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Sun reveals "third wave" server-on-a-chip plansBy Rick Merritt
Sun's new H-series line of microprocessors will debut in 2005 with one variant expected to offer the equivalent of a 32-way symmetric multiprocessor on a chip.
Sun hailed the move as a third wave of computer architecture it calls chip multithreading following its introduction of RISC processors and symmetric multiprocessing systems. The H series processors, designed for use in Infiniband-based server blade systems will provide as much as 15 times the performance of today's Sparc processors at much lower cost and power consumption, the company claimed in an analysts briefing in San Francisco on Tuesday (Feb 25).
The formal announcement came just one day after IBM announced it will ship in 2004 its Power5, a dual-core 64-bit server processor running two threads on each die.
Intel Corp. has said it will roll out a dual core version of its 64-bit Itanium processor in 2005, but has not stated its plans for multithreading on Itanium. Intel already ships dual-threaded 32-bit Pentium4 and Xeon processors that use a single core.
Sun's H-series line will include the Gemini processor, a dual threaded chip built in a 130-nm process that will ship in systems in 2005 and feature what Sun calls twice the throughput of today's UltraSparc III.
Also in 2005, Sun will ship the Niagara, a 90-nm version of the same technology with multiple cores and threads. Sun executives suggested the chip could use as many as eight cores each running four simultaneous threads, effectively creating a 32-way SMP system on chip.
The H series microprocessors are based on technology Sun acquired last July from startup Afara WebSystems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.). Afara designed a new, simplified UltraSparc II core it uses to create a 340 mm2 CPU that a Sun executive said includes as many as eight cores, each capable of running four separate threads.
Afara also has technology for integrating TCP offload and, in future, Secure Socket Layer acceleration into the modified UltraSparc II core. Afara was founded by former Sun chief architect Les Kohn who helped design the UltraSparc I and II.
S-series processors
Separately, Sun announced two next-generation S-series processors that will be used in its future high-end SMP servers. The so-called scale-up systems use many separate processors to crunch large computing tasks. That is in contrast to the H series chips aimed at so-called scale-out systems that use many small distributed systems in loose clusters to handle high throughput jobs like Web serving and application processing.
In its S series, Sun said it will ship its UltraSparc IV later this year. The 130-nm chip integrates two single-threaded cores, has an improved memory subsystem and is pin compatible with today's UltraSparc III. It will be used in Sun's high-end SMP systems.
In 2005, Sun will ship its UltraSparc V, a 90-nm chip that will include a new Sparc pipeline, dual threading and an enhanced multimedia instruction set.
This year Sun is releasing its UltraSparc IIIi, a lower cost, lower power version of its existing UltraSparc III aimed at systems that use up to four processors.
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