The Server Room Blog

How Would You Like Your Benchmark?

C_Peters — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:25:22 GMT

Today, I met with Tim Denney (a summer intern here at Intel) who is working for our performance analysis team. Tim told me that he had built a tool allowing intel employees to compare performance of certain SPEC published benchmarks (www.spec.org) across a variety of processors.

Tim demonstrated this analysis tool that searches all the integer and floating point publications on www.spec.org across a range of architectures (Intel, AMD, UltraSPARC, Power). You can input different processors and then the tool returns the published results available and a simple graphical display of the best published results for the processors chosen.

After meeting with Tim, I thought about the numerous "Ask an Expert" questions I’ve received on OpenPort in the last 6-9 months where people have asked me where and how they can compare performance across a variety of processors (dual core to quad core, different speeds, 1S to 2S to 4S, etc).

In took me about a nano-second to realize that your input would be really helpful in developing an improved user interface. So here is your chance. I encourage you to try this performance comparison tool and respond back with your ideas on how we can improve the tool and user interface. I can’t guarantee that we can implement every suggestion, however, I do guarantee that we will listen.

So … How would you like your benchmark?

Got That Virtual Feeling?

C_Peters — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:54:00 GMT

Working in High Tech means that most of us don't ever slow down - if we do, we risk falling behind. As a result, I usually find myself more more stressed than relaxed (just ask my peers or my wife).

So when I find good humor, I like to share. I found this video snippet about virtualization at www.talesofitutopia.com and it put a smile on my face. It is a little scarry that i can relate to more than one of the characters (the boss, the IT guy and even to some extent the JINX). Which character do you relate to?

Virtilization anyone?

Energy Efficient Performance - Reducing power of your existing server infrastructure

dave_hill — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:45:50 GMT

Is it accurate to say that reducing power consumption of your server and data center infrastructure used to be way down on the task list…sort of a "nice to do" type of an item. That is generally not the case anymore. Many data centers are just plain out of power and cooling capacity and the cost of building a new data center is often prohibitive.

Would you like to reduce power consumption of your existing server infrastructure? What items should you consider when purchasing new servers? This video provides insight on how to reduce system power when servers are less utilized or sitting at idle. It also covers some things to consider before make new server purchases.

This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Feedback welcomed. Let me know what you think.

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:

What exactly is energy efficiency?

dave_hill — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:33:30 GMT

The ability to power and cool data centers is becoming a top concern of data center operators. The awareness and focus on server energy efficiency has dramatically increased the last few years and it's importance is growing.

This short video provides some insight on 1) what is energy efficiency? 2) how to measure it? and 3) some examples of what Intel is doing to improve it.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series.

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

Big Servers are Back!

bryceolson — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:05:23 GMT

One trend that is really starting to take shape in the server industry is that big servers are back! That doesn't mean big servers ever disappeared off the map. Historically bigger servers with 4 or more processor sockets have been 7-8% of the server market from a volume perspective. And bigger servers have always been used for scalable, data-demanding enterprise applications which IT values for it's performance, headroom and reliability. What we're seeing now is a greater shift in popularity towards these servers as IT invests more and more in this direction.

So, why is that? Well, check out this video and then let me know if you agree or disagree. After you watch it I'd also be curious to learn more about what you value as the most important buying criteria when you go big.

So what does RISC really mean to you?

eoineo5000 — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:05:20 GMT

Have you ever asked yourself that question when you are bombarded with marketing messages from multiple different companies on why choose their products vs. a competitors product?. As a non-Engineer in an engineer centric company, I certainly have thought about this several times and asked myself a very simple question - Why should I choose one architecture type over another offering?

I suppose the best place is to start at the beginning and try and decipher the acronym soup of RISC, x86 etc. I decided to use my ‘old friend’ Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ to help with this process. What I found was another alphabet soup that I could have researched for hours, but try and simplify it below. I attach my detailed definition findings at end of this blog.

Simply put, RISC (pronounced risk) is a CPU design to use simplified instructions to execute very fast thus providing higher performance. x86 is a generic term that refers to the instruction set of another CPU architecture. So basically both RISC and x86 are types of instruction sets linked to CPU architecture.

So which one should I choose?.
Call me old fashioned, but as a business guy, it always comes down to 3 basic tenets in terms of making a decision
1) I like choice and the ability to pick and choose between multiple suppliers to get the best deal to meet my needs.(and the ability to change supplier without major obstacles)
2) Performance is really important. The higher performance means that I get my work done quicker which reduces the overall cost / improves time to revenue and ultimately improves the productivity of my business
3) System cost and total cost of ownership are key decision points in today’s era which is vastly different from the ‘dot.com’ boom. It is all about managing the bottom line through good decisions around CAPEX and OPEX spending

I applied my decision criteria and quickly found out that there is not a lot of choice from a hardware and operating system perspective with RISC architecture. In fact it looks quite the opposite of choice which always concerns me, call me pro-choice if you like, but I like the ability to move around suppliers!. On the other hand I found x86 to have lots of choice with many hardware vendors to list and a range of operating systems from windows to Linux and Solaris.

Having choice out of the way, I then moved onto performance for my business and looked at published results from many hardware vendors on different websites like http://www.spec.org. what I found was that Intel based systems had a lot of leading results against architectures like SPARC from SUN or Fujitsu and POWER from IBM.

I then looked at price (and being an ex-Accountant in my past career) nearly jumped for joy when I saw that system prices were low for x86 systems compared to the comparable RISC systems.

This analysis helped me understand it better and helped simplify my decision making.

Here is a short video with a little bit more detail. I would be interested in your thoughts and have you had any similar experiences that you would like to share.

Sun and Intel Announce Threading Building Blocks now Supported on Solaris, Sun Studio

whlea — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:06:24 GMT

As part of the Sun Microsystems and Intel alliance, the two companies have collaborated to bring open source Threading Building Blocks (TBB) support to the Solaris Operating System (OS) and Sun Studio software toolchain. Check out the SUN Blog for additional information. Click the video below for a short interview with Deepanker Bairagi, Principal Engineer for the Sun Studio.

Software parallelism can unleash the processing power that the newer multi-core architectures provide, including the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors. For developers, multithreading offers a software parallelism model, but many existing solutions require a lot of low-level coding. Threading Building Blocks offers a rich approach to expressing parallelism in a C++ program by offering higher-level, task-based parallelism that abstracts platform details and threading mechanism for performance and scalability.

The Solaris OS is able to take advantage of multicore architectures, including the Intel Architecture, with features such as a lightweight processes (LWPs), load-balancing across cores, and processor affinities. Sun Studio software offers a complete integrated toolchain for Solaris and Linux platforms, including parallelizing compilers, performance and thread analysis tools, memory and code debuggers, NetBeans-based Integrated Development Environment, and more.

Combined with Threading Building Blocks, developers for the Solaris platform now have a fully loaded toolbox that simplifies the development of optimized multithreaded applications for multi-core Intel processors. Click here to learn more about Threading Building Blocks and optimizing performance for multi-core processors.

Would like to hear from the community on how you see this impacting the next generation of software development for Solaris running on Intel Architecture.

Intel & VMware-World's First Flex Migration Demo

whlea — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:19:48 GMT

After coming back from IDF a couple weeks ago, I've had some time to go through the mountains of online material, presentations mostly and a few interesting videos. This video is from Pat Gelsinger's keynote address and features Mendel Rosenblum from VMware. Pat and Mendel discuss new technologies in virtualization and demonstrate "Flex Migration", just hit the play button below to view...

This is very interesting for those IT shops with multiple legacy platforms and new generation servers coming online. We will have more discussion on this topic in the future, and so in the meantime, let us know if you have questions on how this could benefit your datacenter.

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

Intel’s RoboBrawl: Has the Game been “Gamed”?

P_Didner — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:24:11 GMT

Intel launched the Intel® Xeon® Robo Brawl Game on 2/20. In just three weeks, thousands of users registered and played the game. I have been received a lot of positive comments about the game, including the following feedback from Ashley on the Intel's Software Blog.

"Other players seem to have an average of 3.5 kills per game and about 19,000 points. With the exception of Decepticon who seemingly has 4.99 kills per game, which is pretty much impossible. Just wondering if people are following the rules or have somehow found a way to break them making it unfair for the rest of the players."

This comment prompted me and our game developers to do some digging. Our game developers discovered a handful of individuals who have found a way to "game" the system. I won't go into detail but I can tell you they were able to update their robots' configurations and allow them to allocate extra Intel Xeon points to their robots, allowing them to defeat other robots with just one hit. Our developers have created a patch that essentially flags anybody who logs in with a "manipulated" configuration. We are taking necessary action to notify current players who have used manipulated configurations that their accounts will be terminated and that they will be disqualified from the contest. Going forward we will continue to monitor the game and terminate the account of flagged players. Additionally, we will be doing a full audit of the top ranked players before prizes are awarded to ensure fair play by the winners.

I want to thank Ashley to help us to reinforce "fair play" of the game. Please review the updated Official Rules of the contest at http://www.robobrawl.com/.

Have you been playing the game? Please share with us your thoughts about the game.

Regards-

Pam Didner , Intel Xeon RoboBrawl Program Manager