ABOUT! New Intel Xeon!
Today, Intel has announced in Russia its latest processor for servers and high-performance workstations - Intel Xeon 5600 and 7500 series.
Do not forget to watch the cool video at the end of the article.
The world announcement (in Santa Clara, California, USA) of new processors took place on March 30, 2010, i.e. just the other day - I hope the information did not have time to cool down. By the way, against this background, the steps taken by Intel are respectful - in less than 3 months the company has updated processor lines designed for desktops, laptops and servers. And if I repeatedly wrote about the first two segments, then the conversation about server solutions can be considered a debut - do not judge strictly)
')
So. Almost in the very center of Moscow, representatives of leading IT-resources and publications gathered in the conference hall of one hotel. All of them came to the event mentioned above, which was opened by Dmitry Konash, regional director of Intel in Russia and other CIS countries. He introduced the vice-president of the corporation architecture group (Intel Architecture Group) and the general director of the data center group (Data Center Group) Kirk Skaugen (Kirk Skaugen), who gave a presentation on the main theme.
Despite my insignificant knowledge of the English language, the general meaning was clear, moreover, as always, everything was tinted with informative presentation slides.
At first, Kirk traditionally began his presentation with a general analysis of the situation in the server industry, outlined some trends - for example, a “pending demand” associated with the economic situation of 2009 for one million servers, or a general migration trend from RISC solutions and the transition to open x86 architecture.
Later, Kirk noted the rapid growth of the hardware base of distributed ("cloud") computing systems - with 2.5 billion users, the number of virtual servers exceeded 1 billion.
With the proliferation of Nehalem's architecture in the server, data center, and high-performance computing segment, the popularity of new processors is growing rapidly - the speaker called this trend the “Nehalem effect”. I will not pull the rubber - let's go to the new “stones”.
But first, a little education. There are several series:
Intel Xeon 3000 - Single-processor
Intel Xeon 5000 - Dual-Processor
Intel Xeon 7000 - Multiprocessor
The name of each model consists of several numbers and a prefix. And if you don’t remember the numbers right away, then everything is easier with letters:
X - Performance-level
E - Mainstream processors (rack-optimized)
L - “Initial” level, the most energy-efficient solutions.
Prior to the official announcement, the Xeon 5600 series was codenamed Westmere-EP , where the Westmere corresponds to the 32-nm process technology for this family, and EP stands for Efficient Performance (energy-efficient performance). Before the announcement, Xeon series 7500 and 5600 were codenamed Nehalem-EX - here Nehalem corresponds to the same microarchitecture and technological process of 45 nanometers, and the abbreviation EX means Expandable Scalable, which translates as expandable and scalable. It should be noted that this designation is fully consistent with the essence of the new models.
Presented by Intel Xeon series 5600 is a new generation of processors based on Intel Nehalem microarchitecture, built on 32-nanometer technology. They use the second generation of transistors with a metal gate and a gate dielectric Hi-K, because of its increased switching speed of the logic and reduced power consumption.
The new processors (compared to the Intel Xeon 5500) allow replacing 15 single-core servers with a single system with a payback period of five months and allow for more efficient use of energy.
A dual-socket server equipped with Intel Xeon L5640 (60 W) can provide the same level of performance as a system equipped with previous generation 95-watt Xeon X5570 processors, however, power consumption will be 30% lower.
At the same time, the new Xeon-5600 series managed to set 12 new world records in the segment of workstations and two-socket servers (according to benchmarks from different manufacturers).
In turn, Intel Xeon 7500 Series has 4, 6 or 8 cores and can simultaneously handle up to 8, 12 or 16 data streams, respectively. At the same time, the four-socket platform has 32 cores and operates with 64 threads, and the 8-processor platform has 64 cores and 128 threads.
However, the maximum number of sockets that can WORK is 256; it's hard to imagine where such performance could really be needed ... but it is rumored that there are such places.
At the moment, the most expensive (and “powerful”) processor is the 8-core Intel Xeon X7560. 8 times 2.26GHz, 24MB cache, full set of technologies and 130W TDP - all this will cost $ 3838 in a batch of 1000 pieces :) The maximum clock frequency of processors of this series is 2.66 GHz, and the Thermal Design Point (TDP) of processors , depending on the model, lies in the range from 95 to 130 watts.
Opportunities for new products allow you to replace up to 20 four-socket servers with single-core processors with one server with Intel Xeon 7500, while maintaining the same level of performance.
Among other things, new items carry more than 20 new features onboard to improve reliability, availability and maintainability (RAS), including MCA recovery (which, at the hardware level, when interacting with the operating system, allows you to localize fatal memory errors and continue the system as a whole). As Kirk noted earlier, for the first time for the x86 architecture, the possibility of detecting and localizing multibit errors in memory appeared, which were fatal for previous generation systems, in particular, for Xeon processors of the 7400 series, and led, for example, to a “blue screen of death” ). To prove this, Alexey Rogachkov volunteered, taking the initiative in his own hands. Directly in the hall, he in turn put the servers based on processors of three generations - Xeon 5500, 5600 and 7400 - into the state of a "blue screen of death" using a special script that triggers an error in the system memory. The new Xeon quietly experienced similar misfortunes, continuing its work.
Intel Xeon 7500 processors support 4 times more RAM and 8 times more bandwidth when working with RAM compared to the Intel Xeon 7400. Up to 16 memory slots can be installed per processor and 1 terabyte (thousand + gigabytes) can be obtained memory on 4 socket platform. In addition, thanks to the support of Intel virtualization technologies, including new I / O virtualization technologies and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) FlexMigration, it is possible to lively migrate virtual machines on all platforms with Intel Core microarchitecture. There is also support for Intel Smart Cache memory technology, four Intel QPI channels and support for all your favorite Intel Turbo Boost .
After the performance of a foreign guest, the microphone went to representatives of companies that use high-performance systems or even managed to try new processors. One of the first to “touch” the new Xeons was the company Lukoil-Inform.
Denis Neshtun , deputy chief engineer of the company: “ Progress in the development of the X86 / X64 platform, a good example of which is the Intel Xeon 7500 server we tested, demonstrates that virtually any enterprise-class tasks with the required performance levels can be performed on this platform fault tolerance. At the same time, the final cost of the solution looks extremely attractive to customers . ”
The rector of the South Ural State University (SUSU), Alexander Shestakov , spoke behind him:
“ In the field of high-performance computing, SUSU is the absolute leader in the Urals Federal District. SUSU - an innovative university that invests significant resources in the development of its scientific and technical potential. The supercomputer center of SUSU has today two super-computers with a total capacity of 40 TERAFLOPS: “ SKIF-Ural ” on Intel Xeon E5472 and SKIF-Aurora processors on Intel Xeon 5570 processors.
The Southern Urals is a region with a high level of concentration of industrial enterprises, especially in the field of metallurgy and mechanical engineering. This determined the main vector of development of the SUSU Supercomputer Center - the use of high-performance computing for solving industrial problems.
The use of supercomputer modeling can significantly reduce the cost of developing new types of products and technologies . ”
The presentation of Vasily Shelkov , CEO of Rock Flow Dynamics, seemed to me the most vivid. Well, or he had the slides the most interesting, or something :) In general, they tried out new processors in modeling the terrain of a real deposit of natural resources.
“ The launch of the new six-core Intel Xeon 5600 processor and the eight-core Intel Xeon 7500 opens a fundamentally new stage for the effective modeling of hydrodynamic filtering processes for oil and gas fields. Accelerating the processes of parallel calculations of hydrodynamic problems on multi-core multiprocessor computing systems depends almost equally on the number of cores and the speed of memory exchange channels. Testing of such servers, containing 32 processor cores, was conducted by our experts on models of real deposits. Their use made it possible to speed up the calculation by 21 times, which is 3–4 times higher than that achieved in the previous generation of four-processor servers, and to achieve a one-and-a-half to two-fold acceleration of performance ever observed on cluster MPI systems with 32 or even 64 nodes.
For dual-processor systems, simply replacing the existing quad-core processors with six-core processors of the new generation allows you to get 20-25% of automatic performance gains, and without the need for a complete replacement of the computing system, ”said Vasily.
This was only a small part of the possible uses of the new systems.
As they say, new processors are “not only valuable fur” ... The use of new Xeons allows IT managers to get a number of advantages: a quick return on investment, a significant reduction in energy costs, lower costs for expanding and maintaining data centers and increasing their computing power . Replacing outdated platforms, companies have the opportunity to significantly reduce the number of servers and significant savings without reducing the computing power. It is also possible, using existing premises, to obtain a higher computing power at the same price. Not to be unfounded, I will give the results of certain calculations.
In 2005, 343,407 servers were delivered to Germany. In case of replacing these systems based on single-core Intel Xeon (3.33 GHz) on systems with Intel Xeon 7500, the payback period will be 9 months. In addition, the following results will be obtained:
- To replace the required 17170 systems;
- A 95 percent reduction in total energy costs will be achieved;
- The reduction in TCO will be € 3.4 billion over 5 years;
- 61216 m2 (0.061 km2) area will be saved. This is about 5.5 times the area of ​​the Cologne Cathedral;
- Energy savings will be 217 MW;
- CO2 emissions will be reduced by 1.3 billion kg. This is equivalent to the disappearance of 216617 vehicles from the roads;
- 5-year payback update all servers in 2005 in Germany will be 680%.
And it would seem ... only processors replaced!
At the end of the event, an exhibition of Intel partner products based on the latest Intel Xeon processors 5600 and 7500 series was organized. Companies such as HP, IBM, Aquarius, Depo Computers, R-Style, ETegro Technologies, Inpro Computers, USN Computers showed their achievements. , RSC SKIF and others.
Promised video:
Thanks for attention.
Do not forget to watch the cool video at the end of the article.
The world announcement (in Santa Clara, California, USA) of new processors took place on March 30, 2010, i.e. just the other day - I hope the information did not have time to cool down. By the way, against this background, the steps taken by Intel are respectful - in less than 3 months the company has updated processor lines designed for desktops, laptops and servers. And if I repeatedly wrote about the first two segments, then the conversation about server solutions can be considered a debut - do not judge strictly)
')
So. Almost in the very center of Moscow, representatives of leading IT-resources and publications gathered in the conference hall of one hotel. All of them came to the event mentioned above, which was opened by Dmitry Konash, regional director of Intel in Russia and other CIS countries. He introduced the vice-president of the corporation architecture group (Intel Architecture Group) and the general director of the data center group (Data Center Group) Kirk Skaugen (Kirk Skaugen), who gave a presentation on the main theme.
Despite my insignificant knowledge of the English language, the general meaning was clear, moreover, as always, everything was tinted with informative presentation slides.
At first, Kirk traditionally began his presentation with a general analysis of the situation in the server industry, outlined some trends - for example, a “pending demand” associated with the economic situation of 2009 for one million servers, or a general migration trend from RISC solutions and the transition to open x86 architecture.
Later, Kirk noted the rapid growth of the hardware base of distributed ("cloud") computing systems - with 2.5 billion users, the number of virtual servers exceeded 1 billion.
With the proliferation of Nehalem's architecture in the server, data center, and high-performance computing segment, the popularity of new processors is growing rapidly - the speaker called this trend the “Nehalem effect”. I will not pull the rubber - let's go to the new “stones”.
But first, a little education. There are several series:
Intel Xeon 3000 - Single-processor
Intel Xeon 5000 - Dual-Processor
Intel Xeon 7000 - Multiprocessor
The name of each model consists of several numbers and a prefix. And if you don’t remember the numbers right away, then everything is easier with letters:
X - Performance-level
E - Mainstream processors (rack-optimized)
L - “Initial” level, the most energy-efficient solutions.
Prior to the official announcement, the Xeon 5600 series was codenamed Westmere-EP , where the Westmere corresponds to the 32-nm process technology for this family, and EP stands for Efficient Performance (energy-efficient performance). Before the announcement, Xeon series 7500 and 5600 were codenamed Nehalem-EX - here Nehalem corresponds to the same microarchitecture and technological process of 45 nanometers, and the abbreviation EX means Expandable Scalable, which translates as expandable and scalable. It should be noted that this designation is fully consistent with the essence of the new models.
5600
Presented by Intel Xeon series 5600 is a new generation of processors based on Intel Nehalem microarchitecture, built on 32-nanometer technology. They use the second generation of transistors with a metal gate and a gate dielectric Hi-K, because of its increased switching speed of the logic and reduced power consumption.
The new processors (compared to the Intel Xeon 5500) allow replacing 15 single-core servers with a single system with a payback period of five months and allow for more efficient use of energy.
A dual-socket server equipped with Intel Xeon L5640 (60 W) can provide the same level of performance as a system equipped with previous generation 95-watt Xeon X5570 processors, however, power consumption will be 30% lower.
At the same time, the new Xeon-5600 series managed to set 12 new world records in the segment of workstations and two-socket servers (according to benchmarks from different manufacturers).
7500
In turn, Intel Xeon 7500 Series has 4, 6 or 8 cores and can simultaneously handle up to 8, 12 or 16 data streams, respectively. At the same time, the four-socket platform has 32 cores and operates with 64 threads, and the 8-processor platform has 64 cores and 128 threads.
However, the maximum number of sockets that can WORK is 256; it's hard to imagine where such performance could really be needed ... but it is rumored that there are such places.
At the moment, the most expensive (and “powerful”) processor is the 8-core Intel Xeon X7560. 8 times 2.26GHz, 24MB cache, full set of technologies and 130W TDP - all this will cost $ 3838 in a batch of 1000 pieces :) The maximum clock frequency of processors of this series is 2.66 GHz, and the Thermal Design Point (TDP) of processors , depending on the model, lies in the range from 95 to 130 watts.
Opportunities for new products allow you to replace up to 20 four-socket servers with single-core processors with one server with Intel Xeon 7500, while maintaining the same level of performance.
Among other things, new items carry more than 20 new features onboard to improve reliability, availability and maintainability (RAS), including MCA recovery (which, at the hardware level, when interacting with the operating system, allows you to localize fatal memory errors and continue the system as a whole). As Kirk noted earlier, for the first time for the x86 architecture, the possibility of detecting and localizing multibit errors in memory appeared, which were fatal for previous generation systems, in particular, for Xeon processors of the 7400 series, and led, for example, to a “blue screen of death” ). To prove this, Alexey Rogachkov volunteered, taking the initiative in his own hands. Directly in the hall, he in turn put the servers based on processors of three generations - Xeon 5500, 5600 and 7400 - into the state of a "blue screen of death" using a special script that triggers an error in the system memory. The new Xeon quietly experienced similar misfortunes, continuing its work.
Intel Xeon 7500 processors support 4 times more RAM and 8 times more bandwidth when working with RAM compared to the Intel Xeon 7400. Up to 16 memory slots can be installed per processor and 1 terabyte (thousand + gigabytes) can be obtained memory on 4 socket platform. In addition, thanks to the support of Intel virtualization technologies, including new I / O virtualization technologies and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) FlexMigration, it is possible to lively migrate virtual machines on all platforms with Intel Core microarchitecture. There is also support for Intel Smart Cache memory technology, four Intel QPI channels and support for all your favorite Intel Turbo Boost .
According to benchmarks from other manufacturers (Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, NEC and SGI), the Xeon series of the 7500 series already set 20 world records.
More details about the records can be found on the corresponding page , but otherwise - new chips, on average, work 3 times faster than the previous generation processors. This "jump" in the history of the Xeon line has not yet been. 
The cost of the 7500 and 5600 series processors, depending on the model, ranges from $ 744 to $ 3,692 apiece in a batch of 1000 units. All additional information is a separate page . |
After the performance of a foreign guest, the microphone went to representatives of companies that use high-performance systems or even managed to try new processors. One of the first to “touch” the new Xeons was the company Lukoil-Inform.
Denis Neshtun , deputy chief engineer of the company: “ Progress in the development of the X86 / X64 platform, a good example of which is the Intel Xeon 7500 server we tested, demonstrates that virtually any enterprise-class tasks with the required performance levels can be performed on this platform fault tolerance. At the same time, the final cost of the solution looks extremely attractive to customers . ”
The rector of the South Ural State University (SUSU), Alexander Shestakov , spoke behind him:
“ In the field of high-performance computing, SUSU is the absolute leader in the Urals Federal District. SUSU - an innovative university that invests significant resources in the development of its scientific and technical potential. The supercomputer center of SUSU has today two super-computers with a total capacity of 40 TERAFLOPS: “ SKIF-Ural ” on Intel Xeon E5472 and SKIF-Aurora processors on Intel Xeon 5570 processors.
The Southern Urals is a region with a high level of concentration of industrial enterprises, especially in the field of metallurgy and mechanical engineering. This determined the main vector of development of the SUSU Supercomputer Center - the use of high-performance computing for solving industrial problems.
The use of supercomputer modeling can significantly reduce the cost of developing new types of products and technologies . ”
The presentation of Vasily Shelkov , CEO of Rock Flow Dynamics, seemed to me the most vivid. Well, or he had the slides the most interesting, or something :) In general, they tried out new processors in modeling the terrain of a real deposit of natural resources.
“ The launch of the new six-core Intel Xeon 5600 processor and the eight-core Intel Xeon 7500 opens a fundamentally new stage for the effective modeling of hydrodynamic filtering processes for oil and gas fields. Accelerating the processes of parallel calculations of hydrodynamic problems on multi-core multiprocessor computing systems depends almost equally on the number of cores and the speed of memory exchange channels. Testing of such servers, containing 32 processor cores, was conducted by our experts on models of real deposits. Their use made it possible to speed up the calculation by 21 times, which is 3–4 times higher than that achieved in the previous generation of four-processor servers, and to achieve a one-and-a-half to two-fold acceleration of performance ever observed on cluster MPI systems with 32 or even 64 nodes.
For dual-processor systems, simply replacing the existing quad-core processors with six-core processors of the new generation allows you to get 20-25% of automatic performance gains, and without the need for a complete replacement of the computing system, ”said Vasily.
This was only a small part of the possible uses of the new systems.
Interesting arithmetic
As they say, new processors are “not only valuable fur” ... The use of new Xeons allows IT managers to get a number of advantages: a quick return on investment, a significant reduction in energy costs, lower costs for expanding and maintaining data centers and increasing their computing power . Replacing outdated platforms, companies have the opportunity to significantly reduce the number of servers and significant savings without reducing the computing power. It is also possible, using existing premises, to obtain a higher computing power at the same price. Not to be unfounded, I will give the results of certain calculations.
In 2005, 343,407 servers were delivered to Germany. In case of replacing these systems based on single-core Intel Xeon (3.33 GHz) on systems with Intel Xeon 7500, the payback period will be 9 months. In addition, the following results will be obtained:
- To replace the required 17170 systems;
- A 95 percent reduction in total energy costs will be achieved;
- The reduction in TCO will be € 3.4 billion over 5 years;
- 61216 m2 (0.061 km2) area will be saved. This is about 5.5 times the area of ​​the Cologne Cathedral;
- Energy savings will be 217 MW;
- CO2 emissions will be reduced by 1.3 billion kg. This is equivalent to the disappearance of 216617 vehicles from the roads;
- 5-year payback update all servers in 2005 in Germany will be 680%.
And it would seem ... only processors replaced!
The end
At the end of the event, an exhibition of Intel partner products based on the latest Intel Xeon processors 5600 and 7500 series was organized. Companies such as HP, IBM, Aquarius, Depo Computers, R-Style, ETegro Technologies, Inpro Computers, USN Computers showed their achievements. , RSC SKIF and others.
Promised video:
Thanks for attention.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/89827/
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