Analyst: AMD 12-Cores vs. Intel 6-Cores Server Chips

April 1, 2010

This week, AMD and Intel launched their latest generation of high-end server chips.

The AMD Opteron 6000 (Magny-Cours) is a set of 8- and 12-core processors for dual- and quad-CPU servers. Not to be outdone, Intel has introduced the 8-core processor Xeon 7500 (Westmere), that could be deployed in mammoth 256-processor configurations.

To help us understand the differences between these 2 competing family of chips, we asked Insight64 analyst, Nathan Brookwod to share his views on these latest chips.

In 2-socket configurations, AMD delivers better performance despite Intel’s faster cores

AMD Magny-Cours (now the Opteron 6100) for both two socket and four socket configurations.

In the two-socket world, AMD faces Westmere-EP (Xeon 5600), which has six cores and twelve threads. Westmere’s cores are faster than Magny-Cours’ cores. Westmere wins some single-threaded contests, but AMD can overwhelm them if it gets to fire up all its cores, or if memory bandwidth or capacity is an issue.

In 4-socket configurations, AMD wins in price but Intel can scale to 64-sockets!

In the four-socket world, AMD faces Nehalem-EX, aka Becton, which has eight cores and sixteen threads. Becton’s cores are faster than Magny-Cours’ cores, and Intel has more on-chip cache (24MB to AMD’s 12MB) but AMD has 12 cores to Intel’s 8, and AMD charges the same price for the chips in 2P and 4P systems, while Intel charges almost 2x the price (per chip) for Becton, compared with Westmere-EP. Magny-Cours will win some benchmarks against Becton, and lose some, but it will always be less expensive. Some customers will value Intel’s greater expandability (to 8, 16 and 64-socket arrangements) and others will be attracted to AMD’s lower price.

Can Itanium survive to latest performance onslaught?

Brookwood’s law (“It’s easier to measure price than performance”) will give AMD an advantage in the two-way and four-way segments, but Becton will have almost no competition (other than Itanium and Power 7) for the higher-end niche of the server market. It’s hard to see how Itanium can survive for long against this Xeon onslaught.

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[Video] Intel Confirms Launch Of “Westmere” Server Chip Mid-March, Details Cloud Security Functions

March 2, 2010

Intel server chip chief Kirk Skaugen confirmed the imminent release of the company's first 6-core chip since the ill-fated Dunnington

At a security event last night in San Francisco, Intel vice-president Kirk Skaugen confirmed the release date of Intel’s next-generation lineup of 32-nm Xeon server processors, including the first six-core Xeon chips since 2008 (Dunnington).

“In about 2 weeks it’s highly anticipated that we’ll be announcing this Westmere processor… When you buy that [chip], you should be able to get your return in about 5 months. But we’re probably most excited about – relative to just another crank of energy and performance – is the security features that are going into the processor,”told Skaugen to reporters during a media event hosted by security company RSA.

Scheduled in March 16, Intel will release a dozen dual-socket, 32nm Xeon processors as well a workstation version (Core i7) of the six-core chip.

“But what probably we’re most excited about – relative to another crank of energy and performance – is the [2] security features that are going into the processor,” added Skaugen.

The 2 new security features included in the Westmere line are:

  1. 7 new instructions call AES-NI, that will deliver encryption and decryption up to 9 times faster and up to 2 times more SSL functions than in the past;
  2. Trusted eXecution Technology (TXT) that is integrated in the processor, the chipset and Intel motherboards. “So for example, if you’re using VMotion to dynamically move a workload from a server to another, you want to set policies that say “I’m only going to move a workload to a server I know the secure root of trust has been verified… So, if I’m on a non trusted server I won’t be allowed to run [an application] on a trusted server, and vice-versa… all these kind of policies can be set up at the cloud level through the software that will be enabled on top of these new hardware,” said Skaugen.

Intel claims cloud domination

The Intel executive also provided reporters with some interesting statistics:

  1. a little under 40% of the world’s servers today are still single core;
  2. Xeon servers represent about 90% of the cloud infrastructure.

“With this new chip, everything that you know and love about Intel on energy efficiency, you’ll still get. So you can retire 15 single core servers and put in one Westmere server that is going to have the same performance, but you also going to get the trusted execution technology that can deliver that new secure root of trust,” concluded Skaugen.

Follows is a video excerpt of Skaugen comments:

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel Says Processor And Technology Roadmap Remain On Schedule

November 17, 2008
Core i7 shipping in volume, says Pat Gelsinger

Core i7 shipping in volume, says Pat Gelsinger

Intel launched its latest high-performance PC processor – the Core i7 – on Monday, saying the new chip is shipping in volume.

But just as important, the company noted that its next few products are on schedule despite the prospects of softening demand from the global slowdown.

Already 100,000 Core i7s have shipped and are available for sale in 70 countries with more than 500 models of computer planned, said Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger.

“This processor is available and shipping in volume,” Gelsinger pointed out at a launch event in San Francisco.

The Core i7, Intel’s new top-of-the-line model, is currently available in three speeds ranging from 2.66 GHz to 3.2 GHz and its sells for as much as $999 a chip. It had previously been code named Nehalem.

The next several versions of the chip remain on track, Gelsinger said. A version for servers and workstations is targeted for the first quarter of 2009 and a version with integrated graphics is planned for later in the year.

By late next year, a Core i7 with 8 computing cores will appear.

Then by late 2009, Intel will roll out its next generation manufacturing technology – capable of making circuits at 32 nanometers, Gelsinger said. That will allow the company to make a version of the chip called Westmere.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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