The Sun Fire E25K server is Sun's massively scalable, highly available
flagship data center server that scales up to 72 UltraSPARC IV processors
with chip multithreading technology executing 144 simultaneous computing
threads. With these processors plus new hsPCI+ I/O assemblies, the Sun Fire
E25K provides up to twice the compute density in the same footprint and
enhanced I/O performance for lower total cost of ownership. The Sun Fire
E25K supports over 1/2 TB of memory per domain, making it ideal for
mainframe migration, consolidation, decision-support, and other
memory-intensive applications. High availability is delivered through Full
Hardware Redundancy, fault-isolated Dynamic System Domains, and Dynamic
Reconfiguration for hot swapping key server components while applications
are up and running, for higher availability. Investments are protected with
the ability to mix and manage UltraSPARC IV and UltraSPARC III
processors--running at their rated speed--in the same system. This server
comes remote-services ready for preemptive support and preloaded with a rich
set of applications with the Java Enterprise System. This server is
available in the Sun Customer Ready Systems (CRS) program for factory
integration into ready-to-deploy, customer-specific solutions.

http://www.sun.com/servers/highend/s...e25k/index.xml
http://www.sun.com/servers/highend/s..._datasheet.pdf

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Rodrick Brown wrote:

> The Sun Fire E25K server is Sun's massively scalable, highly available
> flagship data center server that scales up to 72 UltraSPARC IV processors
> with chip multithreading technology executing 144 simultaneous computing
> threads. With these processors plus new hsPCI+ I/O assemblies, the Sun Fire
> E25K provides up to twice the compute density in the same footprint and
> enhanced I/O performance for lower total cost of ownership. The Sun Fire
> E25K supports over 1/2 TB of memory per domain, making it ideal for
> mainframe migration, consolidation, decision-support, and other
> memory-intensive applications. High availability is delivered through Full
> Hardware Redundancy, fault-isolated Dynamic System Domains, and Dynamic
> Reconfiguration for hot swapping key server components while applications
> are up and running, for higher availability. Investments are protected with
> the ability to mix and manage UltraSPARC IV and UltraSPARC III
> processors--running at their rated speed--in the same system. This server
> comes remote-services ready for preemptive support and preloaded with a rich
> set of applications with the Java Enterprise System. This server is
> available in the Sun Customer Ready Systems (CRS) program for factory
> integration into ready-to-deploy, customer-specific solutions.

Yeah, man, but does it run Linux? Linux roolz, D00dz!






















Yes, I am joking!

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

Rich Teer wrote:

> Yes, I am joking!
>

That *would* be a first ;-)

Rodrick Brown <rbrown@[remove]doitt.nyc.gov> wrote:
> The Sun Fire E25K server is Sun's massively scalable, highly
> available flagship data center server that scales up to 72
> UltraSPARC IV processors with chip multithreading technology
> executing 144 simultaneous computing threads.

When did UltraSPARC IV change from being two CPUs on a die to being a
"single" multi-threaded CPU? Describing "CPU's" is sure going to be
interesting.

rick jones
--
portable adj, code that compiles under more than one compiler
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to raj in cup.hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Rick Jones <foo@bar.baz.invalid> writes:

> Rodrick Brown <rbrown@[remove]doitt.nyc.gov> wrote:
> > The Sun Fire E25K server is Sun's massively scalable, highly
> > available flagship data center server that scales up to 72
> > UltraSPARC IV processors with chip multithreading technology
> > executing 144 simultaneous computing threads.
>
> When did UltraSPARC IV change from being two CPUs on a die to being a
> "single" multi-threaded CPU? Describing "CPU's" is sure going to be
> interesting.

It never changed, it always was and still is two cpu cores on one
die. The Microprocessor Report article makes this crystal clear - the
two cpus are mirror images, and Sun had to have extra cooling over one
area since the two FPUs are adjacent and are the hottest
part. Sun Marketing likes to use terms that imply there are multiple
execution contexts simultaneously within one core, but I think that is
just preparation for when sparc really does that. But you probably
knew all that

Chris
--
Chris Morgan
"Post posting of policy changes by the boss will result in
real rule revisions that are irreversible"

- anonymous correspondent

Rodrick Brown wrote:
> The Sun Fire E25K server is Sun's massively scalable, highly available
> flagship data center server that scales up to 72 UltraSPARC IV processors
> with chip multithreading technology executing 144 simultaneous computing

I'm not into this high end hardware, but why did they leave out the seven
MaxCPU slots which gave the e15k some extra CPUs?
Was that a rarely used feature? What's the differece between the normal
4-way boards and those MaxCPU 2-way boards?

--
I am root. If you see me laughing, you better have a backup.

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Andreas Wohlfeld wrote:

> I'm not into this high end hardware, but why did they leave out the seven
> MaxCPU slots which gave the e15k some extra CPUs?

My guess is that they haven't (yet) produced US-IV MaxCPU cards.

> Was that a rarely used feature? What's the differece between the normal
> 4-way boards and those MaxCPU 2-way boards?

The MaxCPUs are smaller, because they go where I/O cards would go.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

Chris Morgan <cm@mihalis.net> wrote:
> Rick Jones <foo@bar.baz.invalid> writes:
>> When did UltraSPARC IV change from being two CPUs on a die to being
>> a "single" multi-threaded CPU? Describing "CPU's" is sure going to
>> be interesting.

> It never changed, it always was and still is two cpu cores on one
> die. The Microprocessor Report article makes this crystal clear -
> the two cpus are mirror images, and Sun had to have extra cooling
> over one area since the two FPUs are adjacent and are the hottest
> part.

I'll have to wander about the floor and find a copy of the report. My
recollection of past discussions was that the only thing that was
directly shared between the two processing cores was the path to the
external cache, but that the caches were all separate. Siamese-twin
UltraSPARC III's joined at the cache path if you were.

> Sun Marketing likes to use terms that imply there are multiple
> execution contexts simultaneously within one core, but I think that
> is just preparation for when sparc really does that. But you
> probably knew all that

That is the part that has me raising the question - is a US IV
"really" a dual-threaded CPU and so things like the 25K are indeed 72
CPU machines, or is US IV "really" two CPUs on one die and so the 25K
a 144 CPU machine. Particularly if you compare say with the PA-8800
which is at present I believe marketed as two CPUs on a die, but may
actually share more between the two processing cores than US IV.

That distinction between being one CPU or two CPUs has non-trivial
ripples though quite a bit of stuff. If the vendors start diverging
further on the definition of "what is a CPU" are we going to have to
start comparing systems on the basis of the number of "simultaneous
parallel execution units" or somesuch?

rick jones
--
Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events.
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to raj in cup.hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Rick Jones <foo@bar.baz.invalid> writes:

> Chris Morgan <cm@mihalis.net> wrote:
> > Sun Marketing likes to use terms that imply there are multiple
> > execution contexts simultaneously within one core, but I think that
> > is just preparation for when sparc really does that. But you
> > probably knew all that
>
> That is the part that has me raising the question - is a US IV
> "really" a dual-threaded CPU and so things like the 25K are indeed 72
> CPU machines, or is US IV "really" two CPUs on one die and so the 25K
> a 144 CPU machine. Particularly if you compare say with the PA-8800
> which is at present I believe marketed as two CPUs on a die, but may
> actually share more between the two processing cores than US IV.
>
> That distinction between being one CPU or two CPUs has non-trivial
> ripples though quite a bit of stuff. If the vendors start diverging
> further on the definition of "what is a CPU" are we going to have to
> start comparing systems on the basis of the number of "simultaneous
> parallel execution units" or somesuch?

Is it just a wheeze to get past vendors who charge
per CPU for licenses, so that you can upgrade from,
say, an 8-way USIII to an "8-way" US IV without
incurring additional software charges?

-SEan

Sean Burke <foobar@mystery.org> wrote:
> Is it just a wheeze to get past vendors who charge per CPU for
> licenses, so that you can upgrade from, say, an 8-way USIII to an
> "8-way" US IV without incurring additional software charges?

I suppose that could be part of it. I suppose another part of it
could be that calling a US IV a single CPU allows one to say it is N%
faster than an US III CPU, might improve the "processor a processor"
compares with other CPUs, all manner of stuff. Hence the reason it
might be rather important that everyone have a common vocabulary when
describing computing devices.

rick jones
--
Wisdom Teeth are impacted, people are affected by the effects of events.
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to raj in cup.hp.com but NOT BOTH...