The OpenPOWER Saga Continues: Can You Get POWER Inside 1U?
by Johan De Gelas on February 24, 2017 8:00 AM ESTBenchmark Configuration and Methodology
Our testing was conducted on Ubuntu Server 16.04 (kernel 4.2.0) with gcc compiler version 5.2.1. As we were only able to get everything working appropriately with that specific software combination, we were not able to use something newer.
Last but not least, we want to note how the performance graphs have been color-coded. Orange is for used for POWER8 CPUs, while the latest generation of the Intel Xeon (v4) gets dark blue, the previous one (v3) gets light blue, and older Xeon generations are colored with the default gray.
Tyan GT75-BSP012 (1U)
The Tyan GT75-BSP012 is based up on Tyan's "Habanero" platform.
CPU | One IBM POWER8 2.328 GHz (up to 3.025 GHz Turbo) |
RAM | 128 GB (8x16GB) DDR3L-1600 |
Internal Disks | 2x Sandisk 512 GB |
Motherboard | Tyan SP012GMR-1U "Habanero" |
PSU | 750W 80Plus Platinum |
IBM S812LC (2U)
The IBM S812LC is also based up on Tyan's "Habanero" platform. The board inside the IBM server is thus designed by Tyan.
CPU | One IBM POWER8 2.92 GHz (up to 3.5 GHz Turbo) |
RAM | 256 GB (16x16GB) DDR3-1333 |
Internal Disks | 2x Samsung 850Pro 960 GB |
Motherboard | Tyan SP012 |
PSU | Delta Electronics DSP-1200AB 1200W |
Intel's Xeon E5 Server – S2600WT (2U Chassis)
Our trusty Xeon E5 collection includes the E5-2699 v4, E5-2699v3, and E5-2690.
CPU | One Intel Xeon processor E5-2699 v4 (2.2 GHz, 22c, 55MB L3, 145W) One "simulated" Intel Xeon processor E5-2680 v4 (2.2 GHz, 14c, 35MB L3, 145W) One Intel Xeon processor E5-2699 v3 (2.3 GHz, 18c, 45MB L3, 145W) One Intel Xeon processor E5-2690 v3 (3.2 GHz, 8c, 20MB L3, 135W) |
RAM | 128 GB (8x16GB) Kingston DDR4-2400 |
Internal Disks | 2x Samsung 850Pro 960 GB |
Motherboard | Intel Server Board Wildcat Pass |
PSU | Delta Electronics 750W DPS-750XB A (80+ Platinum) |
All C-states are enabled in the BIOS.
SuperMicro 6027R-73DARF (2U Chassis)
CPU | Two Intel Xeon processor E5-2697 v2 (2.7GHz, 12c, 30MB L3, 130W) |
RAM | 128GB (8x16GB) Samsung at 1866 MHz |
Internal Disks | 2x Intel SSD3500 400GB |
Motherboard | SuperMicro X9DRD-7LN4F |
PSU | Supermicro 740W PWS-741P-1R (80+ Platinum) |
All C-states are enabled in the BIOS.
Other Notes
Both servers are fed by a standard European 230V (16 Amps max.) power line. The room temperature is monitored and kept at 23°C by our Airwell CRACs.
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Einy0 - Friday, February 24, 2017 - link
Articles like these make me wonder if some of these companies using IBM eServer iSeries(AS/400) as mid-level servers are wasting their money. I was always under the impression that Power was suppose to be tuned for database heavy workloads and hence have a massive advantage in doing so. I know the iSeries servers run an OS with DB2 built-in and tuned specifically for it but how much of an advantage does that really equate to?FunBunny2 - Friday, February 24, 2017 - link
-- I know the iSeries servers run an OS with DB2 built-in and tuned specifically for it but how much of an advantage does that really equate to?unless IBM has done a complete port recently, AS/400 "integrated database" was built before server versions of DB2 existed. it's/was just a retronym.
kfishy - Friday, February 24, 2017 - link
As ISAs becoming more and more relevant in the post-Moore's law world, where you can't solve a computational problem just by throwing ever more transistors at it, I wonder if this opens up opportunity for POWER to carve out niches left out by Intel's more fixed and general purpose approach.At the same time, POWER will have to contend with a nascent but rising and truly open ISA in RISC-V, where companies can simply implement the subsets of the ISA that they need. The next decade in processor architecture is going to be interesting to watch.
FunBunny2 - Friday, February 24, 2017 - link
-- As ISAs becoming more and more relevant in the post-Moore's law world, where you can't solve a computational problem just by throwing ever more transistors at itgiven that ISA has been reduced to z, ARM, and X86 not counting Power, of course. and ARM might not really qualify as equivalent. for those ancient enough, or well read enough, know that up to and during the "IBM and 7 Dwarves" era, ISA and even base architecture, made a varied ecosystem. not so much anymore. and I doubt anyone will invent a more efficient adder or multiplier or any other subunit of the real CPU. just look at the screen shots of chips over the last couple of decades: the real CPU area of a chip is nearly disappeared. in fact, much (if not most) of the transistor budget for some years has been used for caching, not ISA in hardware. so called micro-architecture is just a RISC CPU, and the rest of the chip is those caches and ever more complicated "decoder". that and integrating what had previously been other-chip functions. IOW, approaching monopoly control of compute.
I expect the next decade to be more of the same: more cache and more off-chip function brought on chip. actual CPU ISA, not so much.
aryonoco - Saturday, February 25, 2017 - link
Thank you Johan. Great article.Not all AnandTech articles live up to the standards set in the days past, but your articles continue your own excellent standards.
Very much looking forward to POWER 9 chips. Hopefully they have also done the work to port the toolchain and important software already to it this time and we won't have to wait another 12 months after release to be able to compile normal Linux programs on it.
Also, 12 fans running at 15,000 rpm in a 1U? What did that sound like?! Wow!
JohanAnandtech - Sunday, February 26, 2017 - link
Thx Aryonoco. Not all of those 12 fans were running at top speed, but imagine a Jumbo jet taking off sound. It clearly show how hard it is to cool IBM's best in a 1U: you have to limit the clockspeed to about 2/3 of what it is capable off and double the number of fans.yuhong - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
"Unfortunately, the latest 8 Gbit based DIMMs are not supported."Micron don't make these chips anymore:
http://media.digikey.com/pdf/PCNs/Micron/PCN_32042...
Interestingly, Crucial is selling 32GB DDR3 quad rank RDIMMs again (but not LR-DIMMs):
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct32g3erslq41339
mystic-pokemon - Sunday, March 5, 2017 - link
For folks who are saying that POWER only looks good on paper. NOT true.I know shit ton of stuff about one of the server Johan listed above. He has a point when he says Power consumption is only so much important.
In short, when you combine all aspects to TCO model: POWER8 server delivers most optimal TCO value
We consider all the following into our TCO model
a) Cost of ownership of the server
b) Warranty (Lesser than conventional server, different model of operations)
c) What it delivers (How many independent threads (SMT8 on POWER8 remember ? 192 hardware threads), how much Memory Bandwidth (230 GBPs), how much total memory capacity in 1 server ( 1 TB with 32 GB)
d) For a public cloud use-case, how many VMs (with x HW threads and x memory cap / bw ) can you deliver on 1 POWER8 server compared to other servers in fleet today ? Based on above stats, a lot .
e) Data center floor lease cost in DC ( 24 of these servers in 1 Rack, much denser. Average the lease over age of server: 3 years ). This includes all DC services like aggers, connectivity and such.
f) Cost per KWH in the specific DC ( 1 Rack has nominal power 750W)
All this combined POWER has good TCO. Its a massively parallel server, what where major advantage comes from. Choose your workload wisely. That's why companies continue to work on it.
I am talking about all this without actually combining with CAPI over PCIe and openCAPI. With POWER9 all this is getting even better. Get it ? POWER is going no where.