|
Fujitsu and server partner Sun Microsystems will today roll out an
entry server based on the quad-core Sparc64 VII processor created by
Fujitsu.
The server, code-named "Ikkaku" (Japanese for "narwhal") and sold as
the Sparc Enterprise M3000, is a single-socket box that will fill in a
product gap in the companies' combined Sparc T and Sparc64 VII product
lines.
Fujitsu and server partner Sun Microsystems will today roll out an
entry server based on the quad-core Sparc64 VII processor created by
Fujitsu.
The server, code-named "Ikkaku" (Japanese for "narwhal") and sold as
the Sparc Enterprise M3000, is a single-socket box that will fill in a
product gap in the companies' combined Sparc T and Sparc64 VII product
lines.
The Sparc Enterprise M3000 is a single-socket box, and the four
cores in that single Sparc64 VII processor run at 2.52 GHz. The
processor has 64 KB of L1 data cache and 64 KB of L1 instruction cache
per core, and 5 MB of L2 cache on chip shared by the four cores. The
motherboard in the system supports up to 32 GB of main memory using 4
GB memory, and has four low-profile PCI-Express x8 peripheral slots.
The system uses the same "Jupiter" server bus as larger Sparc
Enterprise M servers to link the components of the system together.
That system bus has 17 GB/sec of peak aggregate bandwidth and 4 GB/sec
of I/O bandwidth. The server comes in a 2U rack-mounted form factor and
has room for two 2.5-inch SAS drives and a DVD drive - the disks come
in 146 GB capacities.
According to Sun, the M3000 has about twice the performance of the
entry servers using its UltraSparc-IIIi processors from a few years
back, but uses about half as much energy and space as that old Sun box.
John Fowler, the executive vice president in charge of Sun's Systems
Group, says that the M3000 is being brought to market for a few
reasons. For one thing, customers who deploy larger Jupiter systems
usually do so with an n-tier architecture, with bigger servers running
the databases behind the applications and Web and application servers
accessing the data and running the application code that feeds and
feeds off the databases. While some companies don't mind mixing
different kinds of database and application servers, others do and Sun
and Fujitsu needed a smaller server to be an application tier for
midrange customers.
Moreover, companies deploying Jupiter machines in the data center
want to give developers the same iron and Solaris software stack to
work on, and paying for a midrange machine or a slice of a larger
system is a lot more expensive than a dedicated entry server. The
machine is rated at 47 decibels, which Sun says is at about the same
level as a quiet office, so programmers can tuck one into their
cubicles. A tower server would be more programmer-friendly, of course.
Then again, there is no reason why the programmer needs to sit next to
the server he or she is using to develop code - that's what we have
networks for.
And still other customers who use Sparc iron want more
single-threaded performance in an entry box than the multi-core
"Niagara" family of servers deliver. Some applications like threads and
don't mind the relatively low clock speed of the Sparc T series of
chips, while others do. The M3000 is for those apps that do mind.
There was some talk in Sun and Fujitsu presentations about the M3000
being used in HPC clusters, too, and while Fowler did not deny that
this might happen, he didn't sound like it was business that Sun was
counting on. Fujitsu's chances for selling clusters of M3000s might be
better back in Japan.
The Sparc Enterprise M3000 is available now. It supports the Solaris
10 10/08 Update that is due any day now. A base machine with the single
processor, 4 GB of main memory, two 146 GB disks, a DVD drive, and a
Solaris 10 license costs $15,000.
With the M3000, Sun and Fujitsu have launched a second generation of
their "Advanced Product Line" jointly developed Sparc iron, and that
seems to be it until next year, when the Sparc64 VII+ kickers come out.
You can read what little has been said about these future chips here.
Read the original article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/28/sun_fujitsu_m3000/
|
Get Informed 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments