Reality Check: Server Insights : AMD

New AMD Six-core Opteron™ Processors add more horsepower to the industry’s x-86 workhorse

anand.akela@hp.com — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Current economic, environmental and energy constraints often do not make it possible to add additional servers in the data center to align with the demands of the business. As a result, companies are looking to consolidate workloads on fewer servers to reclaim the underutilized capacity, lower the total cost of ownership and simplify data center management. Virtualization technologies, like VMware, on larger platforms such as the HP ProLiant DL785 G6 are key to improving server utilization.

HP ProLiant DL785 G6, with 48 processing cores, up to 512 GB memory and 11 PCI-e I/O ports, provides ample resources for very large number of virtual machines and offers a very high consolidation and virtualization ratio. The new world-record VMMark benchmark result with 53.73 score while running 210 virtual machines proves that the HP ProLiant DL785 G6 is ideal for virtualization and consolidation environments. The industry x-86 workhorse beats the nearest 8-socket competitor by almost 58% on VMMark benchmark.

DL785 G6 shows increased scalability with the new AMD Opteron processors. As compared to the previous result on DL785 G5 (with 8 Quad-Core processors), the DL785 G6 (with 8 six-core processors) showed 70.2% increased performance. I have been asked this question many times – what makes DL785 G6 or other multi-processor ProLiant servers with the new six-core Opteron processors run more than 50% faster than the previous generation G5 servers with AMD quad core processors?

In addition to the virtualization acceleration technology like Rapid Virtualization indexing (RVI) , the newly introduced HT-Assit with six-core 8400 series AMD Opteron processors is a key contributor to the excellent performance of HP multi-processor servers including DL785 G6.

HT Assist helps reduces memory latency, improves HyperTransport bus efficiency and increases overall system performance in multi-processor systems by reducing the probe traffic and resolving probes quickly. It can eliminate the probe broadcasting in 8 out of 11 typical CPU-to-CPU transactions in a multi-processor system like DL785 G6.

These technologies help HP ProLiant servers achieve #1 virtualization performance results and near linear scaling as demonstrated on VMMark benchmark. The 4-processor DL585 G6 server shows 1.86 times scaling from 2-processor DL385 G6 server and the 8-processor DL785 G6 server shows 1.79 times scaling from 4-processor DL585 G6 server.

This unparalleled virtualization leadership is demonstrated in the AMD video featuring HP ProLiant DL785 G6 running 180 VMs! AMD will have this demo live at their booth (#1408) at VMWorld, August 31-September 3^rd 2009.

Please join us in the HP Booth (#2023) at VMWorld to see the ProLiant G6 servers, including DL785 G6, and a showcase of a wide variety of server, storage and networking virtualization solutions.

Doubling Down

s_mathur — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:44:00 GMT

In blackjack, if you have a great hand versus the house, you can double your bet or “double down” to show the confidence that you have in winning it all. HP’s commitment to our new Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor is a clear signal that our technology partnership is strong, and the products are even stronger.

In today’s economic environment, customers can’t afford to make anything other than a safe bet. They are concerned about energy efficiency, performance and manageability – these are the keys to getting the most out of IT investments. With the new HP ProLiant G6 servers, based on Six-Core AMD Opteron processors, HP is increasing the capabilities of their award-winning ProLiant product line. Seven new models feature an uncompromising six-core processor that is designed for outstanding performance while still working within the same power and thermal ranges of existing HP servers based on our quad-core family.

We’ve written over and over again that consistency is critical for our customers. In large data centers, having consistency of platforms provides a huge benefit for customers, helping to turn the complexity of managing thousands of devices into a much easier task. From managing to servicing, if you can reduce the complexity and variance of the platforms, you can reduce the costs. And who wants to spend more in management costs? Especially with the business constraints of today’s market bearing down on you.

While we strive for consistency in our processors, we also offer a no-compromise approach to the products. Some in the industry may artificially limit the capabilities of the processors for marketing reasons, but we believe that keeping a consistent set of features from the top of the line down to the lowest option helps customers better manage their platforms. And, when it comes to planning, you know exactly what you are getting, from I/O to memory to cache – making it far easier to plan for your deployment needs.

HP takes the consistency concept a step further. The G6 servers have a common set of features, regardless of the processor, that allow us to cleanly integrate our technology into their platforms and bring the customer a unified product offering that makes it easier to make HP the clear choice for the data center.

From the “Sea of Sensors” to help manage the systems, to the commonality across power supplies and even the HP ProLiant Onboard Administrator, managing an HP server becomes a simple, and most importantly, repeatable activity. This helps drive more consistency in the data center and allows you to maximize your critical IT resources.

We’re also very excited about the new levels of performance that customers will see with a Six-Core AMD Opteron processor, and a great compliment to that is the new 6GB/second SAS drives that, when combined with the HP Smart Array controllers, allow the I/O subsystem to keep pace with all of those cores. Combining that with our new HT Assist feature is expected to bring an unprecedented level of I/O and memory throughput for AMD-based ProLiant servers.

With all of this new performance, we haven’t pushed the power consumption up, allowing the new six-core processors to work in the same power and thermal ranges as their four-core counterparts. If your goal is to get the most out of your data center while keeping a “green IT” focus, this is the product for you.

There is no greater compliment than being chosen as the cornerstone of a great platform, and with the new G6 servers, there are seven new reasons for customers to choose HP ProLiant G6 servers featuring AMD Opteron processors, each a winning hand for solving today’s IT challenges without breaking the bank.

In Vegas you “double down” when you have a great hand against the house, and it is clear that, with all of these new platforms coming to market, HP saw the great hand that we were dealing with the new six-core processors and doubled down as well.

John Fruehe is the Director of Business Development for Server/Workstation products at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Unleashing the power of six-cores with AMD Istanbul

s_mathur — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:26:00 GMT

By Paul Gottsegen, Vice-president, Integrated Marketing, Enterprise Servers & Storage, HP

Today, AMD is introducing their new Six-Core AMD Opteron "Istanbul" processors. For our customers, the performance gains of AMD's new chip combined with the innovations around energy efficiency, virtualization and management of our new ProLiant G6 platform will enable them to get more value from every IT dollar they spend.

We are really excited about Istanbul and you can bet that we'll be introducing new AMD-based rack, tower and blade servers in very short order. We could have just dropped the new chip in to existing servers, but that wouldn't have allowed our customers to take full advantage of the power of Istanbul. So, instead you'll see that we've innovated around Istanbul to deliver systems that lead the industry on price/performance.

The performance gains and power efficiency of these new ProLiant G6 systems can also have a significant impact on the bottom line. In fact, replacing the single-core systems with new ProLiant G6 systems, customers can see a pay-back on their investment of right around 3-months. This is due to the combination of lower energy bills, increased computing capability of each server and fewer software licenses required to do the same amount of work.

AMD's execution was nothing short of flawless. Once again, they delivered ahead of schedule. And right around the corner you'll see a full suite of Istanbul server products from HP.

Virtualization Never Looked So Good

R_Palmer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:33:00 GMT

Virtualization has become a mainstay, even a business imperative, within most data centers today. Today, every server manufacturer is claiming leadership in virtualization platforms, so the real question you need to ask is, "Why HP?" Well, let me give you a few of the key reasons why HP is the right choice for your trusted advisor when it comes to virtualization.

Whether it's for server consolidation, workload balancing or security and disaster recovery purposes, the dramatic growth of virtual machine implementation is mind boggling. This is not necessarily coupled to the comfort level of IT managers though, as there continues to be a disarray of management tools and interfaces required to manage both physical and virtual machines. HP has taken this challenge head on with our new Insight Control Environment (ICE) which gives you a single pane of glass to monitor and manage both your virtual machines and physical machines simultaneously.

On November 17^th, we introduced the new HP ProLiant DL385 G5p server based on the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 processor (code named "Shanghai"). The HP ProLiant DL385 G5p is designed and optimized specifically for virtualization and consolidation environments. In fact, we looked at every facet of the product in our development effort with a few key principles in mind:

Provide a strong investment protection value for existing AMD Opteron customers
Improve the overall performance in the same, or lower, power envelope
Optimize the virtualization performance
Increase the number of virtual machines on a single platform
Simplify and improve the security of deploying of virtual machines

The new DL385 G5p is now available, having met and exceeded these objectives, arriving ahead of schedule. With the new 45nm "Shanghai" processor, with a 6MB L3 cache, we have achieved higher performance and maintained Socket F compatibility, yet at a substantially lower power envelope. HP, unlike some of our competitors, has designed the DL385 G5p to provide our customers with the flexibility to choose between single processor or dual processor configurations, without sacrificing any of the improvements offered by Shanghai. We have optimized the real estate inside of the 2U chassis to deliver twice the memory, twice the NICs and 6 times the storage capacity as the previous generation DL385. With 16 DDR2 DIMM sockets, you can reach 128GB of memory using 8GB high performance DIMMs. This allows for significantly more virtual machines to run on this single platform.

In addition, with virtual machine deployment, networking capabilities are critical. In the new DL385 G5p, we integrated 4 gigabit Ethernet ports to free up the PCI-Express slots to meet your flexible design requirements and increase the bandwidth for the virtual machines running on the server. The flexibility of the PCI bus slot configuration is another key benefit of the HP ProLiant DL385 G5p. With up to 6 PCI-e slots, additional networking, storage and application specific I/O adapters can be added to improve the virtualization experience. There are many customers who require legacy PCI-X controller support and some that are looking for the latest and greatest x16 PCI-e controller support. In the DL385 G5p, we have given those customers the flexibility to configure the PCI bus slots to meet their unique application and environment needs.

Storage performance is a key differentiator in the market today, even more so in virtualization environments. That's why we increased the internal disk storage on the DL385 G5p to 16 2.5" SAS or SATA disk drives; or 6 3.5" SAS or SATA disk drives. This provides up to 6TB of internal disk storage to be shared between the virtual machines with improved performance when compared to external shared disk solutions. By bringing the disks closer to the processors, the performance bandwidth issues are minimized and the overall performance of the storage is improved.

This server is built with efficiency in mind! The HP ProLiant DL385 G5p helps save on energy costs with the industry's highest efficiency power supplies that currently power the complete portfolio of HP ProLiant servers. Finally, with the internal USB slot, you can utilize an iHypervisor on a USB key that allows you to deploy virtual machines securely and easily.

In closing I'd like to quote Paul Gottsegen, VP of Marketing for HP's Industry Standard Servers division, from a recent interview:

"Customers can drive down costs through new "Shanghai"-based HP ProLiant servers that set new levels of power efficiency and performance. HP has experienced unparalleled success over the past four years working with AMD in bringing AMD Opteron processor-based platforms to customers of all sizes. Early results indicate "Shanghai" is a winner."

HP continues to lead the market in delivering more ProLiant servers featuring AMD Opteron processors than any other system manufacturer. In fact, HP has shipped over four times more than IBM and 1.5 times more than Dell (IDC- Q208 Server Tracker, Oct.08). Have confidence in choosing HP as your trusted advisor as we continue to set the bar for performance, energy efficiency and optimization in virtualization environments.

For more information click here on the DL385 G5P server link, or listen to the replay from Paul Gottsegen at the AMD Shanghai launch event on November 13^th.

I received a new HPC Multi-core server today – Live from SC08

d-field — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:59:00 GMT

This week, I am attending the annual SC08 conference. For 2 decades, the tradition in HPC is to announce and demonstrate new products at the SC conference, and there is a lot to absorb.

For me, the event started with a 2-day HP user conference, attracting some of HP’s largest HPC customers. It was a very full 2 days, with lectures on many subjects from customers, Intel, AMD, software development companies, and of course HP. Even though I work here, I learned a lot about projects in other parts of the company.

At the SC08 show, I saw my 1^st HP POD – portable optimized datacenter – a 40-foot-long shipping container on the outside, and a self-contained computer facility on the inside. This excellently-designed mobile facility can contain 3500 servers or 12,000 disk drives, in standard 19” racks. Just provide a flat location, power, chilled water, and a network cable, and you have a new computer room.

To make the week more interesting, AMD announced the new Opteron Shanghai processor – higher clock speed, bigger cache, faster Northbridge, and improved performance:power ratio.

One of the good things about big companies is that they spawn startups. This year, a startup company announced a new HPC architecture at SC08. Nearly all the employees are my friends and previous HP co-workers. Check out www.conveycomputer.com

AMD launches quad-core Shanghai processors

aimeeschoaf — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:47:00 GMT

This is an exciting time for our partner, AMD, as they launch their newest family of processors, and HP is pleased that our ProLiant portfolio will offer new capabilities computing to customers of all sizes. The new "Shanghai" products (Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 processors) will help HP customers gain greater computing power and business results when they build their infrastructure on HP ProLiant ML, DL and BL servers. Whether they are using virtualization technology to optimize their IT assets or they are consolidating their server inventory, HP ProLiant servers featuring the Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 processors will help customers do more business in a smaller footprint.

Around the globe, customers using AMD Opteron-based HP ProLiant servers value investment protection, consistent performance improvement, power efficiency and optimized design elements that enhance their virtualization strategies. The Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 processors deliver on these expectations with the larger 6GB L3 cache, Socket F compatibility, decreased power envelope, improved performance/watt and enhanced virtualization indexing. Watch for news on HP ProLiant offerings featuring the Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 processors.

- Rich Palmer

Director, HP Technology Strategy

Industry Standard Servers