Oracle Linux on SPARC Arrives!

 

[SPARC M7 Die with Floor Plan]

Oracle Linux on SPARC Arrives!

Abstract:

Sun Microsystems had long hosted multiple processors in their workstation and server platforms, dating back Motorola 68000, Intel x86, SPARC, and re-introducing Intel again. Sun had mostly run SunOS, rebranding as Solaris with the investment of AT&T SVR4, and occasionally running multiple OS derivatives under various appliances. Today, Oracle is bringing Oracle Linux is becoming as an official supported platform under SPARC.

[Courtesy: Oracle Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

Presenter:

Juan Loaiza

Senior Vice President

Oracle Corporation

[Courtesy: Oracle Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

Major Points

Linux is supported on a new SPARC Exadata platform. There were two presentation covered.

[Courtesy: Oracle Database Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

SPARC M7

The worlds fastest General Processor with Software in Silicon breakthroughs.

[Courtesy: Oracle Database Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

DAX

32 Database Accelerators added on the M7 Silicon are available under Linux.

[Courtesy: Oracle Database Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

Decompression

32 Decompression Engines added on the M7 Silicon are available under Linux.

[Courtesy: Oracle Database Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

Security in Silicon

Buffer Overflow Attacks eliminated under Linux.

[Courtesy: Oracle Database Exadata SL6 SPARC Linux Presentation]

Intel Replaced with Faster SPARC

With the Exadata SPARC Linux platform, the slower Intel nodes are replaced with a higher speed SPARC node. The cost is the same.

Conclusions:

Oracle not only offers the fastest databases, SPARC as the fastest General Purpose CPU, and now a popular Linux Operating System to supplement the Solaris Operating System.

Oracle Solaris & SPARC Platform Update for Feb 2017

Abstract:

Oracle had acquired Sun Microsystems almost a decade ago. Continued investment had occurred in the Systems and Platform products. SPARC had moved to become the fastest processor on the market 2 years back, Solaris is now moving to agile Continuous Delivery Model to increase cadence, and the SPARC cadence will continue to maintain best-in-class performance.

[Courtesy: Oracle SPARC Platform Update - Feb 2017]

Presenter:

John  Fowler
Executive Vice President of Systems
Oracle Corporations

High Level Points:

Four Take Away points were provided by Mr. Fowler.

SPARC Performance Prior Oracle

Before Oracle's acquisition of Sun, SPARC platform performance was lagging in the industry, but Oracle investment had brought it to the pinnacle of the market in a short number of years.

[Courtesy: Oracle SPARC Platform Update - Feb 2017]

SPARC Performance Today

Oracle is the leading the market in Systems Performance, both in general purpose computing, as well as embedded accelerators to quicken performance of business critical and security applications. Oracle intends on keeping this performance lead.


[Courtesy: Oracle SPARC Platform Update - Feb 2017]

Solaris Agile Continuous Improvement

Solaris had traditionally been under a Waterfall type of Major Release Cycle. Solaris is being migrated to an  Agile Continuous Improvement cycle, where features & benefits will be introduced continuously, without the risk of large monolithic release cycles.

[Courtesy: Oracle SPARC Platform Update - Feb 2017]

Oracle SPARC & Solaris Platform Roadmap

With the adoption of the new Agile Continuous Delivery model for Solaris, the roadmap changes, without much significance, except support continuing to later dates, decades from today.

[Courtesy: Oracle SPARC Platform Update - Feb 2017]

This overview was excellent, prepping customers before the on-site visits.

Solaris 12 Features

Not explicitly mentioned in the presentation, but Solaris 12 features will be folded into Solaris 11 updates. During an on-site meeting with an engineer, K-Splice should be coming to Solaris 11. This was a big feature expected in Solaris 12, so patching would no longer would require a reboot under Solaris.

Conclusions:

Oracle continues the decades long progression of Sun Microsystems managing the Educational Facilities, the Engineering Facilities, individual Enterprises, and ultimately The Internet. The cadence for processors had increased and now the cadence for Solaris features is poised to accelerate.