Posts tagged with Maranello
The Scorecard
Posted by John Fruehe in 9:43 am
(17 votes, average: 4.76 out of 5)
Loading ...There’s an old saying in baseball - “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” In this age of always-connected information, that scorecard is the internet. It’s amazing how accurate that information can be. And not be. All at the same time.
I am constantly asked about our different products, both existing and future. Clarification of what the AMD Opteron TM processor products are and where they are targeted is a common request, so I thought it might be a good idea to put it all down in one place; a “cheat sheet” for the IT professional. When it comes to the future products, you might see a lack of details. This is on purpose, as there is some information that we don’t release until we launch the products. (When we discuss the target markets, we are speaking in general terms, because, depending on applications, actual processor choices could vary. That is why we recommend talking to your OEM or system integrator to choose the best solution.)
The Current lineup:
Quad-Core AMD OpteronTM processor (formerly codenamed “Shanghai”) – This is a 45nm quad-core processor with a 6MB level 3 cache. It fits into all of the existing Socket F (1207) systems and is targeted at current workloads like web services, network infrastructure, departmental applications, technical workloads, and those applications that favor clock frequency over thread count. It is productized as the AMD Opteron 2000 Series processors (2P) and AMD Opteron 8000 Series (4P and 8P) processors.
Six-Core AMD OpteronTM processor (formerly codenamed “Istanbul”) – This is also a 45nm design that is based on the same core as the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, but the design includes 6 cores, not 4, teamed up with the 6MB L3 cache, and plugs into the Socket F (1207) systems. Because of the higher number of cores (12 cores in a 2P system and 24/48 cores in a 4P/8P system), customers typically use these processors for workloads like cloud computing, virtualization, database and HPC where workloads can be very threaded.
Quad-Core AMD OpteronTM processor (formerly codenamed “Suzuka”) – This is the single socket version of the “Shanghai” die, focused on 1P servers that are typically utilized for web serving, remote locations or running small businesses. You’ll see all of the same features of the “Shanghai” processor, with the exception that it is available only in the standard power band (which is by far the most popular choice for AMD Opteron 1000 Series processors.)
The Future Lineup:
In Q1 2010 we plan to introduce the “Maranello” platform, featuring the processor variant currently codenamed “Magny-Cours.” This is a new socket (G34) and the processor is expected to merge both the top end of the 2P market with the 4P/8P market, all conveniently in a single processor, the AMD Opteron 6000 Series processor. Core choices are expected to be 8 and 12 cores, with massive memory scalability through the 4 channels of DDR-3 memory per processor. By utilizing the same processor for both 2P and 4P designs, the AMD Opteron 6000 Series processor should enable several very interesting and flexible platforms with scalability of 16 cores through 48 cores. Clearly this processor is targeted at virtualization, HPC, database and business applications.
In Q2, we plan to introduce a new platform for web, cloud and infrastructure applications – the “San Marino” platform, featuring the 4-core and 6-core processor variants currently codenamed “Lisbon” in the C32 socket. With low core counts, these processors are expected to be a favored choice for applications that scale well up to 8-12 threads. The platform choices around “San Marino” are expected to help OEMs optimize their C32 systems for low power consumption and low cost. We believe these AMD Opteron 4000 Series processors will have the potential to help users achieve new levels of price/performance and performance/watt. When you walk through a data center and see rack after rack of servers, it’s clear that reducing the cost and power footprint of the “workhorse” servers can have a huge impact on the bottom line. Two channels of DDR-3 memory help provide the right level of scalability for these 1P/2P designs while contributing to low power consumption and cost.
Best of all, while the C32 and G34 sockets are physically different, the chipsets, cores and main BIOS core functions are expected to be common across both of these platforms, helping enable OEMs to develop platforms around AMD offerings, and contributing to easier deployment and management by end users.
The consolidation of 1000/2000/8000 to the 4000/6000 product line is expected to reduce the number of overlapping platforms, increase commonality and flexibility for customers, and reduce the overall SKU count for OEMs – contributing to more flexibility and cleaner scalability from 4 cores to 48 cores. Truly a re-definition of the server market that focuses on how industry partners take products to market and customers deploy instead of how processor manufacturers see the world. Customer-centric innovation.
Power Bands:
Customers have a variety of needs, and it would be foolish to think that one processor can solve all of your processing challenges. So, just as we have different models (1000/2000/8000 today and 4000/6000 in the future) we have different power bands to meet specific power needs.
By far the most popular model is the “standard power” with a 75W ACP (average CPU power), which doesn’t even have a designator. This is “Opteron classic” if you are filling in your score card, the choice for price/performance. In addition to this model, there are 3 specialty power bands:
SE – for those that want relatively higher raw performance. By driving to a 105W ACP, we can increase the clock speed for customers running frequency-dependent applications.
HE – Delivering a lower ACP (55W), the HE processors focus on delivering great price/performance/watt for environments where power may be constrained/more expensive or where density is an issue (like with blades)
EE – This is the specialty processor that delivers absolutely the lowest power consumption of any AMD Opteron processor, with a 40W ACP. Customers, like cloud/web 2.0, look for processors like the EE to help reduce the total power per rack because they are in extremely dense environments.
The “Maranello” platform is expected to support SE, Standard and HE power bands, and the “San Marino” platform is planned to support Standard, HE and EE power bands.
So, there you are, a full lineup of heavy hitters – it should be a great game. With this score card you’ll be able to tell who is at bat and who is on deck, so sit back and enjoy the game.
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.
Playing 20 Questions (Part 1)
Posted by John Fruehe in 9:22 am
We’ve all played the game, is it bigger than a breadbox? Is it an animal, vegetable or mineral? I decided to try an ambitious exercise, soliciting input directly from folks in IT who have questions about our products and where they are headed.
I received more than 20 in this first round and for the purpose of this post, I’ll focus on five questions related to our upcoming server platforms. Look for more posts that address questions around virtualization/cloud computing and future technologies in the coming days and weeks. Because these questions are around future platforms, some data won’t be available until launch.
Is Socket C32 being designed to be backwards compatible with the existing Socket F?
No. Socket F is a DDR2 design and C32 is DDR3. Having interchangeable processors and memories would mean a massive test matrix that OEMs might find difficult to support. Eventually you’ll have to switch over to the new design. Based on the fact that we expect Socket F to end up with ~5 years of life in it from 2006 to 2011, we feel it has served the market well and we don’t want to be focusing the new generation of processor into a 4 year old platform.
Are you going to allow a C32 socket to accept 8-core or 12-core CPU, or a G34 socket to accept 4-core or 6-core CPU?
We do not have plans to support this. The C32 and G34 sockets are different form factors with different sizes and pin counts and are targeting workloads with different needs in terms of computational capabilities. The C32 and G34 platforms address different form factors and customer workloads. Our goal is to introduce product features (including core counts) that are best aligned to those customer needs.
Does AMD plan to scale into the >100 thread 8P market with G34 systems?
The G34 systems planned for 2010 are expected to offer scalability to 4 sockets each with 12 cores per socket; that represents a total of 48 cores for a 4P platform. The challenge in moving beyond that level for many mainstream business applications can be that the scalability of the software becomes a bigger challenge than the scalability of the hardware. (Specialized HPC-style applications may be another story altogether.) The market for single systems with 96 cores appears to be very limited at the moment, and new technologies like HPC, cloud and developments such as the HyperTransport HNC specification all represent ways of getting greater scalability in a scale out mode vs. scaling the systems up.
Will AMD be the single chipset source for server main boards in the long term?
AMD plans to release the SR5690 chipset later this year. That will be utilized with existing Socket F processors as well as the future “Maranello” and “San Marino” platforms. We can’t speak to the plans of other companies, but we welcome any additional chipset products from other vendors; competition always breeds the best innovation.
AMD has placed a great deal of emphasis on the fact that all of the new Six-Core AMD OpteronTM processors (formerly codenamed “Istanbul”) fit within the same TDP/ACP as the previous Quad-Core AMD OpteronTM processors (formerly codenamed “Shanghai”). Can we expect this trend to continue with “Magny Cours” and “Interlagos” despite the increasing core count?
Because we are moving to a new platform (codenamed “Maranello”), there is not a need to have exactly the same TDP/ACP as past processors. We do recognize that customers are very comfortable with the power/thermal bands that we have established and we plan to continue to use power bands that are very similar to what we use today. In general, we plan to continue the approach of allowing a single platform to be able to support more than one generation of processors (though not mixed in the same system of course), sharing a common power/thermal envelope. Just as the Socket F (1207) allowed us to support Rev F dual -core, “Barcelona,” “Shanghai” and “Istanbul,” we believe that “Maranello” will support both the “Magny Cours” processors as well as the “Interlagos” processors. We expect the “San Marino” platform to support the “Lisbon” processor as well as its follow-on, the “Valencia” processor.
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.
Still a Distant (Server) Memory
Posted by John Fruehe in 4:40 pm
While the prices for DDR-3 memory on the desktop side are finally starting to fall into reasonable price levels, the server world is still not there yet when it comes to the transition to DDR-3 memory.
Just this past week, we saw that there is still a lot of volatility in the memory market, and memory is a commodity that has a huge impact on the price of a server.
For instance, taking a quick look at Crucial (http://www.crucial.com) shows that in comparing the prices of 2GB and 4GB DIMMs, there is still a pretty substantial premium on DDR-3.
| 2GB | 4GB | |
| DDR-2 | $54 | $110 |
| DDR-3 | $80 | $160 |
| Premium | 48% | 45% |
(pricing for single DIMM SKUs, as of 7/09/09 at http://www.crucial.com)
For customers buying servers, memory is often the most expensive part of the system. With four and eight DIMMs per socket, you can easily see the price differential rocket upward as the system requirements grow.
Where desktops generally use 2GB of memory or 4GB for more power users (Windows Vista 32-bit only sees about 3GB), in the server space we are talking about 16GB as the minimal point of entry and 32GB as a common configuration. Couple this with the more expensive registered, ECC memory that servers demand, and you can start to feel the pain in your budget.
By utilizing the energy-efficient DDR-2 memory, AMD OpteronTM processor-based platforms can take advantage of the economies of scale as they grow the memory capacity on their servers to meet the needs of the business.
Next year, when the DDR-3 memory prices for server memory have likely started to drop out of the stratosphere and down into a reasonable range, we’re planning for our Q1 2010 platform, codenamed “Maranello”, to go to market with support for DDR-3 memory. And, more importantly, low voltage DDR-3 memory. The low voltage offerings, along with these anticipated lower prices, should make DDR-3 the smart choice for server customers.
So, while the cost of migrating a desktop from DDR-2 to DDR-3 is becoming reasonable for many customers, we still have a long way to go before DDR-3 has similar economic advantages for the server market.
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.
Playing “Hi-Lo”
Posted by John Fruehe in 12:58 pm
You’d think being here in Austin, we’d be playing Texas Hold ‘Em, but with our recent announcement, it’s clear that Hi-Lo is the winning game.
Take a look at the server market today; 70% of the volume is in the dual socket space[i]. And it’s growing. Willie Sutton was once quoted (incorrectly) with saying that he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is at.” So why are we driving so hard in the two socket space? Because that’s where the volume is at. And you can quote me, correctly, on that one.
With our recent server roadmap update announcement, we are introducing the world to a new strategy for addressing the 2P market – G34 platforms on the high end, and C32 on the low end. Hi-low. It’s a big enough market that you would have to be crazy to think that it can’t be addressed by two different platforms. Two different platforms that are more the same than fraternal twins, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Think for a moment about where the 2P market is going. In the past few years we have been adding more cores, more expandability and more RAS features to our products – because customers have been demanding it for virtualization and other resource-hungry applications. But at the same time, a new class of application need is being driven by the low end. Cloud computing, the growth of SMB applications and sprawling network infrastructure are creating a demand for lower power and lower priced, reliable servers. The same density and business needs that drove AMD to add the AMD Opteron™ EE processors to our product line are driving a new platform that we expect will give you everything you need for most applications, but at a low cost, with very low power consumption.
G34 platforms, under the platform name of “Maranello”, are designed for expandability and performance. We plan to offer four memory channels per socket and 8 or 12 core processors perfectly suited to handle the most demanding 2P environments. As an added bonus, these processors and platforms are expected to be able to scale easily to 4P. No longer will you have different models to choose from (2000 or 8000), we expect the new G34 processors to be able to easily handle both markets, simplifying the lives of those building servers as well as those maintaining servers.
C32 platforms, which we plan to bring to market under the platform name “San Marino”, are designed for the needs of the other half of the stack. Scaling 1P and 2P solutions, the two memory channels and 4 or 6 cores are planned to perfectly match the hundreds of thousands of applications where 12 cores and 4 memory channels may be overkill. Especially when it comes to electricity. These processors sip electricity, they don’t gulp it. They deliver the right level of performance for small/medium businesses, for cloud environments, and for network infrastructure needs. By utilizing a simple design, with fewer memory channels, AMD expects to deliver a relatively lower infrastructure cost. And with planned power envelopes below the total range of current AMD Opteron processors, we expect that fewer fans, smaller heatsinks and smaller power supplies can help you achieve greater energy efficiency, lower noise, and of course lower cost.
So what about that twins comment? What do these processors have in common? Plenty. They are expected to utilize the same core. The same chipset design. The same BIOS base. We expect the C32 designs to be able to span 1P to 2P and G34 to span 2P to 4P. They overlap is at that “meat of the market” intersection where the highest volumes live, for plenty of coverage in all directions. We expect that as a system designer, it will be a trivial feat to take a C32 design and change it to G34. More commonality across a vendor’s products is a good thing. As a customer this can help you drive down your long term cost of management.
Of course the question “so, you’re abandoning the 1P and 4P space” naturally comes up. Nothing is further from the truth. The C32 is expected to allow for a much more flexible 1P. Low cost and simplicity to meet the needs of the 1P market, but with scale up capabilities to take it to 2P. Think of it as 1P on steroids (the good kind, not the baseball kind).
And 4P? What can help turn the tide in a market that is slowly being encroached by 2P? How about a platform that combines the best of both and allows a company to deliver a low-cost entry-level 4P server? Talk about breathing new life into a market that sorely needs to adjust to the new realities of business in the post Y2K work. The time is right for this hybrid approach.
We’re very excited about how we plan to help our technology partners bring these new designs to market. Without naming names, let’s just say that there is a renewed enthusiasm amongst our industry partners who have made comments about this truly being “game changing.” One even likened this strategy to the launch of the original AMD Opteron processor, an event arguably that did more to change the dynamics of the x86 server market than anything else.
We’ve laid our cards on the table now, and it it’s clear that in 2010, we expect AMD to be holding the winning hand. Let the games begin.
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.
[i] IDC Q4 2008 Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, February 2009