A MONSTER CHIP IS COMING. The next generation of MP processor is targeted for production later this year, and by all accounts it is going to be a monster. Nehalem-EX is part of the Nehalem family of processors, but compared to its siblings it has the highest cores/threads count, largest shared cache, highest CPU-to-CPU bandwidth, highest I/O bandwidth, highest memory capacity, highest memory bandwidth, greatest scalability, and highest level of Reliability/Availability/Serviceability. It’s expected to bring a gargantuan, unprecedented leap in capabilities and performance--the biggest leap in all of Xeon product history. IT’S TARGETED AT “BIG BOXES”. Big box servers are multiprocessor systems using the most capable processors and platform components. These systems are targeted at applications and usages that require the largest memory footprints, the highest amounts of single-box processing power (for workloads that don’t decompose well into lots of independent threads) and/or advanced levels of RAS. Such systems are typically the best choice for large databases, ERP apps, Business Intelligence apps, large-scale server consolidation and business-critical virtualization, mission critical applications and large scale high performance computing. IT USES THE SAME PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY AS THE SUCCESSFUL XEON 5500, BUT MORE OF IT. Just like with Xeon 5500, the Nehalem micro-architecture brings improved single-threaded performance via IPC (Instructions per Clock) enhancements and Intel’s Hi-k 45nm manufacturing process. Greater multi-threaded performance comes via Hyper-Threading and more cores. But while the Xeon 5500 has up to 4 cores/16threads per socket, the Nehalem-EX monster doubles that to 8 cores/16 threads. HAS A BEEFIER MEMORY AND INTERCHIP COMMUNICATION SUBSYSTEMS. Monster thread processing capabilities require monster size feeding to bring out the best performance. Nehalem-EX’s raw processing potential is made viable by a heavy duty memory subsystem and inter-chip communication system. Nehalem-EX has 24MB of shared level 3 cache--that’s 50% more than the current Xeon 7400 and 200% more than Xeon 5500. The memory channel bandwidth was increased to 9-times that of Xeon 7400. And it’s all attached to up to 16 DIMM slots per socket (that’s 64DIMMs slots for 4 sockets)—double the current generation of Xeon 7400. In a multi-socket system, processors need to communicate with each other in order to most efficiently coordinate their shared workload. They also need lots of I/O bandwidth. Nehalem-EX has four QuickPath Interconnects on every socket--double that of Xeon 5500. The four QPI links enable Nehalem-EX processors to be directly connected to each other in a 4 socket system. This offers significant performance advantage over a so-called ring architecture wherein some processor-to-processor communication must go through an intermediary processor. The extra QPIs also mean that there’s plenty of CPU to I/O bandwidth. EXPECTED TO BRING THE GREATEST LEAP FORWARD IN XEON PERFORMANCE EVER. On key server performance benchmarks (e.g. SPEC_int_rate, SPEC_floating point_rate, TPC-C, etc) Xeon 5500 using Nehalem technology brought gains of over 100-200% greater than prior generation. Generational gains of this magnitude come along just about once a decade. Nehalem-EX’s generation-to-generation performance gains are expected to be substantially higher than those of Xeon 5500. We’ve already seen measured memory bandwidth of 9X vs. prior generation. That’s an early indication of the level by which new performance records will be set when this monster chip comes to market. Related Topics: NHM-EX May 26th Press Briefing Video – condensed version
The Server Room Blog
4 Posts tagged with the capacity tag
First the supply side. Looking at the growth projections in compute capacity delivered by Intel based servers ( with 45nm silicon, more cores and more efficiency ( enabling density)), data centers have the potential to increase compute capacity by 40x over the next five years. <pause to let 40x sink in> Yes, I said 40 times the capacity in the same space and power footprint. My initial reaction to this thought was ‘whoa' or better stated ‘whoa with several expletives'. Does this mean Intel, and the rest of the server market, will sell fewer bits? Employment wise I selfishly want the server business to grow. 
As I began to explore the other side of the economy - the demand side - I began to relax, maybe even get a bit optimistic / excited. Let's start with the trends. Multiple market indicators show data volumes doubling every year. Of course this is not uniformly distributed, but on average that is a potential 32X increase in data over the next five years. <another moment to ponder what you will do with 32 times as much data>. This alone is probably enough to consume my 40x growth, but when I add the other magnifying trends, it will blow past all my capacity estimates. 
For example if user population is growing at 10%/year, we boost the 5 year growth in capacity demand to something near 50X, actually 51, but these are all calculations worthy of a napkin. 50x is bigger than 40x, but there is more. I am not sure how to quantify all other factors, like the expanding desire of the business to do more. From the customers I have spoken with I get the sense that most businesses are still pushing IT for more value through faster decisions, faster BI, etc. If this only adds 5% capacity demand per year, we are suddenly knocking on the door of 65x. <another moment to ponder 65x capacity demand> That is 65 times as many transactions! Not 65% more but 65 times more.
So, using all the best bits money can buy, many data center managers will still run out of capacity. The server business still looks good. Whew.
How to meet that capacity gap? Is it time to break ground on new data centers? Maybe, but maybe not... I mention some alternatives here, and plan to keep poking at ‘ways to avoid data center capital'.