Eight Socket Glueless

Intel details 10-core Westmere-EX server silicon

2010-08-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Intel has confirmed that its upcoming Westmere-EX server processor will be a 10-core, server-enhanced, single-die beastie.

No surprise. Back in June, when the program for this week's Hot Chips conference was published, it listed a session in which Intel would discuss "A 20 Thread Server CPU". It was a no-brainer to deduce the Westmere-EX's core count from that bit of info, seeing as how Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology is a two-threads-per-core scheme.

And that's exactly what Intel announced on Tuesday at the conference, held on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Also unsurprising was that Intel engineer Dheemanth Nagaraj, the lead microarchitect for the Westmere-EX and its presenter at Hot Chips, neither revealed any details about the processor's eventual clock speeds nor made any definitive predictions of its performance.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/25/westmere_ex/

Fujitsu 8-Socket Server Brings x86 Price Performance into Mission-Critical Computing

2010-07-14T19:08:00.001-07:00

Driving the computing performance and speed of connectivity of FujitsuFujitsu's new eight-socket rack server is an innovative 'glue-less' design, where no additional Hardware is necessary to run all eight CPUs, therefore providing the shortest route between processors, memory modules and I/O hubs. More often, vendors simply 'glue together' multiple dual-socket server blades, which leads to I/O bottlenecks.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100714082238/Fujitsu%208-Socket%20Server%20Brings%20x86%20Price%20Performance%20into%20Mission-Critical%20Computing/lok082200100714

Supermicro Intros Servers Optimized for AMD Opteron 6100 Series

2010-04-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

Server technology innovator Super Micro Computer Inc. launched this week its first servers optimized for the new 8- and 120-core AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors (codenamed "Magny Cours").

The launch includes Supermicro‘s new 2U Twin2 systems with four hot-plug DP computing nodes (supporting up 96 processing cores), quad-processor 1U servers that support up to 48 processing cores in 1U, and new GPU-optimized systems.

In addition to these system architectures, Supermicro is also introducing advanced new UP, DP, and MP solutions in standard 1U, 2U, 4U, and tower form factors.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.channelprosmb.com/article/17502/Supermicro-Intros-Servers-Optimized-for-AMD-Opteron-6100-Series/

AMD's 'Magny-Cours' Server Chip Aims at Volume Market

2010-03-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Advanced Micro Devices announced Magny-Cours, the code-name for both 8- and 12-core processors which will be sold under the name Opteron 6100.

A second family, a 4- and 6-core chip, will be sold as part of the Opteron 4000 family, or the "Lisbon" code name.

Systems using the chip will be available from Cray, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard in the United States; Acer will also build servers around the new Opterons in Europe. HP will offer "broad-based support" for the new chip, according to John Fruehe, the director of marketing for server and workstation processors for AMD. Dell, meanwhile, will offer the chips as part of its Data Center Solutions (DCS) service, as well as in PowerEdge servers.

Although AMD announced the new processors on Monday, chips from the new line began shipping in February.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361926,00.asp

AMD Opteron 6100 Series Processor

2010-03-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Intel Partners See 'Easy' Upgrade Path With Xeon 5600 Chips

2010-03-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

One word to describe upgrade opportunities around Intel's new Xeon 5600 series of server and workstation processors? "Easy," said a number of Intel system builder partners following Tuesday's launch of the chip giant's Westmere-class series of quad-core and six-core Xeon chips.

"It's a complete drop in to the existing platforms, which is great," said Todd Swank, director of marketing at Burnsville, Minn.-based system builder Nor-Tech. "With just a BIOS upgrade needed, it makes it easy to upgrade our current Intel server offerings."

Swank, like many Intel partners in attendance at this week's Intel Solutions Summit (ISS) in Las Vegas, said a simple swap-out of last year's quad-core Xeon 5500 series chips for a new six-core Xeon 5600 series part would deliver "an automatic 30 percent increase in performance."

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.crn.com/white-box/223900139;jsessionid=CBV35XMXL4VTDQE1GHPCKH4ATMY32JVN

Intel to Launch Eight-core Nehalem-EX This Month

2010-03-07T10:34:00.001-08:00

Intel will release its fastest and highly anticipated eight-core Nehalem-EX server processor later this month, a company executive said late Thursday.

The processor will be targeted at four-socket servers, said Shannon Poulin, Xeon platform director at Intel. Each physical core will be able to run two threads simultaneously, giving the chip 64 virtual processing cores on servers.

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini has described Nehalem-EX as Intel's fastest processor to date. The chip maker announced the processor last year, and said it would release the chip in the first half of this year, but did not provide an exact release date.

Poulin declined to provide the clock speed of the chips. However, the company has said it will include 24MB of cache, and 2.3 billion transistors.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/190906/intel_to_launch_eightcore_nehalemex_this_month.html

IBM Previews New Server Architecture

2010-03-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

IBM on Tuesday announced new System x and BladeCenter servers, which are based on a new server design that the company claims will boost application performance while reducing energy costs in data centers.

The EX5 servers take a step away from traditional x86 server architecture in which processors and memory are locked together. The new server architecture decouples memory from the processors into separate units, according to IBM.

That could help the memory and processor scale separately for faster application performance, while slashing down on storage and energy costs, the company said. IBM is previewing the servers at the CeBIT trade show being held in Hanover, Germany.

"All the new systems have improved energy efficiency in their designs across a wide range of components achieving substantial energy savings when compared to the current generation of similar servers," said Ronald Hagan, vice president of the System x business at IBM.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/190499/ibm_previews_new_server_architecture.html

CeBIT 2010 : Mission-critical features now in Nehalem-EX parts.

2010-03-04T15:20:00.001-08:00

What Would You Do With 48 Cores?

2010-03-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

Here’s a chance for US customers to let AMD know. In a blog post on blogs.amd.com/work, John Fruehe kicked March off with a great new contest. Customers can submit a short essay, submit a video or write a blog telling us what they would do with 48 cores to help change the world. The winner will be chosen by an esteemed group of AMD marketing professionals.

One winner will be selected and awarded with:

• Four new AMD Opteron™ processors Model 6174, 12-core (2.2 GHz)
• TYAN S8812 motherboard: the motherboard is a Tyan S8812 that features 4 processor sockets with the capacity for you to install up to 8 DIMMs per socket
• One copy of Windows Server® 2008

Approximate retail value of all prizes is $8,189 USD.

Spread the word: You can use the following custom URL to get the message out: http://links.amd.com/48corecontest

AMD Begins Revenue Shipments of Twelve-Core Opteron Microprocessors.

2010-02-19T18:37:00.000-08:00

Advanced Micro Devices said Friday that it had started shipments of its highly-anticipated twelve-core AMD Opteron microprocessors code-named Magny-Cours. The company indicated that the shipments are limited and are intended to prepare for the launch of servers powered by the new chips due later this quarter.

“We have been aggressively sampling production-level parts to customers for nearly 30 days now and have actually shipped a limited number of production parts to allow customers to prepare for launch – on track for later this quarter,” said Phil Hughes, a spokesman for AMD.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20100219070650_AMD_Begins_Revenue_Shipments_of_Twelve_Core_Opteron_Microprocessors.html

AMD Opteron 6000 Series Demo

2010-02-16T15:33:00.000-08:00

Intel Itanium outsells AMD Opteron

2010-02-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

Intel Itanium outsells AMD Opteron

Intel kicked off its Itanium presentation today by saying the Itanium's system revenue since the introduction of 2001 has crossed the $5 billion mark. That outsells total sales of AMD's Opterons.

And, according to IDC Itanium sales surpassed all of SPARC sales for the first time since the introduction of the Itanium. That was in 2001 and was the culmination of former CEO Andy Grove's dreams of a microprocessor that was truly mission critical.

Never before has Intel put two billion transistors onto a transistor. The presenter said that if I started clicking on his foils and there were two billion of them, it would take 62 years, Intel put six microprocessors into the last platform. But corporate customers demand investment protection. This will be the first time Intel will be able to connect eight microprocessors "gluelessly" and without "forklifting" and they can be interconnected seamlessly like 64 socket systems that will be available from HP.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.tgdaily.com/networking-brief/48339-intel-itanium-outsells-amd-opteron#close

The Intel Itanium Processor 9300 Series

2010-02-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

Intel releases the new Intel Itanium 9300 Series processor which supports up to Eight-Socket Glueless systems and servers!!

Mark this as the first day of the new Supercomputing Revolution!

Read Product Details Here.

http://download.intel.com/products/processor/itanium/323247.pdf

Then Open A Beer. It's Time To Celebrate!!!

The New Industrial Revolution

2010-02-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

In the February 2010 issue of Wired Magazine, there is a cover story on the New Industrial Revolution written by Chris Anderson.

It explains how industries are currently being reinvented and how the little guy has just as much chance to compete and win business as do the massive corporations who were successful during the last millenium.

It's mind blowing stuff for people who want to know where to find the business opportunities of the future!

Here's the accompanying video to the article:

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/

If this story and video inspired you as much as it did me, please let me know in the comments section.

Thanks!

Todd Swank

Intel Readies Six-Core 'Westmere' Server Chip

2010-02-06T05:44:00.000-08:00

At the ISSCC show next week, Intel officials will talk about their upcoming 32-nm “Westmere” processors for servers and clients, including a six-core version for two-socket servers and high-end desktops. Intel is looking to refresh its entire server lineup, not only with Westmere processors but also with the upcoming Nehalem EX chip and the next-generation Itanium processor, called “Tukwila.” AMD and IBM also are getting ready to release new server products.

Intel is looking to quickly expand the number of its 32-nanometer “Westmere” processors, and will offer a six-core version for both two-socket servers and high-end desktops.

In addition, the company will roll out a dual-core chip for mainstream desktops and mobile PCs.

Intel will present papers on the upcoming Westmere offerings at the International Solid State Circuits Conference 2010 show, which runs Feb. 7-11 in San Francisco. Intel officials gave a preview Feb. 3 of what they’ll talk about.

Intel rolled out its first Westmere chips Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, unveiling more than two dozen 32-nm chips that fell into the Core i3, i5 and i7 families for desktops and laptops.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Intel-Readies-SixCore-Westmere-Server-Chip-856714/

Super Micro grows like crazy in fiscal Q2

2010-02-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

If motherboard and server maker Super Micro is some kind of leading indicator - and a good argument could be made that it is - then the server and PC rackets may indeed be on the mend.

In the company's second quarter of fiscal 2010 ended December 31, Super Micro reported sales of $182m, up a stunning 41.5 per cent from the year-ago quarter. Thanks to tighter cost controls - a little less on research and development, and a bit more for sales, marketing, and other costs - Super Micro was able to boost net income by 42.2 per cent to $7.6m.

Thanks in large part to the rebounding server business, where Super Micro sells a dizzying array of motherboards for the latest chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, Super Micro has been able to increase its cash and equivalents pile by 17.1 per cent to $82.7m; it also has $6.2m in long-term investments.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/02/super_micro_q2_f22010_numbers/

Intel Ships Next-generation Itanium Chip

2010-02-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Intel on Tuesday said it has started shipping its new Itanium processor codenamed Tukwila, after multiple delays and development problems stalled its release for years.

Itanium chips are 64-bit processors designed to run fault-tolerant servers that require high uptime. The chip's official launch is set for the first quarter of this year, Intel said in a blog entry.

Tukwila is Intel's fastest Itanium processor yet, the company said. It adds numerous performance and architectural enhancements to boost system performance, Intel said in the blog.

"Tukwila more than doubles the performance of its predecessor and adds a range of new scalability, reliability, and virtualization features," Intel wrote. The chip includes a quad-core design and will be an upgrade of the current Itanium 9100 series of chips, codenamed Montecito, which were introduced in 2006.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/188381/intel_ships_nextgeneration_itanium_chip.html

Brits choose Altix UV supers to fight cancer

2010-01-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

The Altix UV massively parallel supers might not be shipping until the third quarter of this year, but Silicon Graphics is lining up customers who want to get the box early. The latest customer to ink a deal for an Altix UV is the United Kingdom's Institute of Cancer Research.

Because Intel has yet to launch the "Beckton" eight-core Nehalem-EX processors that are the compute engines in the Altix UV machines, the details are a bit sketchy on exactly what ICR is buying, and the organization did not divulge what systems it currently has in place in Reading, where ICR does research and simulations to come up with new treatments for a variety of cancers.

ICR was founded in 1909 and is a college in the University of London. It is partnered with the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. According to ICR's 2009-2015 strategic planning report, the researchers laboring at the facility were the first to figure out that DNA damage causes cancer and figured out the link between smoking and lung cancer. ICR has drilled down deeper into the cell genetics to find out what genes are associated with which cancers, leading to earlier detection, and it has synthesized chemotherapy drugs and tweaked radiotherapy techniques so they are less toxic and more effective.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/sgi_altix_uv_icr/

Intel Expects More Enterprise Dollars in 2010

2010-01-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Despite a super-positive fourth-quarter earnings call, Intel wasn't very pleased with enterprise spending in 2009, instead noting that consumers drove the company's revenue up.

"It was not a robust year in the enterprise," said Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel.

Otellini also expects that to change in 2010 while Intel does its part in helping push the corporate market. Not only will Intel release its eight-core Nehalem EX Xeon processor for servers with four or more sockets, but the chip maker also plans to replace every chip in its server portfolio with 32nm Westmere parts, and do so within the next 90 days, Otellini said.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/maximum_it/intel_expects_more_enterprise_dollars_2010

Intel to release Westmere server chips in three months

2010-01-16T06:16:00.001-08:00

Intel plans to release next-generation Xeon server processors based on the Westmere microarchitecture in the next three months, the company said on Thursday.

Intel plans to refresh its line of Xeon server chips as it ramps up chip production to the 32-nanometer process, said Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO, during a financial earnings call. Intel last week released the first Westmere chips for desktops and laptops, and Xeon server chips are next in line, Otellini said.

The last refresh for server chips was in March last year, when the company announced a range of Xeon 5500 series and 3500 series chips based on the Nehalem architecture. The chips were made using the 45-nm process.

The highly anticipated eight-core Nehalem-EX server chip will also be released in the first half, an Intel spokesman said on Thursday. Nehalem-EX will be Intel's fastest server chip to date, Otellini said during the call. The chip will be manufactured using the 45-nm process.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.itworld.com/hardware/92819/intel-release-westmere-server-chips-three-months

Intel Sees Strong Q4, Fueled by New Products, Consumer Demand

2010-01-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

Otellini also said Intel was planning to refresh its entire line of server portfolio with 32-nm processors, and noted the improvements in performance and energy efficiency in the company’s upcoming eight-core “Nehalem EX” processor for servers with four or more sockets.

“Nehalem EX represents the biggest increase in performance in the history of the Xeon brand,” he said.

Otellini said he expects enterprises will see some of the pressure being taken off their budgets, and that unlike in 2009, they will have good reason to refresh their hardware, whether it’s servers or PCs. Still, neither he nor Smith would venture any predictions for corporate spending in 2010.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Intel-Sees-Strong-Q4-Fueled-by-New-Products-Consumer-Demand-535284/

AMD's Server Roadmap Plots a Course for HPC

2010-01-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

Our recent coverage of AMD's Financial Analyst Day outlined the chipmaker's overall server strategy for the next couple of years, but left a lot to the imagination with regard to how all this might play out in the high performance computing space. The presentation for the analysts barely acknowledged the HPC market, instead emphasizing AMD's main thrusts in the mainstream server and client segments. In a more recent conversation with John Fruehe, AMD's director of product marketing for the server and embedded group, we were able to get a better idea of how the company sees its HPC prospects for 2010 and beyond.

One might wonder how much AMD -- or Intel, for that matter -- thinks about the HPC market these days. Despite a better growth rate than the mainstream server market, HPC still only represents between 2 to 10 percent of server chip revenue, depending on who you talk to. In the commodity chip business, that's too small a segment to inspire separate processor designs, but too big to ignore. "The beauty of HPC," says Fruehe, "is that you have an opportunity to sell large numbers of processors in a single shot." According to him, that is reason enough to stay in the game.

And in any case, many mainstream enterprise applications require essentially the same performance characteristics as HPC workloads: large numbers of fast cores and high memory bandwidth. The soon-to-be-released 45nm Magny-Cours Opteron sports 8 or 12 cores and four memory channels. That design, says Fruehe, is well-suited to HPC workloads, and he believes it will help them capture more of the server market in 2010. Magny-Cours' current competition is the quad-core Nehalem EP, which has three memory channels, and the 8-core Nehalem EX that can support up to eight sockets. The idea is that Magny-Cours will outrun Nehalem EP on memory bandwidth and out-compete Nehalem EX on price and power consumption.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.hpcwire.com/features/AMDs-Server-Roadmap-Plots-a-Course-for-HPC-80909942.html

Intel's server history: From the Pentium Pro to Nehalem

2009-12-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

Oracle OpenWorld 2009: Nehalem-EX Demo w/Machine Check Architecture

2009-12-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

Watch as Mitch Koyama describes the upcoming Nehalem-EX platform and demonstrates the MCA feature.

2010 Server Roadmaps for AMD and Intel

2009-12-03T19:10:00.000-08:00

In my last two posts, I looked at the desktop roadmaps and the notebook roadmaps from AMD and Intel, so now it's time to look at the company's plans for the server market. In some ways, this is most interesting roadmap, because a lot of new technology enters the market through server chips. 2010 promises to see some big changes.

In general, 2009 was not a great year for server sales, because global economic issues hurt enterprise IT spending across the board, and because more widespread adoption of features like virtualization meant that some organizations found they needed fewer physical servers. But there were some important technology changes: notably, Intel's introduction of an integrated memory controller and QuickPath Interconnect, which increased the memory bandwidth among multiple processors (something AMD has had for a while with HyperTransport) and the introduction of six-core processors from both vendors.

The server market divides up into a number of different categories, ranging from machines that are really more like desktops with a single processor, to today's mainstream of dual-processor capable machines, to multi-processor machines that can typically handle four or (with special chipsets) more processors. In addition, dual-processor-capable server chips are also often used in high-end workstations.

Read Full Article Here:
http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2009/12/2010_server_roadmaps.php

The Intel Itanium is tottering towards death, analyst reckons

2009-11-27T14:48:00.001-08:00

A report from senior analyst Jon Peddie suggests that Intel's 64 bit flagship microprocessor, the Itanium, is dead in the water. So is it a turkey?

In his latest musings, Peddie, the CEO of Jon Peddie Research, said that the "Itanium is trying to sneak out the back door." He said that when he was at the annual Supercomputing conference in Portland, there were no Itanium related announcements.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/44828-the-intel-itanium-is-tottering-towards-death-analyst-reckons

Intel and IBM demonstrate 128-thread Nehalem-EX server

2009-11-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

Montecito Overview

2009-11-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

Up to 8 socket glueless. – Higher scalability with OEM chipsets. • System integration and new system interfaces. – Integrated Memory Controllers and Router.

Link to PDF Here:
http://www.hotchips.org/archives/hc20/3_Tues/HC20.26.911.pdf

HP, SGI, Cray and Dell Show Off New Systems at Supercomputing 2009

2009-11-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Industry-standard technology, GPUs and energy efficiency were among the key themes running throughout the Supercomputing 2009 show in Portland, Ore. At the show, which wraps up Nov. 20, a number of vendors, including Cray, Dell, HP and SGI, showed off new and enhanced high-end systems, many of which are designed to enable businesses and HPC (high-performance computing) environments to ramp up performance and density while driving down operational, capital and power costs. In addition, Intel unveiled that it will offer a "Nehalem EX" Xeon processor optimized for supercomputing, while the chip maker boasted that 402 of the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world are powered by its processors. Rival AMD took the No. 1 spot, with the Opteron-powered "Jaguar" computer from Cray knocking off IBM's "RoadRunner" at the top of the list. Here are a few of the new systems OEMs showed off at the show.

Link To Article Here:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/HP-SGI-Cray-and-Dell-Show-Off-New-Systems-at-Supercomputing-2009-240139/

SGI previews UltraViolet Nehalem EX blade clusters

2009-11-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

Like the Altix 4700 machines, the Altix UV boxes are based on a blade architecture. The Nehalem EX chips are designed to be used in servers with four sockets or more, and its related Boxboro chip can be used to make glueless eight-socket servers packing up to 64 cores in a single symmetric multiprocessing image. But there is no law that says you have to build a basic blade with four sockets.

Link to Article Here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/16/sgi_altix_uv_preview/print.html

Cray Jaguar Takes Top Supercomputer Spot from IBM Roadrunner

2009-11-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

After more than a year as the world’s fastest supercomputer, IBM’s Roadrunner system was knocked down to the second spot by Cray’s Jaguar. Cray’s XT5 system got a boost when the computer maker swapped out the quad-core AMD Opterons for the six-core “Istanbul” chips, ramping up the power to more than 224,000 processing cores. Sun and SGI also were represented in the top 10 of the Top500 list of the fastest systems.

Link To Article:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Cray-Jaguar-Takes-Top-Supercomputer-Spot-from-IBM-Roadrunner-861748

SGI Intros Supercomputer With Intel Nehalem EX

2009-11-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

SGI Intros Supercomputer With Intel Nehalem EX

The SGI Altix UV high-performance computing system reaches 18.6 teraflop per second.

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
November 17, 2009 02:43 PM

SGI HPC System With Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Nehalem EXSGI has introduced a high-performance computing system that can leverage Intel's eight-core Xeon server processor, scheduled to ship early next year.

The SGI Altix UV, unveiled Monday at the SC09 supercomputer conference in Portland, Ore., is targeted at large-scale databases and data analytic environments. The system can combine Intel's highest core chip, codenamed Nehalem EX, with SGI's NUMAlink 5 interconnect to deliver its highest performance of 18.6 teraflop per second. A teraflop is a trillion calculations.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/supercomputers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221800395&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

The inside track on Nehalem-EX

2009-11-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Intelligent and Expandable High-End Intel® Server Platform, Codenamed Nehalem-EX

2009-11-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

As the world’s most widely deployed server, IT has grown to rely on Intel® Xeon® processors for their energy-efficient performance, reliability, and virtualization capabilities built into the hardware. And at this year’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Intel Senior Fellow Stephen Pawlowski took the stage to discuss the next-generation expandable segment server processor, codenamed Nehalem-EX (PDF 205KB). In production in the second half of 2009, its performance increase will be dramatic, posting the highest-ever jump from a previous generation processor1. Nehalem-EX will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24 MB of cache. For server consolidation,virtualization, cloud computing, data demanding applications, and other technical computing environments, Nehalem-EX greatly improves scalable performance, memory bandwidth and capacity, flexibility, and provides advanced reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features.

Download the Full PDF Here:
http://ipip.intel.com/go/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/IDF-Tech-Briefing_Nehalem-EX.PDF

BMW using Nehalem-EX to save money and boost performance!

2009-11-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

From ITPRO.CO.UK:

BMW is also set to switch 1,000 servers to the yet to be released Nehalem EX. For the refresh of two- and four-socket Xeon platform servers, the firm compared EX servers to other suppliers.

“From that, what we got is a smaller energy footprint of four socket with Nehalem than with the existing platform,” he said.

He added the EX lets BMW double its virtualisation ratio, from 10 to 15 virtual machines per server to 20 to 30.

“We think we will order bigger servers in future years as virtualisation is key for our data centre as we have the same power problems,” as faced by many, he said, adding that virtualiation and other efficiencies with Nehalem EX cuts consumption by a third – saving 100,000 euros a year on power use alone.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/617215/bmw-saves-with-nehalem-ep-and-ex

Could IBM be building "glueless" eight-socket systems?

2009-11-05T17:30:00.001-08:00

Long time chip industry observer, Eachus, speculates on The Motley Fool:

Hmm. Even in the Intel presentation you linked, slide 15 talks about IBM's 5th generation X series chipset. I do expect IBM to sell standard 4xNehalem-EX boxes, but I think they will use their own chipset in larger systems. Could IBM just be designing an I/O chip of their own, and be building "glueless" eight-socket systems? Possible, but IBM has a lot of institutional knowledge about building multiCPU systems with various CPU ISAs. I'm fairly sure that they would take one look at Beckton and conclude that their existing technology could support two Beckton chips with a little work to convert to what is now called Quickpath. We are talking a few man-years to add Quickpath to their current X-4 chip, vs. hundreds of man years for a complete redesign. Which would you choose? ;-)

http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=28077140&sort=postdate

Intel Previews Intel Xeon® 'Nehalem-EX' Processor

2009-11-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

This new platform from Intel is going to enable so many possibilities!!!

8x8 servers? Wow!

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090526comp.htm

Intel set to release 8-Socket Glueless platform in early 2010

2009-11-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

The demos they were interested were the Nehalem 4-socket demos. They wanted to see this 8-core and 2.3 billion transistors platform and the applications that leverage this 32-core machine. This is an amazing new Intel platform targeted to be released in early 2010. OEM can design 2-socket to 8 socket Nahelem-EX platform gluelessly, and higher configuration with their own node controllers. Currently, we are expecting 15 8-socket and above configuration systems from 8 OEMs to come to the market at launch.

From the Server Room Blog:
http://communities.intel.com/community/openportit/server/blog/authors/hfcheng

AMD Horus

2009-11-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia:

The Horus system, designed by Newisys for AMD, was created to enable AMD Opteron machines to extend beyond the current limit of 8-way (CPU sockets) architectures. The Opteron CPUs feature a cache-coherent HyperTransport (ccHT) bus to permit glueless, multiprocessor interconnect between physical CPU packages but as there is a maximum of three ccHT interfaces per chip, the systems are limited to a maximum of 8 sockets. The HyperTransport bus is also distance restricted and does not permit off-system interconnect.

The Horus system overcomes these limitations by creating a pseudo-Opteron, the Horus chip, which connects to four real Opterons via the HyperTransport bus. As far as the Opterons are concerned they are in a five-way system and this is the basic Horus node (as called 'quad'). The Horus chip then provides an additional off-board interface (based around the Infiniband standards) which can link to additional Horus nodes (up to 8). The chip handles the necessary translation between local and off-board ccHT communications. By putting the CPUs around the Horus chip with 12-bit lanes running at 3125 MHz with InfiniBand technology (8b/10b encoding), this system has an effective internal speed of 30 Gbit/s.

With 8 'quads' connected together, each with the maximum of four Opteron sockets per node, the Horus system allows a total of 32 CPU sockets in a single machine. Dual and future quad-core chips will also be supported, allowing a single system to scale to over a hundred processing cores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Horus