With the recent publication of several articles about using cloud computing concepts for High Performance Computing  applications (here and here), I’ve been wondering about the applications for high-performance, low-power processors. There’s been quite a bit written here already about cloud computing and energy efficiency, but what about applications where high performance and energy efficiency are both important?

At this time last year, the most energy efficient AMD Opteron^TM processor-based server (based on the SPECpower^TM_ssj benchmark) could achieve only a score of 203 overall ssj_ops/watt (95,853 ssj_ops & 276W @ 100% target load) and consumed 164W at Active Idle. A server using the newest Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processor achieved a score of 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt (419,277 ssj_ops & 221W @ 100% target load) and consumed only 120W at Active Idle¹. That’s more than 6x the performance-per-watt AND more than a 25% drop in Active Idle power.

AMD technology-based servers help increase performance-per-watt and decrease power consumption at the same time by using a suite of features we call AMD-P. AMD-P is supported by the Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 and 8400 Series processors as well as the Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 and 8300 Series processors. This suite of features and the large number or processors that support them enable customers to build energy efficient two-socket, four-socket, and eight-socket servers which can efficiently meet the needs of almost any server application.

When we compare servers using the newest Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 Series HE processors to servers using existing AMD Opteron processors, we find that a server based on the AMD Opteron 2400 Series HE processor is able to achieve 18% higher performance-per-watt than a server using Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 Series HE processors² and also consumes 18% lower platform-level power than a server using Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 Series processors³.

That’s a pretty big improvement over a processor that was released just six months ago!

In addition to lowering server Active Idle power and boosting server performance-per-watt, these new Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processors are designed to provide significantly more processing performance than prior low-power AMD Opteron processors. Servers using these processors are able to achieve up to 50% higher performance than servers using Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 Series HE and 8300 Series HE processors in the same power and thermal envelope. That’s like getting the performance of V6-powered Ford Mustang and the fuel efficiency of a four-cylinder Ford Fusion in the same car.

Whether they’re being used in a cloud cluster or a High Performance Computing cluster, the newest AMD Opteron HE processors provide plenty of performance for only a few watts.

What do you think – is a cloud a cluster or is a cluster a cloud?

Andy Parma is a Product Marketing Manager 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.

¹Configuration Information: 2 x Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processors (“Istanbul”) Model 2425 HE in Supermicro 1021M-UR+ server, 16GB (4×4GB DDR2-800) memory, 500GB SATA disk drive, Coldwatt CWA2-0650-10-SM01 power supply, Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Enterprise Edition SP1 64-bit

²Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2425 HE [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 419,277 ssj_ops, 221W @ 100% target load] compared to Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2376 HE [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1044 overall ssj_ops/watt, 346,326 ssj_ops, 210W @ 100% target load]

³Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2425 HE [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 419,277 ssj_ops, 221W @ 100% target load] compared to Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2435 [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 487, 764 ssj_ops, 270W @ 100% target load]

SPEC and the benchmark name SPECpower_ssj are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. For the latest SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org/power_ssj2008.