The Server Room Blog

Demos on Demand

dstickse — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:24:10 GMT

IDF SF08-Demos are an excellent tool for getting your message across. At IDF we demonstrated Demos on Demand which allows the message to get out without having to take the equipment to the location. Demos on Demand allow our customers, Fellow Travelers and corporate decision makers the opportunity to view our demos at any time from their location. Please view the IDF presentation below and come visit us at Demos on Demand.

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

Intel & HP Partner on World's Best 4-Socket TPC-C Benchmark

whlea — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:14:53 GMT

IDF SF08-HP and Intel announced collaboration on the world's best 4-socket TPC-C benchmark result of >634K transactions/min. Check out the video with Aaron Spurlock (HP) and Noe Garcia (Intel)discussing the HP ProLiant DL580 G5 server with Intel XEON 7400-series (Dunnington) processors. Let us know what you think.

IDF SF08: Intel & IBM Announce 1.2 Million TPC-C Result

whlea — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:01:14 GMT

Back at IDF for Day 2 and still wrapping up some exciting news coming out yesterday. I met with Robert Zuber (IBM WW Marketing Manager)and Mike Moreno (Intel) and we talked about how IBM and the DB2 team, along with XEON 7400-series processors achieved this milestone of the Industry's First 1M+ TPC-C result. Here's a video with Robert and Mike in the Technology Showcase.

Check out the official Transaction Processing Council Site for details on the system configuration and full results.

Dunnington Shines at IDF-New World Records Announced

whlea — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:16:19 GMT

Big news today at IDF SF08...Intel Exective VP, Pat Gelsinger delivered his keynote address here in San Francisco, Moscone Center. Innovation is always a big topic at IDF and today is no exception. Intel announced today new world record performance for the XEON 7400-series processor, code-named "Dunnington". And just what are these world records you ask? Watch the video for stunning results from Fujitsu Siemens (SPECint), SUN (SPECjbb, Dell (TPC-E), HP (4S TPC-C, SQL Server) and IBM with an Industry First 1.2 Million TPC-C result on Intel Architecture. Enjoy the video!

"Live From" Eco-Tech Great Debates, IDF SF08

whlea — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:03:56 GMT

Update: 3:55pm.

More from the event.....currently debating "Container" DataCenter v. Traditional "Brick & Mortar...here's our esteemed panel

Panel members include Jud Cooley (SUN Micro), Conor Malone (Rackable), Sigurd Anderson (IDC Architects), Bruce Myatt (Critical Facilities Solutions), & Phil Reese (Research Computing Strategist, Stanford Univ.)

Prior to that the debate was around High v. Low Density in the datacenter, here's the panel:

Panel members are David Driggers (Verari Systems), David Moss (Dell), David Segar (IDC Arch.), Christian Belady (Microsoft), James Shuder (Oracle)& Mukesh Khattar (Oracle)

Hi all,

Jason and I are "Live' from the Great Debates. The ICT Metrics Panel just concluded. Here's a photo from the event:

Panel members including Kathrarine Kaplan(EPA), Andy Rawson (AMD), Kathleen Fieher (Intel), Magnus Herrlin (Ancis), Ray Pfeifer(SynapSense), and Bill Tschudi (LBNL). Good discussion around specific performance metrics that should be taken into account for measuring data center performance. Also, some interesting discussion on what the EPA is doing around the Energy Star program for IT.

Check out the live webcast here: Eco-Tech Great Debates LIVE

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!

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?

Server Performance Tuning Habit #5: Know Your Workload

Shannon Cepeda — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:46:14 GMT

Here's the 5th follow-up post in my 10 Habits of Great Server Performance Tuners series. This one focuses on the fifth habit: Know Your Workload.

Spend some time getting to know your workload.

The idea of a "workload" is integral to the concept of performance. The workload is the set of software and tests that you run on the server in order to measure its performance. Also part of the workload is the is concept of the "metric", which means, the number you will use to quantify performance. You should understand as much as you can about your workload in order to characterize and interpret your system's execution.

Let's look at the real-life example of a car's fuel economy. The EPA measures fuel economy using 2 workloads: city and highway. Each workload tests different aspects of the car's performance, and the metric used to quantify that performance is miles per gallon (MPG). Like the EPA's fuel economy test, a good workload for server performance tuning should have the following three characteristics:

Measurable - There is a quantifiable metric.
Reproducible - Measurements are repeatable and consistent.
Representative - The workload should be typical of normal operating conditions and should stress the parts of the system (including code) where performance is most critical.

Depending on the usage model for the server(s) you are tuning, some example appropriate workloads might be: loading websites , processing XML, encoding/decoding MP3s, responding to database queries, rendering frames, etc. Metrics could be time to run, number of users serviced, transactions processed per second, etc. If your metric is time, take special care that you are measuring it accurately.

After choosing or creating a suitable workload, spend some time getting to know it. Measure the variance between runs. Use O/S and processor-level tools (to be discussed in the blog for habit #8) to sample the workload's characteristics at various points during its execution.

One thing to remember about sampling is that you want to make your sample interval at least as long as the amount of time it takes to complete a unit of work in your workload. For example, suppose your workload is a stream of web page requests and you are measuring response time. If the longest response time you see is about 2 seconds, then you want to make sure you take samples over 2 seconds in length. It's best to use a multiple of your longest operation time, so 4 or 6 seconds in this case. This way you can be sure your samples include one complete operation in the workload. Then try to determine if the workload is stable - meaning, do the characteristics vary at different times during execution? (If so, you will need to sample more often to understand the workload or possibly split it into phases). Use the data to get an idea of your workload's CPU, memory, network, and I/O usage.

At the application level, become familiar with the software stack you will use. How is the workload generated (user, clients, test files, etc)? Understand the major operations that occur - what components of the O/S are needed? What device drivers are used? And finally, study the application(s). Know whether the application(s) being tested are single- or multi-threaded and as much as you can about the internals.

Choosing (or developing) an appropriate workload is necessary for correct performance measurement and tuning. Being as familiar as you can with the workload will help you to interpret your performance data and identify areas for optimization.

Keep watching The Server Room for information on the other 5 habits in the coming weeks.

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

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.

Virtualization - Who Cares?

S_Poulin — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:26:17 GMT

I have visited a number of customers recently. The discussions are usually straight forward where I provide them with a download of our current products, I tell them about things that we are doing in the future and along the way I ask them some questions about trends that they are seeing with their businesses. It will come as no surprise that enterprises are trying to keep up with their current requirements while also squeezing out increasingly flat or dwindling budgets to do something new. Many are turning to virtualization as a way to do more.

So who cares? CFO's care. I went out to visit a leading Fortune 500 company based on the West Coast of the US. Keep in mind I am planning to discuss our server platforms, why I believe they are leadership on performance and power and also all of the great new virtualization features we have recently introduced or will intro in the future. Before we get started they proudly walk me through their new datacenter and I stop in front of a rack that has two servers in it. Two 2U two processor servers. It is right next to another rack that has four servers in it. I inquire as to why both racks are only partially full and I receive a response that says one is owned by Finance, one is owned by a business unit. IT just manages them. You can look at this two ways. The glass half empty way would be that they are wasting an incredible amount of datacenter space and they are hopeless. The glass half full way would be that this is a great opportunity to really deliver value to this company's bottom line by first convincing them that physical consolidation (full up their racks) is important, then showing them a path toward application consolidation and finally sharing a vision of datacenter virtualization that includes compute, storage and networking. Their CFO will care.

IT employees care. One theme that seems to be coming through loud and clear is that people who drive some form of virtualization are usually considered as innovators or leading edge thinkers within their company. I have heard the term "IT Hero" to refer to someone who has delivered on a high ROI project, usually these days through the use of virtualization. I have met a number of IT folks at conferences and during visits and it is uncanny how many are trying to dig for more product information and how eager they are to hear about what new features we're putting into CPUs, chipsets, networking devices. A quick search of Youtube found this case study (here) that sums up the sorts of things I have heard.

It is also increasingly important that all of this stuff works well with the software, VMM and OS vendors product offerings. I know we are working closely with all of the ecosystem players because if we come out with an amazing new feature in our components it would be wasted if the VMM, OS or software didn't take advantage of it. There is some interesting banter here (here) about some of the pros and cons with virtualization. We are busy working on features that improve the performance and simplify the experience end users have when they virtualize. Why do you care about virtualization? What are you doing today that you couldn't do a year or two ago that has been made possible because of virtualization related technology?