Vijay Tatkar's Blog

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Tuesday April 14, 2009

Dozen new World Records with Sun Studio + OpenSolaris at Nehalem Launch

Sun today launched x64 systems based on Intel Nehalem chip (aka Xeon Processor 5500 series) in grand style! Sun is calling these Open Network Systems to emphasize that its about much than just a chip upgrade alone. In particular, the message is around system design and innovation that encompasses " the convergence of open compute, storage, networking and software to deliver best application performance, simplicity and savings".
Application performance (and benchmarking performance) is best measured by what Sun highlighted today. Closer to (my)home, its a hit out of this park. Consider what the combination of Sun Studio 12 update 1 and OpenSolaris has cooked up:

Best (World Record) SPECfp_rate2006, SPECfp_rate_base2006, SPECint_rate2006, SPECint_rate_base2006 performance
Best (World Record) SPECompM2001, SPEcompL2001 x64 performance
Best (World Record) SPECcpu performance on single-blade, workstation, and rackmount servers

All in all 13 World Records! Clearly what I would call game, set and match (Sorry about mixing up the sporting metaphors between baseball and tennis here).
You can find more performance briefs here. See here for a whitepaper on how Solaris optimizes for Nehalem.
This is a great chip to work on, and the Sun Studio team has done a wonderful job of delivering outstanding performance in utilizing its strengths.
Sun Studio 12 update 1 is currently in early access and you can join up to preview and take advantage of these performance benefits. Or you can get the same via Sun Studio Express 3/09, also currently available for downloads.

Required Disclosure: SPEC and the benchmark names SPECint, SPECfp and SPEComp are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from this announcement and www.spec.org, as of 04/12/09.
Sun Fire X4170 (2 chips / 8 cores / 16 threads, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 36.8 SPECint2006
Sun Fire X2270 (2 chips / 8 cores / 16 OMP threads, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 254,318 SPECompL2001
Sun Ultra 27 (1 chip / 4 cores / 8 threads, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 45.4 SPECfp2006. Sun Blade X6270 (2 chips / 8 cores / 16 threads, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 50.4 SPECfp2006
Sun Blade X6275 (2 chips / 8 cores / 16 OMP threads, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 48,097 SPECompM2001
Sun Blade X6275 (2 nodes with 2 chips / 8 cores / 16 threads each, OpenSolaris 2008.11, Studio 12 update 1) - 478 SPECint_rate2006, 355 SPECfp_rate2006

Posted by tatkar ( Apr 14 2009, 02:03:48 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

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