.
Oracle didn't have any great T5 slides so I just posted the overview of its chip at the bottom of the page.
Click on image to enlarge.
Click on image to enlarge.
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rick.merritt
8/30/2012 1:41 PM EDT
OK, so I did not say anything about the long, detailed Intel Xeon presentation, but I figured it's been shipping awhile and people know about it already.
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Alexander Teterkin
8/31/2012 2:11 PM EDT
Rick, can you share more details on IBM POWER 7+ please. I know that you attended HC24.
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rick.merritt
9/1/2012 3:30 PM EDT
What do you want to know?
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rick.merritt
8/30/2012 5:29 PM EDT
Feeling guilty I added a page with two foils on Xeon and its new power saving technology.
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http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/poconoarmchairreview
8/31/2012 7:30 PM EDT
"but to be frank it is running very hot"
No problem, just put a coffee rest on top of the chip and keep your mug warm all day for no extra cost.
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jg_
8/31/2012 9:00 PM EDT
The Core is a tiny portion of any Server, so "which core ?" is asking the wrong question.
More important are GB/s/watt numbers, and longevity and process.
Servers is a simple numbers game, there is no marketing sizzle, or packaging design froth.
That means the big players, with strong FAB backup, will continue to be the main forces here.
It is also why highly focused solutions, like IBMs, can find a place.
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Neo1
9/2/2012 10:54 PM EDT
Good to see that Oracle is continuing the Sparc line though there were fears of it's imminent demise. Sparc lost the battle for supremacy a decade back which made it easy for X86 to proliferate but these new chips could bring about some refreshing change in server market. How low can they make a server to own while still providing the reliability and throughput is the question.
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MikeSmith2011
9/3/2012 11:12 PM EDT
Looks like a study in contrasts - the Power7 designers continuing to go after the highest speed - 5+ GHz, 80MB caches, the AppliedMicro designers going after integration, efficiency and right sizing and Intel doing what it does best - leading edge fabs that give it the advantage. It appears that all three are targeting different segments of the server market.
Oh and Pat comes across as a petty partisan. Maybe he should run for political office.
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