News Analysis

CoolThreads, hot performance

Sun Microsystems has made a big bet on the low-heat UltraSPARC T1 processor, a chip that sports a radical design. Akhtar Pasha reports

"UltraSPARC T1 systems are opening up new industry verticals for Sun with the likes of Tata Sky (DTH) and Sony TV deploying them" - K P Unnikrishnan Marketing Director Sun Microsystems India

When Sun Microsystems announced the availability of its Sun Fire T1000 and T2000—the first in a new generation of servers based on the densely multi-core, multi-threaded T1 processor (CoolThreads) in early January 2006—the company’s pitch was based on three factors that coincidentally happen to be issues faced by data centres—power, space and cooling constraints, rack space and reliability.

The CIO of a CDMA telco acknowledged that their data centre challenges include coping with growth, meeting the burgeoning demands of users and optimising the use of and reducing the cost of power, space and the heat generated by all those server chips. IDC too accepts that power consumption by the server is a critical cost factor in data centres. In addition, rising energy costs and data centre sprawl have left customers with overloaded racks of under-utilised and energy-hogging servers.

The question that arises is who’s buying the UltraSPARC T1 systems that are meant to plug the gap between Sun Fire Opteron systems at the entry level and high-end enterprise servers based on the UltraSPARC III/IV+. According to market and channel sources, Sun has sold 82 units of UltraSPARC T systems (mostly UltraSPARC T2000) till January this year to data centres of clients such as Tata Teleservices, Goodlass Nerolac, Idea Cellular, Sony, Tata Sky, Wipro Technologies and Jindal.

Says K P Unnikrishnan, Marketing Director, Sun Microsystems India: “UltraSPARC T1 systems have created a fresh business opportunity giving access to newer avenues and geographies [examples are Tata Sky that is into DTH, and Sony TV]. T1 systems will add to our Unix marketshare.”

Three considerations

There are three key points with regard to Sun’s offering of business-value in terms of evaluation tools to CIOs managing data centres and determining the cost of managing a data centre.

Sun has recommended a new metric to measure server efficiency in data centres called SWaP (Space Watts and Performance) to analysts such as IDC and Ideas International. Sun suggests that enterprises evaluate server choices for Web and application workloads based on three considerations: space, power consumption and throughput performance. SWaP is a composite of system performance, system space and power consumption. Performance per square foot and power per square foot are the traditional metrics, while SWaP brings all three critical factors together into a single metric. The SWaP metric is defined as performance/ (space*power). For SWaP, performance is measured by an appropriate benchmark, space is measured in rack units (RUs) and power is measured in watts. The higher the SWaP metric’s value the better.

The SIM data centre tool can be downloaded from Sun’s site for free. CIOs can drag and drop racks of servers on the data centre floor space; check on savings on power, cooling and space; and choose the most efficient solution for their data centres. CIOs can put in their actual server configuration, power consumption and cooling required to see how much they need to run the data centre. According to Anil Valluri, Country Director, Client Solutions Organisation, India, Sun Microsystems India, “Using SWaP and the SIM data centre tool, CIOs are building high-performing resilient data centres that are efficient.”

The T1 draws less power than competing chips, and achieves its performance not through high clock speeds but through fast memory access, low-latency and hardware-based context switching. The Sun Fire T1000 has a 1 RU chassis (19-inch depth), supports up to 16 GB DDR2 memory, consumes 180 watts of power, and comes with 6 and 8 core configuration. The price starts from Rs 1.9 lakh. The Sun Fire T2000 has 2 RU that supports up to 32 GB DDR2 memory, hot pluggable disc drives, consumes 275 watts of power, and comes in 4, 6 and 8 core configuration. The starting price is Rs 4.9 lakh.

Sun says that the power consumed by Sun Fire T1000 and Sun Fire T2000 is three to four times less than the competition. Solaris 10 is playing an important role in reducing the power consumption. Idle loops occur more frequently than one might expect, especially on a processor with 32 threads. When a thread enters the idle loop, the Solaris OS halts that thread and resumes execution when it is ready to schedule work. This not only helps in power reduction but limits the interaction with other active threads on that core.

Adds Valluri, “The multi-threaded servers allow customers to take advantage of the new CoolThreads technology without having to rewrite applications. The new systems are also the first servers designed from the ground-up for Internet workloads and for running current and next- generation Web application and distributed database systems.” Sun guarantees binary compatibility on the Solaris OS across all supported systems including the new Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers with CoolThreads technology. This ensures that software written for the Solaris 10 OS will run unmodified on all supported UltraSPARC systems, enabling easier migration from the earlier generation of UltraSPARC machines. “Sun has leapfrogged the competition,” declares Valluri, “establishing a three- to five-year lead over any other processor architecture.”

Try & buy programme

Under this programme, select customers can try the systems and return them if dissatisfied without any obligation. It’s a 60-day test drive because Sun believes that the best way for customers to know if the CoolThreads servers are right for them is to try them out at their data centres. Sun has identified 15 fresh accounts and there are as many as 70 customers on the waiting list who want to use these systems. The initiative here is driven by Sun itself, unlike in the US where it is driven by its channel partners. Says Unnikrishnan, “These UltraSPARC T1 systems will soon be seen in our Web store.”

First eight-core chip

At a time when competitors are offering dual-core processors, Sun is the first to market an eight-core processor. The successful deployment of chip multithreading processors in Sun servers should provide it with a competitive edge with its current customers who are expecting improved price or performance on a regular basis. They will also be attractive to new customers who need to support Web-based workloads with servers that require a smaller footprint and consume less power. The price or performance advantage may well compensate for the cost of migration for IT organisations which currently use servers based on competing technologies.

akhtar@expresscomputeronline.com