The Server Room Blog

Intel & Turtle Entertainment Collaborate on Virtualization of Gameservers

whlea — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:10:56 GMT

IDF SF08-Online gaming and sports leagues are growing every day and here at IDF this week we had the opportunity to see how Intel is making an impact. I was visiting the Virtualization Community in the IDF Showcase where I met Bjoern Metzdorf, Director of Information Technology at Turtle Entertainment who was speaking with Alan Bumgarner of Intel. Check out the video for a major success story including an 18:1 server consolidation ratio, 85-90% power savings and no observable latency for the gamer, this is cool stuff!

If you want to learn more about Turtle Entertainment and the Electronic Sports League (ESL) Click Me

Making sense of hypes "du Jour" - Virtualization, Grid and Cloud Computing

whlea — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:04:30 GMT

Admin Note: This is a repost on behalf of Ravi Subramaniam.

This is the first video in a 3 part series - In this video series, I touch upon the topics that are in the news - Virtualization, Grid computing and cloud computing - each have had their day as or are the current hot/hyped topic. In this first video, I focus on virtualization.

I am looking forward to an interesting dialogue on these videos and the topics and to learn from your insights as I hope you will from mine. I would really like to get your feedback/thoughts and other topics/considerations that would be relevant and important here.

The intent here is to try and demonstrate these topics are in some way inter-related though the implementations/embodiments are distinct and relevant to solving the problems in their respective topic/domain. By understanding the connections, my hope is that, one can visualize new solutions/products (to solve new or higher order problems) that may be created through some appropriate compositions or by novel (re)organizations of the implementations and technologies in these respective topics. Well... I am getting ahead of myself here ...

To stimulate discussion for this blog I would like to add/highlight a few points/questions ...

Virtualization (at least for me) is a broad concept and as, highlighted in the video, has many modes, facets or aspects - many of the topics of current interest are sort of related by the application of some aspect of virtualization. For the sake of time/brevity, I choose to briefly mention the broader aspects and relate quickly to the notion of virtualization that most accept i.e. what I would call 'machine virtualization'. Do you agree with the broad view of virtualization? An elaboration on your response (for or against) will be much appreciated.

Virtualization implies a relationship to the entity (physical or virtual) that the virtualization virtualizes - the ability to bind, manipulate and manage these relationships is what helps realize virtualization benefits like agility, consolidation, right sizing etc. The foil in the video "How to create virtualization?" describes some of the relationships (i.e. creating a virtualization establish the relationship describing the mode of creation). Do the ideas in "How to create virtualization?" section of the video make sense - do you agree - thoughts? Are there additional relationships (modes of construction) one may need to consider in the context of virtualization? Are there any product/product area that Intel could enhance by adding one of these virtualization modes/relationships i.e. that would solve (or improve solution of) a problem that you have (say emulation for example)?

Machine virtualization - is currently SW based with HW assists for performance and security. What do you see as the next inflection for machine virtualizations? Is there an increased role for HW (as different from the current role of enhancing SW solutions)? Are there any models for virtualization that you see that are better suited for implementation in silicon rather than SW?

Finally also looking forward to any other feedback/discussion on the video and video content ...

Thanks for your interest!

Live from "Intel Premier IT Professional Event"-Denver

whlea — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:59:18 GMT

I'm blogging here today from the Intel Premier IT Professional (IPIP) event in Denver, Colorado. This is a really amazing setting at the Center for the Perfoming Arts in downtown Denver. There are some 200 industry professionals here networking and sharing best practices around client and server technologies with some of the main topics including Intel's technology roadmap, security, client and server virtualization. For those who couldn't be here, check the IPIP Website for event details and to download the presentations. In addition to updates on this blog, Josh Hilliker and I will have an event wrap-up on Blog Talk Radio, stay tuned for the details. Check back to this blog for event updates as they occur.

Wm. Hank Lea
Community Manager
Open Port-The Server Room

2pm- Event Update

Here's some cool video of XEON 7300-series(4P)running a database transaction application:

And another video showing the XEON 5400-series (2P) running the Black-Scholes Option Pricing benchmark:

And a third demo showing the XEON 5400-series in a workstation configuration running 3D rendering application:

Energy Efficiency In The Data Center Podcast

DJenkins — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:00:10 GMT

Energy consumption and energy efficiency issues are becoming more prevalent in the datacenter. This short podcast hosted by the Register provides some insight on topics that IT manager should consider to improve energy efficient performance in the datacenter.

http://www.podtech.net/home/5116/energy-consumption-in-the-data-center

Why 45nm ... What's Next (part 2)

C_Peters — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:40:20 GMT

Last week, the first part this video series focused on the energy efficiency benefits of 45nm. The 2nd part of this video (below) is focused on the benefits of 45nm for virtualization and the intel processor roadmap including what's next in 45nm processor technology - the Dunnington and Nehalem-EP products

Is this information useful to you? why or why not?

Chris

Quad-Core ROI Calculator

C_Peters — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:18:06 GMT

Using some data from our own IT group, we developed a simple ROI calculator. This tool provides an estimate of performance and IT cost savings of refreshing older servers with new ones. Below is a screen shot of the calculator that is now available on our new server tools section of the Server Room. Give it a try and let us know if these assessment tools are helpful?

Why 45nm ... What's Next

C_Peters — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:58:52 GMT

Following a recent interview I conducted with the Register on a related subject, I was asked to talk more about Intel's current 45nm technology and our roadmap for new technology later this year. Join me in a two part video series where I discuss 45nm and beyond.

Part 1 (below) discusses the technology and benefits that 45nm xeon processors deliver for IT today.

Tune in next week to hear Part 2 - what we have planned for future enhancements to today's xeon products - the Nehalem Processor and Intel QuickPath architecture.

Chris

Reference Room up and running

whlea — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:46:16 GMT

Hi all, I just found out about this new site, check it out here: http://www.intel.com/references/

45nm and Beyond

C_Peters — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:45:18 GMT

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

http://www.podtech.net/home/5105/45nm-and-beyond-with-christopher-peters

50W Quad-Core: How would you use them?

C_Peters — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:09:14 GMT

Today, Intel launched 50W low power versions of the 45nm Quad-Core Xeon processors (the L5400 series).
The 2 new SKUs are listed below:

Quad-Core Xeon L5420 2.50 GHz, 12MB L2, 1333MHz
Quad-Core Xeon L5410 2.33 GHz, 12MB L2, 1333MHz

These products offer IT and business users 2 primary benefits:

45nm 50W quad-core brings 25% improved performance over previous generation 65nm 50W quad-core processors
They also run 30W cooler than mainstream 80W quad-core processors delivering the same performance at the same frequency.

We have seen strong interest for these 50W quad-core products and I'd like to hear from you on where you would use low power quad-core and why?

Which Xeon is right for me?

C_Peters — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:01:36 GMT

I recently found this simple animation that breaks down the Xeon processor family into bite-sized chunks and explains which Xeon-based servers are best suited to meet common IT and business needs.

I shared it last week when traveling with customers in Taiwan and it was well received.

What do you think of this video?

Datacenter Power Management: Power Consumption Trend

jhe123 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:29:29 GMT

Datacenter Power Management: Power Consumption Trend

Jackson He

As the internet services grow and the more users embracing internet - approaching 1 billion connected users, one of the biggest challenges for data-center operators today is the increasing cost of power and cooling as a portion of the total cost of operations. As shown in Figure 1, over the past decade, the cost of power and cooling has increased 400%, and these costs are expected to continue to rise. In some cases, power costs account for 40-50% of the total data-center operation budget. To make matters worse, there is still a need to deploy more servers to support new business solutions. Data centers are therefore faced with the twin problem of how to deploy new services in the face of rising power and cooling costs. In a recent survey of data centers 59% identify power and cooling as the key factors limiting server deployment.

Figure 1: IDC Report of data center cost structure and trend

At the same time with the increased energy cost and awareness of global warming, there is increased regulatory scrutiny around both idle and max power of servers and clients (desktops and laptops). The "green awareness" datacenter is no longer a "nice to have" feature, but of necessity of business operation and environmental regulatory compliance. Figure 2 highlight the world-wide existing and emerging regulations on power and energy consumption. Future datacenters have to be able to clearly measure and proof regulation conformance in order to operate properly.

Figure 2: Existing and emerging energy and power regulations

To sum it up, the power management trends for future datacenters are multifaceted and will not be covered by a single company or a single business segment. They could be summarized in the following areas:

At environment level: conform to increased government regulations on energy and power and increased power constraint (limited available power) - need innovative ways to conform "green datacenter" regulations, while deliver great values to business.
At the datacenter level: more computing power is needed with increased demand; emergence of mega datacenter and modular datacenter (datacenter in a container); the overall power and cooling distributions need to match the increased need - new datacenter designs and power/cooling management needed.
At rack level: higher power density and higher server density per rack is needed to pack more computing power for a given space and cooling; workload balance between racks to increase power efficiency and overall datacenter reliability - need effective rack-level power and cooling monitoring and dynamic management capabilities
At server level: need lower idle and max processing power, so that platform power consumption trend is more linear with platform performance; dynamically adjust power consumption based on policy and workload - need more server-level instrumentations for power/cooling monitoring and more control knobs to dynamically optimize power and performance.

I hope you agree with me of the overall datacenter power management trends at datacenters in the coming year. These trends pose challenges for each of the areas listed above. These challenges also mean opportunities for innovative solutions to thrive. I'd like to listen to your feedback about these trends. I will talk more about challenges and potential solutions in the upcoming blogs. You are welcome to share your thought of where you believe the datacenter power management is going. Thanks a lot.

Watt do you care about more?

C_Peters — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:49:00 GMT

Watt do you care about more?
the Power Consumption of your servers (watts) or the Power Efficiency of your servers (performance / watt)
... or maybe you prefer the Performance per Watt per SqFt argument

I have spent a lot of my time the last several years discussing this topic with IT professionals around the world - and there are a lot of varying opinions.

I believe that Performance per Watt is a better measure of overall value for the data center and server room.
The power consumed by a server is an important measure, but power only comparisons can be misleading.

Example: If server ‘A' consumes 50W less power than server ‘B', then it can save IT $79 per year per server in power and cooling costs (assumes $0.08 kW/hr power costs and cooling costs equal to power costs). Scale that $79 savings per server across a data center with thousands of servers and it can be a pretty impressive number.

However, if a server with 50W lower power delivers lower application performance ... is the power savings worth it? The answer of course depends ... but generally in my experience the answer is a resounding No.

Example: What if server A (the 50W lower power server) underperforms server B by 33% in performance. This means that you need to deploy more ‘A' Servers to get the same performance as ‘B' Servers. In fact, with a 33% performance advantage, you need only 3 ‘B' servers for every 4 ‘A' servers. The higher performance per Watt delivered by server B reduces acquisition costs, reduces power consumption (less servers) and minimizes space and eases manageability. This example is shown graphically above

What do you think? What power and performance metrics do you look at before purchasing servers
... Lower Power or Higher Performance per Watt?