Sun Follows Through on Throughput Computing
By David Yen, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Processor and Network Products
Most companies are seeing their Web-based transactions skyrocket. Customers are expecting round-the-clock service online, supply partners are implementing real-time portals, and far-flung employees are videoconferencing with associates across the globe. Far from slowing down, this growing demand for network services promises to increase exponentially.
Meanwhile, today's IT budgets and resources are often limited, hindering efforts to accommodate Web traffic increases. Recognizing the urgent need for companies to do more with less, Sun took it upon itself to come up with a solution, and quickly.
This spring in the April edition of Boardroom Minutes, I shared our throughput computing strategy with you. This strategy turns processor design upside down by delivering a new family of UltraSPARC processors that eventually will increase application performance for network computing workloads by up to 30 times. How can we achieve such radical gains? By leveraging chip multithreading (CMT) technology to maximize throughput, or the aggregate amount of work done.
Taking Aim at Memory Latency
Our CMT approach to processor design will allow Sun to overcome the performance-constricting bottleneck of memory latency. Currently, very fast chips sit idle up to 75 percent of the time because they must wait for much slower memory to fetch required data. Our upcoming CMT processors will transform these wasted wait cycles into useful work by enabling a single processor to handle multiple requests, or threads, simultaneously instead of just one. When one thread is waiting on memory, the processor will simply start in on another thread.
Imagine, for example, two large cities connected by a two-lane bridge. To increase traffic throughput, you don't necessarily need fast cars to cross the bridge quickly; you simply need more lanes. Now imagine the thousands of network computing requests coming into your data center. By using CMT processors to handle these requests, your systems will be able to process significantly more traffic in the same amount of time.
We want you to know that our throughput computing strategy isn't just a pipedream; in fact, we are quickly executing our plans, with first-generation CMT processors rapidly nearing commercial production. Last month at the Microprocessor Forum, we announced that we will deliver dual-threaded Gen 1 CMT processors in the first half of next year. These UltraSPARC IV processors will have two cores that will each be capable of processing a thread. This breakthrough processor design will initially enhance current UltraSPARC III system throughput by up to two times depending on the application, and later by up to four times.
We will also deliver in 2004 a dual-threaded Gen 1 CMT processor for our blades platform, code-named Gemini, that will provide up to three times the performance of the current UltraSPARC IIi processor, as announced this August at HOT Chips 2003.
Strong Partnership with Texas Instruments
Key to our ability to design such innovative processors and manufacture them rapidly is our ongoing partnership with Texas Instruments. This year we are celebrating the 15th anniversary of this highly unique, mutually beneficial relationship that drives the ongoing advancement of SPARC technology. Next year, expect to see systems based on Gen 1 CMT processors that are fabricated using TI's current state-of-the-art, 130-nanometer copper process technology.
TI is also in the process of evaluating the first samples of its 90-nanometer process technology that will support the development of radical Gen 2 CMT processor designs (code-named Niagara). These processors are expected in systems in 2005/2006, and will increase throughput by 15 times over current levels. Wait a little longer and our Gen 3 CMT processors will boost throughput by up to 30 times.
While many of our competitors are scrambling to follow our lead, we believe that our ground-up approach to designing CMT processors, relationship with TI, 64-bit memory addressing capabilities, and exceptional multithreaded Solaris Operating System uniquely position Sun to bring throughput computing into your data center. By radically increasing application throughput, our CMT processors will help you do a lot more with less, driving down your costs.
Better Processors Mean Better Business
These savings will enable you to effectively manage ever-increasing demands for network services and, more importantly, pursue new markets through the strategic delivery of additional network services. Bottom line, our processor strategy will free you to focus on competing, not computing.
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