Amd chips
Developed for spicing up computer games turns out to be useful for building supercomputers. AMD chips 3DNow technology was designed to improve the 3D graphics of games. But the feature can also be used to speed up mathematical calculations, The use of AMD chip is unusual for such systems. Athlons, and AMD processors in general, are almost exclusively found in single-processor consumer computers. The company will actually make one of its first forays into the business market later this year.
"Because of the 3DNow support, we've been able to get an awful lot more performance out of them than we're able to get with the current Intel line The machine, called the Kentucky Linux Athlon Testbed 2 (KLAT2), is a "Beowulf" computer, a collection of smaller computers networked together to throw their collective might at a single computational task. Each of the nodes of such machines typically runs the Linux operating system, a clone of Unix that's popular in academia because it can be tweaked as much as a researcher wants.
KLAT2 isn't very powerful compared with some Beowulf systems. But it's only a step on a path to greater glory for AMD chip and the University of Kentucky's computing program.
High-powered supercomputers are used for computationally intense problems that can't be solved with lesser machines. Typical customers include researchers who want to simulate three-dimensional models of nuclear explosions, intelligence agencies that need to decode messages, car manufacturers that need to model car crashes, and companies that need to mine gems of useful information out of mountains of data.
Beowulf clusters provide a cheap way to get supercomputer performance without having to pay supercomputer prices. Because communication between different nodes typically is slower than with more specialized designs, Beowulf systems aren't good for all types of computing tasks.
While very common at labs and universities, Beowulf machines are attracting the attention of major companies such as Dell, Compaq and IBM and specialized firms such as High Performance Technologies and Atipa.
Both Atipa and HPTI use Compaq's Alpha chip. While performance remains higher with Alpha, Alphas cost much more than Athlons. Compaq hopes Beowulf computers will boost sales of its Alpha chips.
First was the use of 3DNow, which actually handles numbers more like the Alpha chip. Using 3DNow is hard, though, because it's not something that ordinary programming tools know how to exploit. The software has to be written in a somewhat unusual programming language before it can use the 3DNow capabilities.
Second was the extension of the "lots of cheap parts" Beowulf philosophy to the network infrastructure that ties the nodes together. Usually very few fast, expensive switches are used to connect the nodes, but the University of Kentucky used a collection of nine cheaper switches.
The key to this approach was figuring out how to wire together 64 computers with four network cards each through nine 31-port switches such that any pair of computers was as close as possible--a mathematical tangle the researchers had to use another of the university's computers to solve.
While 3DNow AMD chip work well, one disadvantage is that only one processor can be used in a node. Intel chips can be used in two-processor or four-processor configurations, a design that can circumvent the sometimes laggardly communications between nodes on a Beowulf system.
Sun & Dell using AMD chips in servers
Sun this week hopes to step up its position in the exploding low-end server market by introducing its Opteron-based Galaxy machines, with a focus on high performance, better cooling and advanced manageability.
At its quarterly news event in New York, Sun is expected to make a number of announcements, including the introduction of the first three Galaxy servers - the low-cost Sun Fire X2100 and the enterprise-class X4100 and X4200. The servers have been in the works since they were designed by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, who returned to the computer maker when it acquired Kealia nearly two years ago.
The day has come. After years of only offering AMD to select customers behind closed doors, the company has now said that it plans to use AMD processors in part of its server line to meet customer demand.
"In the enterprise, we will launch new ninth generation
servers featuring Intel's Woodcrest microprocessors. Dell will also introduce new AMD Opteron processors in our multiprocessor servers by the end of the year offering a great new technology to our customers at the high-end of our server line," Dell said in a statement.
No further information about Dell's plans for the Opteron were revealed, however.
Few think Dell is in any real trouble, but the company was limiting its customer base by refusing to sell AMD-based products. Now with support in at least part of its server line, it is likely to lose fewer sales to competitors such as HP which have long since embraced AMD's offerings.
AMD Chips on Chips
The fact that AMD is even considering adding additional processors into its bread-and-butter chips represents a major departure in thinking at one of the Big Two processor companies. But with complexity and the cost of development on the rise, not to mention a growing focus on power conservation, established chip companies are beginning to think what two years ago would have been heresy.
For one thing, adding special-purpose processors for the first time opens the door to other companies beside Intel and AMD, which were frozen out of the processor market by the prohibitive costs of developing bleeding-edge multi-purpose chips. Add to that the intense and costly battles between the two giants, along with the shrinking number of customers who can use those chips, and the efforts of other semiconductor companies in this space have largely evaporated.
Multiple special purpose chips working in conjunction with general processorsand eventually within themchanges that dynamic. If it comes to fruitionand there certainly are no guaranteesit offers third-party processor makers, embedded developers and IP companies a potential inroad into what until now has been a closed market.
Ten good reasons not to buy AMD chips
1. Only INQUIRER readers have heard of AMD.
2. Its silk screen printing has been outsourced to India.
3. Like Carly Fiorina's HP, it's using SITEL.
4. There are too many pins on its chips.
5. There are too few pins on its chips.
6. It hasn't got Pat Goldfinger working for it.
7. Its executives run away from Maureen Gara, Charlie Demerjian and Mike Magee.
8. It doesn't know how to throw good parties any more.
9. Hector Ruiz is the CEO now.
10. Err... that's it.
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