64-bit server purchase guide

掐 掐 , , , , , , , , , , , , A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A

In fact, 64-bit computing is not new. As we all know, Unix is ​​a system with 64-bit computing power, and it depends on several processor architectures, from IBM Power to Sun's UltraSparc to HP. The company's Alpha and PA are all processors that support 64-bit computing. The Itanium developed jointly by Intel and Hewlett-Packard is also a 64-bit computing platform.

Why does AMD's Opteron set off a vigorous 64-bit computing movement?

More and more players

Previously, industrial standard servers used Processors only have 32-bit computing power, and the wide range of industrial standard servers determines that AMD's introduction of 64-bit computing-capable Opteron processors will definitely cause strong market response. For 64-bit computing power of Unix platforms, everyone It seems to have been commonplace for a long time, so instead of paying attention. Another reason that can't be ignored is the competitive relationship between AMD and Intel.

All along, in this luxury processor competition, Intel has the upper hand, and AMD has been playing a chaser role. Only in the 64-bit calculation of the corner, AMD seized the opportunity, the market will naturally put more energy to pay attention to Intel's progress, so formed a seemingly vigorous 64-bit computing scene.

Now, Intel has also released the new Xeon Nocona with EM64T expansion capability and the latest new Xeon MP platform Truland. At the same time, it continues to enrich the Itanium product line according to the planned route map, forming a complete 64-bit processor chain; AMD also recently released the first server and workstation-class dual-core processor Opteron 200800. In the traditional 64-bit computing field, IBM continues to update its Power processor in accordance with previously announced plans. It is reported that Power6 chips will be launched next year, and Sun has reached a cooperation agreement with Fujitsu on the future development of UltraSparc, which is certain in the short-term future. UltraSparc will still not leave the stage of history.

This is the state of the processor level. In terms of operating systems, traditional Unix systems such as IBM's AIX, HP's HP-UX, and Sun's Solrias support 64-bit computing; because of the Unix system, Linux also has innate attributes in supporting 64-bit computing; The operating system with the highest market share, Microsoft has repeatedly delayed the introduction of 64-bit Windows systems - originally 64-bit versions of Windows Server and Windows XP are scheduled to be released at the beginning of the year, but later Microsoft announced postponed until the end of April, the result is at the end of April At Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering conference, Microsoft again announced the postponement of the release of the server-side 64-bit Widnows system. However, Microsoft has released a version of Windows Server 2003 x64 that is near final testing.

Pulling out a circle

AMD Opteron At present, in the x86 architecture, AMD's 64-bit system and Intel's 64-bit system are implemented differently.

AMD's server-oriented Opteron has won the attention of users by allowing users to run 32-bit and 64-bit x86 applications on the same chip, giving users the flexibility to migrate to the 64-bit world. At the same time, the chip also includes architectural changes that can improve the performance of 32-bit applications. One of Opteron's technical features is the Hyper Transport technology, which directly connects the CPU to the memory, eliminating the need for a bus, reducing latency and increasing processing speed. At the same time, the internal integrated double data rate (DDR) memory controller changes the way the Opteron processor reads and writes the main memory, shortens the memory read and write latency of the SMP server system, improves performance, and the large memory address space can be Focus large data in memory for processing.

Intel's new Xeon and Intel's new Xeon system with extended memory 64-bit technology (EM64T) adds 64-bit extensions to the original x86 instruction set, extending registers to 64-bit. . The 64-bit extension includes a 64-bit mode and a compatible 32/64-bit mode. At the same time, a new LDT (Lightning Data Transfer Bus) is used, the LDT controller is built on the Northbridge chip, and all PCI controllers are moved into the Southbridge chip. The design allows the data bandwidth between the Northbridge and the Southbridge to reach 6.4GB/s.
Itanium system Itanium processor with 64-bit computing power, 64-bit addressing space and 64-bit data path, in terms of data processing capabilities, system stability, security, availability, manageability, etc. A breakthrough improvement. Itanium uses the EPIC (Display Parallel Operation Instruction Set) architecture to support long instruction sets and very long instruction sets. However, Itanium is not compatible with 32-bit applications. When using Itanium technology in a 32-bit environment, it is necessary to divide the data into two 32-bit data blocks, and then convert them into the original 64-bit mode, so performance is degraded. At present, most of the user applications of the IA architecture are 32-bit, so the development speed of Itanium in recent years is relatively slow. However, Intel's investment in Itanium is still very large at present, and the roadmap is also long-term. If the future user application transitions to a true 64-bit computing environment, the Itanium platform is also a worthwhile choice.

IBM's Power5 In June of this year, IBM introduced a new generation of Power5 processors, highlighting new concurrent multi-threading technology and better server partitioning. Some of Power5's performance improvements are attributed to multitasking: Power5 processors support multithreading, which means that one processor acts as two processors, allowing one chip to run multiple threads of the same application. IBM's approach to multithreading is to use more chip areas for multithreading. This is more complicated but better optimizes threads and improves server performance by about 35%.

There are counts in the heart

At present, almost all major server vendors are pushing 64-bit servers, but the processors and platform technologies are different. Users must combine themselves when choosing. The environment of use, choose the appropriate processor platform and operating system platform.

And the price and technical support capabilities are the two most important factors for users to look at vendors. Because 64-bit servers have different management and maintenance requirements than 32-bit servers, the training provided by vendors is also very important.