Sun Rolls Out Dual-Core UltraSparc-IV Chip

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Companies using the midrange and enterprise Unix servers from Sun Microsystems will be happy to see that the company has kept pace with Unix rival Hewlett-Packard, which announced the dual-core PA-8800s this week, too. Both have finally caught up with rival IBM, which has been shipping dual-core Power4 processors since the end of 2001. Both the UltraSparc-IV and PA-8800 are running a little late, and it is no accident of timing that they are both being announced so closely together.

With the chip-making processes that etch the transistors on chips getting smaller and smaller, it makes sense to make what are in essence small SMP servers on a single chip. The UltraSparc-IV, which is code-named "Jaguar" inside Sun, is essentially two "Cheetah" UltraSparc-III cores (which date from late 2000) jammed onto a single piece of silicon. For a long time, Sun executives hinted that the UltraSparc-IV would be pin-compatible with the existing UltraSparc-III processors, which would mean that they could be plugged into the same system cell boards. Last fall, Sun executives said that this was not the case. Although the UltraSparc-IV uses the same physical packaging and, thanks to an improved 130 nanometer copper/low-k dielectric process created by Sun's chip partner, Texas Instruments, can be jammed in about the same space, the Jaguar chip has a few pins that cope with signals from system boards that tell it how to route data and processing requests to specific chips. This means customers will have to do board-level upgrades to move from UltraSparc-III to UltraSparc-IV.

Steve Campbell, vice president of Sun's Enterprise System Products group, says companies will be able to add Jaguar boards to existing Sun Fire server frames (Sun Fire 4800, 6800, 12000, or 15000 servers). Sun has also rolled out a new line of machines just for the UltraSparc-IVs, which have their own characteristics. Interestingly, these new machines have been given the product name "Enterprise," harking back to the days when Sun was selling UltraSparc-II servers at the height of the dot-com boom. (With the launch of the Cheetah chips and the "Serengeti" line of servers, in 2000 and 2001, all of the Sun midrange and enterprise servers were given the "Sun Fire" moniker.) And to offer better investment protection, Sun is allowing boards from Sun Fire machines to be used in the new Enterprise line. Customers can mix and match these boards in a single frame.

The first generation UltraSparc-IV processor is being offered as an upgrade for the existing Sun Fire and new Enterprise lines at 1.05 GHz and 1.2 GHz. Sun might be able to improve the clock speed this year on that same 130 nanometer process, but in the first half of 2005 Sun and TI plan to move the Jaguar design to a 90 nanometer copper/low-k process that also adds strained silicon to shrink transistor sizes even more. Sun has to get into the 2 GHz zone with these UltraSparc-IV+ chips if it hopes to compete well with IBM and HP as well as Sparc clone maker Fujitsu Siemens. Depending on how yields and processes go at TI, the company could end up anywhere between 2 GHz and 3 GHz with the second generation Jaguar chips.

Between now and then, the Jaguar processors and the new Enterprise line of servers are going to raise a few eyebrows and smiles from Sun customers, many of whom who have complained in the past two years that the price/performance of the UltraSparc-III Sun Fire machines did not keep good pace with IBM's very aggressive "Regatta" line of Power4 servers. Campbell says that, on average workloads, the dual-core UltraSparc-IV processor running at 1.2 GHz will yield about 1.8 times the performance of a single core UltraSparc-III running at the same speed (this is almost certainly for workloads that are already tweaked to take advantage of multiple threads, as Sun's Solaris Unix variant and the Oracle database is). He said that, on average, a Jaguar-based Enterprise server with a given number of two-core chips would have a list price that was about 35 percent higher than a Cheetah-based box with the same number of chips (but half as many cores), yielding a price/performance improvement of 50 percent. (Incidentally, when I do the math on those performance improvements and price increases, I get a 25 percent price/performance improvement, not 50 percent.)

But before I get into the specifics of the new Enterprise servers, here is some important language: Sun is not calling the UltraSparc-IV a dual core processor, but rather a single processor with two threads. Big deal, you say? Well, it is if you are trying to convince software suppliers that a single chip is synonymous with a single processor. Sun's has always been more interested in the performance of multithreaded applications and has designed systems that have more physical processors than alternatives from IBM or HP did (at least until recently). A 72-way Sun UltraSparc-III box might be able to match a 32-way IBM Power4 box when it comes to performance, but in a world of processor-based software pricing, databases, middleware, and application software on the Sun box will be more than twice as expensive as on the IBM box. That is why Sun is saying that the UltraSparc-IV is a single processor. It will be interesting to see if software makers let the company get away with this. If it does, then a Regatta machine is only a 16-way SMP box, too, not a 32-way.

So there are three new midrange and two new enterprise servers from Sun using the UltraSparc-IV processors. The feeds and speeds for memory and disk capacities for these servers were not available at press time. The odds favor Sun offering twice as much main memory on the new Enterprise servers as it did on the Sun Fires. Sun is till only offering 36 GB and 73 GB SCSI disks on Sun Fire or Enterprise servers, but is qualifying 146 GB disks at the moment for its server line. If history repeats itself, the base configurations of all of these machines will sell using the 1.05 GHz UltraSparc-IV processors, with only larger configurations getting the 1.2 GHz parts until TI ramps up production and gets better yield on the chips.

The Enterprise 2900 offers from 4 to 12 processors (meaning 8 to 24 cores) and does not support dynamic domain partitions. In essence, it appears to be a V Series V1280 server with support for the Jaguar chip. The base configuration will cost $98,995, and this machine will be available in April.

The Enterprise 4900 scales from 4 to 12 processors (8 to 24 cores) and supports up to two dynamic domains. (Domain partitions are an option, not a requirement.) A base machine will cost $185,000. It will be available in March, and upgrade kits (presumably to upgrade a Sun Fire 4800 to an Enterprise 4900) will be available with prices starting at $15,000.

The Enterprise 6900 has from four to 24 processors (8 to 48 cores) and supports up to four dynamic domains. A base E6900 will cost $235,000, with upgrade kits starting at $30,000. The E6900 will be available in March.

The Enterprise 20000 server has up to 36 Jaguar processors (72 cores). It will ship in April, with a base configuration costing $640,000.

The Enterprise 25000 server has up to 72 Jaguar processors (144 cores). It will also ship in April, and a base machine will sell carry a list price of $825,000.

Sun talked about a few "sweet spot" configurations comparing Sun Fire and Enterprise machines to give customers a sense of what a real-world machine might cost. A 16-processor Enterprise 6900 using the 1.05 GHz UltraSparc-IVs (that's 32 cores) configured with 64 GB of main memory costs $660,000. A 16-way Sun Fire 6800 using 1.05 GHz UltraSparc-III (single core) processors will cost $490,000. Stepping up the clock speed to 1.2 GHz drives the price of the Enterprise 6900 up to $773,000, a 17 percent increase for about a 14 percent increase in performance. Moving the Sun Fire 6800 from 1.05 GHz to 1.2 GHz UltraSparc-III processors raises the price to $578,000, which is an 18 percent increase for about 14 percent more oomph. A Sun Fire 15000 with 48 UltraSparc-III processors running at 1.05 GHz and 192 GB of main memory lists for $1,636,000; an Enterprise 25000 with 48 dual-core UltraSparc-IVs running a 1.05 GHz and with the same 192 GB of main memory will cost $2,239,000. That's 27 percent more money for a machine that does 80 percent more work--a price/performance improvement of about 24 percent.