Friday, March 29, 2013

Hot Chips 24: SPARC T5 Overview


[SPARC T5 Processor, courtesy Oracle 2013-03-26 Announcement]
Abstract:
Every year, the best of engineering talent comes together in academia for Hot Chips conference, to present the best system designs. During Hot Chips 24, Session 9 - the SPARC T5 was presented by Sebastian Turullols and Ram Sivaramakrishnan from Oracle on Wednesday, August 29, 2012. This processor was released 6 months later, by Oracle with their T5 systems on Tuesday March 26, 2013.

Video Presentation:
The video presentation of Session 9 was conducted by Fujitsu, Oracle, and IBM. The middle portion of the presentation, starting at 30 minutes, includes the Oracle presenters.


Slide Presentation:

The following screen shots were taken of the presentation. The full presentation is available here.




[4x memory controllers are capable of a peak of 128 GigaBytes per Second]











[Acceleration of Contended Locks; linked list of address requests; all requests satisfied atomically]

[Directory based level 3 indices, tracked up to 8 sockets on an on-chip SRAM]

[7 links with 14 lanes per link between sockets]


[C2C is a sharing cache]


[28 GigaBytes bandwidth between nodes; allows for aggregation of throughput via intermediate node]




[OLTP workload is extremely shared, makes workloads very difficult to scale]

[Elastic Mode includes all of the power saving features automatically]


[Solaris makes frequency request from hypervisor; cores reduced or cycle skipping used]



[Frequency and Voltage pushes performance maximum possible by the system]








Question-Answer Session: The following information was provided during the Question-Answer session, from the audience.
  • Voltage required for 3.6GHz varies from part to part. 0.95-1v is needed.
  • There is one voltage supply for all cores; one common PLL for the entire chip. Cycle skipping is used to vary cycle rate.
  • Low latency clustering port leverages "Allocated DMA Feature"
  • T5 no longer has an integrated 10 Gigabie Ethernet Controller.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Tab Update: Solaris - New T5 and M5 Platforms!


With the new Oracle T5 and Oracle M5 processors released from Oracle yesterday evening, two new white papers have hit Network Management blog, covering the architecture for solution integrations.

Solaris Reference Material
...
2013-03 [PDF] Oracle's SPARC T5-2, T5-4, T5-8, and T5-1B Server Architecture
2013-03 [PDF] Oracle's SPARC M5-32 Server Architecture






Monday, March 25, 2013

SPARC T5 Partner Cast

[SPARC T5, courtesy Oracle Corporation]
SPARC T5 Partner Cast
Abstract:
John Shell, Senior Director of Systems Partner Enablement for Oracle, hosts Rick Hetherington, VP of Hardware Development for Oracle, to discuss Oracle’s SPARC T5 Processor.

Interview Notes:
SPARC T4 Summary:
- S3 Cores, clocked at 3.0 GHz
- Crypto Cores inserted into Core with additional instructions, highest level of crypto performance in the industry

SPARC T5 Summary:
- Same S3 Cores
- Faster clock rate, more cores
- Improvement in 1 year

Solaris Summary:
- Solaris 10 and Solaris 11 have both been optimized for T4 & T5
- Enhanced security library, thread scheduling, improved vm system
- Adding additional features into SPARC for Oracle stack optimizations
- Industry leading performance on long list of ISV's

Partner Summary:
- Oracle continues to invest hevily into SPARC and Solaris
- Continual flow of ever improving SPARC processors
- SPARC processors will continue to form heart of engineered systems

Q-A
- Is T5 a Systems on a Chip? Yes
- What is the value of 28nm? Transistors are smaller, more functionality on die, improved cycle time
Media:

SPARC T5 Deep Dive

[SPARC T5 Microdie, courtesy Oracle Corporation]
Abstract:
The SPARC platform has existed for over 25 years, with continued binary compatibility. The latest of these processors, the SPARC T5, is about to be released. Oracle published a short written interview with the Rick Hetherington, who is leading the charge on newer SPARC processors.

SPARC T5 Deep Dive:
Oracle regularly publishes short question-answer articles, called Deep Dives, regarding new platforms during the release phase. This latest SPARC T5 release is no different. An overview and questions are listed below. This is the article, for the answer to the questions.
Rick Hetherington, Oracle’s vice president of hardware development, manages a team of architects and performance analysts who design Oracle’s M- and T-series processors. In this interview, Hetherington describes the technical details of the new SPARC T5 processor and expands on the process that is used to design these innovative chips.

Q: What were the design objectives of the SPARC T5 processor?
...
Q: So what’s new in the SPARC T5?
...
Q: This is mainly a performance increase story then?
...
Q: Does the SPARC T5 also support both single-threaded and multi-threaded applications?
...
Q: Was there anything in the design process that surprised you, or did things go the way you expected?
...
Q: And how do you know which workloads you want to model on?
...
Q: What do you mean when you say trace?
...
Q: What do you consider innovative in the SPARC T5?
...
Q: What kinds of applications will benefit the most from the SPARC T5?
...
Q: What about the security features in the T5?
...
Q: I’d like to know if there was any kind of optimization with Solaris 11.
...
Q: And the Solaris binary compatibility still applies?
...
Q. What's the most important thing you want customers to know about the SPARC T5 processor?
...

Conclusions:
The SPARC platform continues to seesignificant archtiectural improvements - the T5 is no exception, with combined higher clock speed and double the processing cores. This is tremendously good news to the telecommunications industry, which has been waiting for an upgraded Open Systems platform.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Tab Update: OpenSXCE March 2013 Distribution


[OpenSXCE  by Martin Bochnig]
Added to Network Management - a new tab: OpenSXCE !

OpenSXCE

OpenSolaris grew from an Open Source repository to Open Solaris Distribution (for both Intel and SPARC.) Solaris Express Community Edition (Solaris SXCE) was the Intel/SPARC forerunner of Oracle Solaris 11, which abandoned UltraSPARC processors. OpenSXCE, based upon the work of MarTUX, brings OpenIndiana and Illumos back to SPARC as a full distribution, based upon standards such as SVR4 packaging.

[http] OpenSXCE and MartUX Information (Hosted By: OpenIndiana)
[http] Main Distribution Web Site (Warning: No-Frills)
[email] Maintainer - Martin Bochnig
[iso] OpenSXCE 2013.01 Live SPARC DVD ISO
[http] SVR4 Package Repository

Maps: GeoCoding with Google and Access from Shell

Maps: GeoCoding with Google and Access from Shell
Abstract:
As the world becomes more connected, the ability to map things is easier. There are multiple mapping vendors on the internet (MapQuest, google, yahoo, microsoft.) The maps will normally have the ability to place locations via address or coordinates. Bulk placement of locations normally requires those locations to have been previously turned into coordinates via geocoding. A location can be simply retrieved from the UNIX command line via commands like wget and parsed with nawk.

Access to Geocoding via wget:
The wget command allows for simple access to web based URL's. A geocoding request can be passed in a URL with the values being returned in a JSON format.
sun5150/user$ wget "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=55+Lodi+Estate+New+Delhi+110003.+India&sensor=false"            
--2013-03-08 00:48:13--  http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=55+Lodi+Estate+New+Delhi+110003.+India&sensor=false
Resolving maps.googleapis.com... 173.194.77.95, 2607:f8b0:4003:c01::5f
Connecting to maps.googleapis.com|173.194.77.95|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [application/json]
Saving to: `json?address=55+Lodi+Estate+New+Delhi+110003.+India&sensor=false.1'

    [ <=>                                                                                                    ] 2,073       --.-K/s   in 0s      

2013-03-08 00:48:13 (23.5 MB/s) - `json?address=55+Lodi+Estate+New+Delhi+110003.+India&sensor=false.1' saved [2073]

Reviewing the JSON output:
The resulting information is placed in a JSON formatted output file.
sun5150/user$ cat json*Delhi*
{
   "results" : [
      {
         "address_components" : [
            {
               "long_name" : "Lodi Estate",
               "short_name" : "Lodi Estate",
               "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "New Delhi",
               "short_name" : "New Delhi",
               "types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "New Delhi",
               "short_name" : "New Delhi",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_2", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Delhi",
               "short_name" : "DL",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_1", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "India",
               "short_name" : "IN",
               "types" : [ "country", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "110003",
               "short_name" : "110003",
               "types" : [ "postal_code" ]
            }
         ],
         "formatted_address" : "Lodi Estate, New Delhi, Delhi 110003, India",
         "geometry" : {
            "bounds" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 28.60010310,
                  "lng" : 77.22872610
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 28.59045690,
                  "lng" : 77.22100139999999
               }
            },
            "location" : {
               "lat" : 28.59474070,
               "lng" : 77.22542659999999
            },
            "location_type" : "APPROXIMATE",
            "viewport" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 28.60010310,
                  "lng" : 77.22872610
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 28.59045690,
                  "lng" : 77.22100139999999
               }
            }
         },
         "partial_match" : true,
         "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ]
      }
   ],
   "status" : "OK"
}
{
   "results" : [
      {
         "address_components" : [
            {
               "long_name" : "Lodi Estate",
               "short_name" : "Lodi Estate",
               "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "New Delhi",
               "short_name" : "New Delhi",
               "types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "New Delhi",
               "short_name" : "New Delhi",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_2", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Delhi",
               "short_name" : "DL",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_1", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "India",
               "short_name" : "IN",
               "types" : [ "country", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "110003",
               "short_name" : "110003",
               "types" : [ "postal_code" ]
            }
         ],
         "formatted_address" : "Lodi Estate, New Delhi, Delhi 110003, India",
         "geometry" : {
            "bounds" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 28.60010310,
                  "lng" : 77.22872610
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 28.59045690,
                  "lng" : 77.22100139999999
               }
            },
            "location" : {
               "lat" : 28.59474070,
               "lng" : 77.22542659999999
            },
            "location_type" : "APPROXIMATE",
            "viewport" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 28.60010310,
                  "lng" : 77.22872610
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 28.59045690,
                  "lng" : 77.22100139999999
               }
            }
         },
         "partial_match" : true,
         "types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ]
      }
   ],
   "status" : "OK"
}

Parsing JSON with nawk:
This can be quickly parsed using nawk with a simple one-liner.

sun5150/user$ nawk '
$1~/\"location\"/ { Tag="Yes" } 
(/lat/ || /lng/) && Tag=="Yes" { print $3 } 
/location_type/ { Tag="No" }
' json*New*Delhi*
28.59474070,
77.22542659999999


Monday, March 4, 2013

ARM in iOS Video Adapter!



[Lightning Digital AV Adapter, courtesy Apple]



[Lightning Digital AV Adapter, courtesy Apple]
ARM System-on-a-Chip located on Apple iPhone / iPad Lightening Video Adapter

Apple sells a $45 video adapter for their iPhone and iPad's with Lightning ports. A description includes:
Use the Lightning Digital AV Adapter with your iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation) with Lightning connector. The Lightning Digital AV Adapter supports mirroring of what is displayed on your device screen — including apps, presentations, websites, slideshows, and more — to your HDMI-equipped TV, display, projector, or other compatible display in up to 1080p HD.
Is this just a cable for $45?




iPhone 5




iPod touch
5th generation

iPad
4th generation

iPad mini
What it works with...
The Lightning adapter is compatible with a number of newer Apple iOS devices. It is a much different cable than used in older iOS devices, which were dependent upon the classic "Dock" connector. Lightning is much closer to the former "Firewire" connector which was used on the original iPod.

[Cable Connector disassembed, courtesy Panic]
What is in the connector?
Panic published a blog entry citing the disassembly of the cable. Of course, the blogger did not know all the details about the connector, but it was pretty clear - there is an ARM chip on-board. The Lightning cable is a serial cable, which streams data to the ARM chip in the cable, which converts the serial format to HDMI output format. (The article incorrectly cites resisters where there are capacitors, plus a variety of other incorrect speculations.)

[Cable Connector disassembed, courtesy Panic]
Anonymous Information...
An anonymous comment was pretty insightful...
Airplay is not involved in the operation of this adapter.
It is true that the kernel the adapter SoC boots is based off of XNU, but that’s where the similarities between iOS and the adapter firmware end. The firmware environment doesn’t even run launchd. There’s no shell in the image, there’s no utilities... It boots straight into a daemon designed to accept incoming data from the host device, decode that data stream, and output it through the A/V connectors. There’s a set of kernel modules that handle the low level data transfer and HDMI output, but that’s about it....
The reason why this adapter exists is because Lightning is simply not capable of streaming a “raw” HDMI signal across the cable. Lightning is a serial bus. There is no clever wire multiplexing involved... We did this to specifically shift the complexity of the “adapter” bit into the adapter itself, leaving the host hardware free of any concerns in regards to what was hanging off the other end of the Lightning cable...
Lightning doesn’t have anything to do with HDMI at all. Again, it’s just a high speed serial interface. Airplay uses a bunch of hardware h264 encoding technology that we’ve already got access to, so what happens here is that we use the same hardware to encode an output stream on the fly and fire it down the Lightning cable straight into the ARM SoC the guys at Panic discovered. Airplay itself (the network protocol) is NOT involved in this process. The encoded data is transferred as packetized data across the Lightning bus, where it is decoded by the ARM SoC and pushed out over HDMI.
This system essentially allows us to output to any device on the planet, irregardless of the endpoint bus (HDMI, DisplayPort, and any future inventions) by simply producing the relevant adapter that plugs into the Lightning port. Since the iOS device doesn’t care about the hardware hanging off the other end, you don’t need a new iPad or iPhone when a new A/V connector hits the market.
...Given the dynamic nature of the system (and the fact that the firmware is stored in RAM rather then ROM), updates **will** be made available as a part of future iOS updates. 
Extraneous junk was removed from the quote above..

Network Managment Implications
As more embedded systems are adopted, complexity is moving to cabling - something which used to be pure wiring in the past. As more pure wiring is combined with embedded circutry, the management of wiring will continue to become more complex. This is especially illustrated in this case, where people are wondering why the video display quality is less than what they might normally expect. Ultimately, this falls under the traditional "Performance Management" heading of Network Management.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Oracle Magazine: SPARC at 25


[SPARC International Inc. Member logo, courtesy Aurora VLSI]
Abstract:
The SPARC architecture is perhaps the first and longest lasting open and mainstram computing architecture in human history. In Ocrober  2012, Network Management published a reminder for people to attend the "SPARC at 25" event at the Computer History Museum. In November of 2012, Network Management published an short article pointing to the replay of the historic events: SPARC at 25: Past, Present, and Future. Diana Reichardt published an article "SPARC at 25" in the bi-monthly printed Oracle Magazine, covering the event.

[SPARC International, Inc. logo, courtesy sparc.org]
Why SPARC?
Diana opens her article, regarding the event at the Computer History Museum, with the following question, "Why SPARC?" The article continues, with the following opening paragraph.
In 1987, a small startup called Sun Microsystems developed its own microprocessor, called SPARC, and introduced the Sun-4, the first computer based on the new chip. On November 1, 2012, many early SPARC team members, along with Oracle President Mark Hurd and Executive Vice President of Systems at Oracle John Fowler, convened at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, for SPARC at 25: Past, Present, and Future. This event provided a look back at the history of SPARC and the early days of Sun. Stories from the participants, including all of the company’s founders, illustrated the complex nature of systems design and the challenges of launching a high-technology company in a fiercely competitive industry.
The on-line reprint is no substitute for the written article, with it's high-resolution pictures of the event. This, of course, is no substitute for the video of the actual event, whose link was published in the former Network Management article.

[Photos courtesy Oracle Magazine Jan/Feb 2013 Edition]
SPARC 25th Anniversary Highlights
If you do not have the time to watch the video of the creators of SPARC, on this 25th anniversary - Oracle published a highlights clip which is under 30 minutes. The highlights include current captains of industry, guiding SPARC today.
[Start of the SPARC timeline, courtesy Oracle Corporation]
Explore the SPARC Time Line
Diana included a link at the end of her article titled "Explore the SPARC Time Line" which leads to an amazing timeline of events surrounding SPARC, that no person interested in systems should miss!


[Oracle logo, courtesy Oracle Corporation]
Who is Diana Reichardt?
Diana Reichardt is a senior writer at Oracle. Besides this Jan/Feb issue in Oracle Magazine, she had published a pair of articles "Conversations with Oracle Innovators" through Oracle Corporate Communications with Rick Hetherington. 

Conversations with Oracle Innovators
Q&A with Rick Hetherington
By Diana Reichardt
Rick Hetherington, Oracle’s vice president of hardware development, manages a team of architects and performance analysts who design Oracle’s M- and T-series processors. Hetherington’s team tracks the performance of these designs in great detail, from the moment they are conceived until they are released as products. In this interview, Hetherington explains the design process and how the team’s day-to-day work is focused on what SPARC customers will have in their data centers three to five years from now.

Conversations with Oracle Innovators
SPARC T4 Deep Dive With Rick Hetherington
By Diana Reichardt
Rick Hetherington, Oracle’s vice president of hardware development, manages a team of architects and performance analysts who design Oracle’s M- and T-series processors. In this interview, Hetherington describes the technical details of the new SPARC T4 processor and explains why he thinks it is going to be an eye-opener for the industry.
Other fairly recent Oracle Magazine articles published by Diana include:

FEATURE
Complete Power
By Diana Reichardt
Oracle Magazine: May/June 2011

SPARC hardware and the Oracle Solaris operating system: High-performance engine for mission-critical apps

COMMENT: Analyst’s Corner
The SPARC/Oracle Solaris Platform Evolution
By Diana Reichardt
Oracle Magazine: May/June 2011

SPARC hardware and the Oracle Solaris operating system: High-performance engine for mission-critical apps

AT ORACLE: News
SPARC Torches Benchmark
By Diana Reichardt
Oracle Magazine: March/April 2011

Oracle’s new SPARC Supercluster, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud T3-1B, and Oracle Solaris 11 break records and set new standards for performance and availability.
 Diana's writing is a pleasure to read.
Concluding Thoughts:
No modern computing professional should be without the background and understanding of the history of computing from this period of time. The future always has elements of the past hinting forward. SPARC is no different, in this case - many of the ideas in modern computing history would not have ever existed, had it not been for SPARC innovators. More innovations are sure to come.