HP unveils four-Opteron server

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What Problem?

"In clustering [hive] technologies Intel has the advantage. Dell, HP-Compaq provide a better platform for this roll out." This article is about a Quad Processor Server, not a "hive".

Let's get some facts straight:

- Intel (or AMD) provides the basic "platform" or architecture for all manufacturers to use to design their computer hardware, whether it's desktops, laptops, or servers. Manufacturers like Dell and HP build their servers around that platform. The chips are designed with specific limitations on how it accesses system components.

- Intel continues to use a single Bus architecture to access system components. All I/O, be it memory access, hard drive access, network access, goes over the (Front Side) Bus. This is a considerable handicap for multi-processor systems. If you compare the desktop Pentium 4 processors (the basis for the current Xeon design) significant performance improvements were achieved by increasing the FSB speed (initially from 400MHz to 533MHz and then to 800MHz) With multiple processors vying for Bus bandwidth, the processors become memory bandwidth starved and have significant idle time waiting for data. For example: a single P4 with dual channel PC3200 memory gets 6.4GB/s memory bandwidth for itself. Tests have shown that is utilizes all this bandwidth during heavy use. Current Xeon Servers use dual channel PC2100 for 4.2GB/s bandwidth. In a single processor Xeon server that processor gets the whole 4.2GB/s bandwidth. In a dual processor system each processor gets on average 2.1GB/s, and in a quad processor system each processor gets 1.05GB/s on average. This is why Intel must go to ever increasing cache memory (up to 3MB) on the chips to reduce main memory usage. Also, since the memory bandwidth can flood the FSB, sending data to storage or over the network is impeded at high memory usage.

- AMD took a different approach to help their processors scale. Instead of a flat memory area for all processors, an Opteron server has dedicated memory for each processor connected by a dedicated Hyper Transport link. So for a single processor Opteron server using dual channel PC2700 memory, the system memory bandwidth is 5.4GB/s. A dual processor Opteron has 10.8 GB/s memory bandwidth, and a quad processor Opteron server has 21.6GB/s memory bandwidth. Also, since the memory access doesn't go over the bus, disk and network access isn't slowed by memory access, they act independently. This gives the Opteron superior scaling vs the Intel Xeon solution, at comparable prices.

In this article about the HP quad Opteron server, AMD's solution is superior to Intel's. Given a choice of an HP Intel server vs an HP Opteron server, I would have to judge based on an apples to apples comparison. For similarly outfitted and priced servers, the nod goes to AMD for performance. HP has qualified the Opteron, so I have no doubts about its stability and compatibility. HP has given us superior support for our previous Proliant servers and it will continue to do so if we purchase one that says AMD Inside.

Intel is not my vendor, HP is. I make decisions and recommendations based on technology offered by my vendor. Opteron is viable. Every time a 1 year old quad processor Xeon server goes to 100% I/O while it hits a 100 GB SQL database, I think how much faster the new Opteron server would be. Just add a 64-bit OS with 64-bit SQL and life will be better.

Posted by: L A D   Posted on: 04/20/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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