By Rich Ptak and Bill Moran
Moore’s law
is dead. Don’t remember the law[1]? You should still care because it underlies
computer industry progress the last 50 years. Briefly, it states that doubling
the number of components on a transistor every two years (or so), doubles
performance while shrinking physical size and cost. Unfortunately,
thermodynamics and physics mean this approach no longer works.
IBM is replacing the law with one that sees the future
fueled by innovation across the total stack of system components, augmented by
open systems collaboration. To that end, IBM has announced new IBM Linux servers, the Power
Systems LC[2] lineup. It has three new
systems designed for data and cognitive workloads, as well as an entry level
systems at the lowest price ($6595!) yet available for Power Systems. With technology from
OpenPOWER Foundation members, they run workloads faster and cheaper than
x86-based systems.
The three new
POWER8 Linux severs are the S812LC (entry), S822LC (Commercial computing) and
the S822LC (High Performance Computing) designed specifically for clouds and
clusters. They deliver performance and price advantages over x86 systems. The
S812LC completes a Spark workload with about 2.3 times better
performance/dollar-spent as a Xeon E5-2690 v3 System.
In the
post-Moore’s law world, improvements will require the collaboration and
innovation from multiple companies and institutions. IBM created the OpenPOWER
Foundation[3] to encourage such efforts on Power System
technology. With open access to the base Power architecture, members can
innovate with their own technology and integrate improvements into Power
processors.
Here’s how
innovation and collaboration with OpenPOWER Foundation members delivers
performance improvements. CAPI[4], a standard feature of POWER8, allows direct
access to high volumes of data using Flash Memory in a NoSQL environment. Redis Labs[5] managed to reduce the number of POWER8
servers (compared with X86) needed in a 40TB NoSQL case by a factor of 13[6].
In just two
years of existence, the Foundation has attracted over 150 member companies and
over 35 new products. IBM, Mellanox and NVIDIA collaborated to win a $325
million super computer contract from the US Department of Energy. There are
many more documented successes available.
We recommend anyone considering a server purchase evaluate
the new Power Systems LC line. For many data intense applications that are run
in cluster environments, you may find that these systems deliver value not
available elsewhere. For those looking to test their applications before doing
on-site proof of concept, a POWER8 developer cloud is available before ordering
a system.
IBM recently announced LinuxONE[7] for the mainframe world; now there is the Power Systems LC to make things even more interesting. For more on new capabilities and products view the webcast at: http://tinyurl.com/nctlofd.
IBM recently announced LinuxONE[7] for the mainframe world; now there is the Power Systems LC to make things even more interesting. For more on new capabilities and products view the webcast at: http://tinyurl.com/nctlofd.
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
describes the law and its history.
[2]
Special configurations/pricing available for easy on-line purchasing: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/linux-lc.html
[4] Coherent
Accelerator Processor Interface, See CAPI and NoSQL: http://www-304.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/capi/home.html
[5]
See our blog on CAPI: http://ptakassociates.blogspot.com/2015/06/with-redis-labs-capi-goes-mainstream.html
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