Intel® has just launched their latest server processor, the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series. It really is a breakthrough processor for Intel and a clearly phenomenal solution for HPC. I was watching a keynote presentation this week and our Vice President was downright giddy about it. What makes this processor such a phenomenal solution for HPC? The answer is really easy; it expands capabilities and shortens users’ time to results. The real question is how does this processor perform so much better than other solutions out there? This answer is a bit more complicated but really fun to answer. Here we go…

Intel® QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) – This is the technology that has replaced the front side bus used in previous generation Xeon® processors. Our previous generation architecture had a bandwidth of 21 GB/s vs. the QPI bandwidth of 46.1 GB/s. This is a speedup of 2.2X, very impressive. For applications that require lots of I/O this is huge. It’s like going from a country back road to an expressway!

Integrated memory controller – Intel has moved the memory controller from the MCH (memory controller Hub) into the processor.  In addition to integrating the memory controller, Intel is now using native DDR3 with speeds up to 1333MHz and three memory channelsper processor; this is a total of 6 memory channels and 64 GB/s of total memory bandwidth for a 2S HPC node.  This is a 3x jump in memory bandwidth from theprevious generation memory controller which only supported speeds up to 1066MHz and 4 memory channels. By integrating the memory controller you are now in closer contact with the processor for lower latency reads and writes.  Intel added two additional memory channel (one per socket) to increase memory capacity and increase the speed to faster reads and writes. 

Energy efficient design – The new Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series has the dynamic capability of turning off cores when not required. There are more power states and has the ability to transition between power states faster than ever before. Net, net this means less power consumption. By consuming less power and providing world class performance Intel has created a solution that cries out HPC!

By taking advantage of the power saving, Intel has introduced another feature called Intel® Turbo Boost Technology. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology automatically increases processor frequency to boost application performance if thermal headroom is available. Depending on the environment Turbo Boost can increase the processor frequency by as much as 400 MHz!

Another technology supported in the Intel® Xeon processor 5500 series is Hyper-Threading. Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology enables users to run multiple threads on each processing core to increase total application performance while requiring only a fraction of the power that would be necessary to support additional cores. For highly threaded HPC applications this is showing performance gains over 25%.

The Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series is considered a general purpose processor. However, a closer look at the features and capabilities show that this is one heck of an HPC solution. You can’t help but think Intel knew HPC was an important market segment for servers and they had this in mind as they created the architecture and developed the features.

Well, is Intel pounding their chest…again! They should be. The introduction of the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series is breakthrough architecture for HPC users. The industry hasn’t seen generation to generation performance gains like this since the Pentium® Pro was introduced back in the mid 90’s. Congratulations Intel and go ahead and pound that chest, you deserve it!

Technology moves at such a rapid pace - it can often be mind-boggling. Even working directly with the product teams at Intel, I sometimes have difficulty keeping pace. The good news is that there is a tremendous opportunity today to be captured thanks to this rapid innovation, as well as a steady stream of advanced technology that IT can use to better support business and gain a competitive advantage. Recently I was interviewed by Tim Phillips from the Register about the current 45nm Quad-Core Intel Xeon products and the next generation Intel platforms based on the Nehalem processor.

A few years back, Intel fundamentally changed the way we design and develop our underlying micro-processor technology. We streamlined our innovation and accelerated it's pace. Internally, we call this new model Tick-Tock. I like to call it shrink and innovate.

A "Tick" is a manufacturing process shrink that delivers smaller silicon with higher speeds, more transistors and lower power consumption (example: moving from 65nm to 45nm process technology). The 45nm quad-core xeon processors (available since Nov '07) utilize unique materials (a high-k, dielectric) that are delivering industry leading performance / watt as measured by the industry's first and only standard benchmark, SPECPower

A "Tock" represents a more extensive architectural innovation (ex. Intel Core Microarchitecture) introducing new micro-architecture features and functionality fully utilizing the higher transistor count set up by the shrink. For Intel Xeon-based servers, the next "tock" is Nehalem. In addition to the new micro-architecture based on 45nm, a system re-design will incorporate next generation memory, I/O and virtualization technology for high performance, high bandwidth solutions compatible with today's leading software solutions

Listen to my podcast interview to learn more about the benefits of using today's products and the timing of next generation Intel technology featuring Nehalem. Is this information useful to you? If so ... how? Have any questions?

I'd be happy to hear from you. Chris

Eco-Technology - what does this term mean and why would Intel use it instead of "Green Computing" or something more common?

Moore's Law gives us the ability to deliver more performance and greater energy efficiency with each generation of microprocessors - and reducing the energy consumption of our products is far and away the biggest impact Intel can have on carbon footprint.

We recently completed an analysis of a high-performance computing configuration that was originally deployed in 2002 (coming in at number 17 in the Top500 Supercomputer list for that year) and is still in use today. This configuration consists of 512 servers fit out into 25 racks using 128 kW and delivers 3.68 TFlops peak on the LINPACK benchmark. Today, that cluster could be replaced with a single rack of roughly 53 blade servers drawing 21 kW and still giving us that 3.7 TFlops of performance (Energy efficiency in the data center). More on whether that level of density is appropriate for everyone later.....

Think of the incredible increase in productivity - and new innovations - that have been made possible by this phenomenal growth in compute capacity. The explosion of information that's available at our fingertips and the evolution of many aspects of our global economy to bits instead of physical materials.

And that's really the point of "Eco-Technology" which is defined as an "eco-sensitive" approach to technology that takes into consideration sustainability in both manufacture and end-use of technology.

So we're increasing both the energy efficiency of our products and we're eliminating potentially harmful materials such as lead and halogen from our manufacturing, but we're also as an industry continuing to contribute to productivity and transformation. Both are important.

As companies explore their IT Sustainability programs and we all work to define what green computing should mean, what are your thoughts on how to balance the imperative to do more work, deliver more business value with the rising costs of energy and our collective desire to slow climate change? The US Environmental Protection Agency is contemplating Energy Star for servers. If you were in charge, what criteria would you use to award the label?