A Look at Solaris 10 and Sun's Dual Core Fire V40z
by Kristopher Kubicki on June 29, 2005 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
New Changes to the V40z
The heart of the new V40z is, of course, the Opteron 875 processors. Since a single 2.6GHz Opteron draws the same power as a dual core 2.2GHz Opteron, the V40z doesn't seem to have too much difficulty with drop in compatibility. In theory at least, a dual core Opteron 875 should have the same power envelope as an Opteron 252 but provides an additional 50-80% performance boost. For more details on the Opteron 875, please check out our earlier article here. Although AMD has some background in 8-way server configurations, it is not nearly as extensive as that of Intel, Sun, IBM or HP. Putting eight cores in a 3U is a huge step forward for AMD (and Sun) and processor scaling is a colossal issue.
Additional cooling is not necessary for the dual core Opteron 875s because they have approximately the same TDP as Opteron 852s.
Our previous V40z (Quad Opteron 850) managed to draw 585 watts during peak operation - well within the capability of the redundant 760W power supplies. During peak operation the new V40z with quad Opteron 875s hit 615W during heavy load. This falls in line with AMD and Sun's claim concerning the power consumption.
Aside from the dual core processors, there have been some other changes to the V40z since our last analysis.
- The two Broadcom BCM5703 gigabit controllers in the previous V40z have been replaced with a single BCM5704.
- The 800MHz HyperTransport links have been upgraded to full 1GHz HyperTransport links.
- The Service Processor now supports IPMI 2.0.
- Support for 300GB hard drives has been added to the BIOS.
The new features of the V40z do come at a premium; the base quad dual core systems from Sun start around $38,995 direct from Sun. However, there are incentive programs (including a Xeon trade-in program) that can reduce this cost by up to 15% and other promos running on Sun's webpage. Third party retailers are also selling Sun system at lower prices, but unfortunately the third party retailers do not offer the same support packages.
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KristopherKubicki - Thursday, June 30, 2005 - link
Ecmaster76: It wasn't my decision to remove the article, and I agree with your thoughts as well.Kristopher
mastashake57 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
Let me tell you, we have the first generation v40z, and it's a total crusher in comparison to our Dell PowerEdge 6650s. Way to go SUN!Intel XEONs can't hold a candle to it...
Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
that should read:But if there are liability and/or other issues that might come from leaving it up, than I will just have to wait.
Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
KristopherKubickiI think everyone has read the PS3/360 article but me, its been linked on Ars and it was out long enough that someone at MS could have downloaded the whole thing.
But if there a re liability and/or other issues that might come from leaving it up, than I will just have to wait.
Ahkorishaan - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
#11 Solaris 10 is on the graphs, he jsut forgot to add it to the chart.Hey guys in Anandtech, think we could grab a review of the new Sun Ultra 20 workstation? It looks pretty sweet.
prd00 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
Without much pressure from Intel, Sun has been pretty free to do what they want with AMD's processors. Sun is even going a bit on the offensive with Intel trade-in programs. Even though both AMD and Sun have been through some hard times recently, Sun is a great ally for AMD for two reasons; first, Sun knows servers - this is a critical market for AMD. Second, Sun isn't afraid of Intel and doesn't have nearly the problems AMD does with their customers.HEhuehueh... that's the reason why Sun server is still the best AMD server out there. HP and IBM should learn from them on how to build a good Opteron server.Anyway, Cray implementation of Opteron is still unmatched.
themelon - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
One question, why the lack of apples to apples os comparison between the two systems? You talk about S10 for two pages yet you dont list it as being tested on the Dual Core machine. That and you do not use the same linux versions on the two machines.To me that makes this comparison a whole lot less usefull. Granted, the perf should not vary to much between SuSE 9 and 9.1 but to not include S10 in the Dual Core comparo seems kinda silly.
KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
Ecmaster76: Eh, something was messed up with the content management system. PS3 article is pulled for now because Anand is worried about MS tracing his anonymous insider.Kristopher
Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
Ah, rendering problems. Thats why this article isn't on the main page (2461, the console article is a dead link, and it occured to me that number was about three articles to high, easy guess).Shame on you for pulling stuff when you could just leave a little 'were working on it'.
:p
Beenthere - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link
FWIW,AMD doesn't have "problems with it's customers" at all. AMD has problems with Intel's illegal Biz practices which have prevented many AMD customers from selling AMD products. With any luck HP, Sony and a Helleva lot of other PC companies will finally put Intel execs in prison where they belong. And you can bet all the companies that have been blackmailed by Intel will be a LOT more interested in selling AMD products now that the shit has hit the fan and they can come out of hiding.