Oracle Refreshed SPARC T8 Model
Abstract:
In September 2017, Oracle released their flagship M8 RISC CPU, with T8 platforms based upon it! The S5 Core was an amazing accomplishment, 4 instructions per clock cycle, screaming at 5 GHz. Fujitsu simultaneously released their SPARC64 XII CPU, with SPARC M12 Platforms. Solaris 11.3 was supposed to become Solaris 12, but instead was branded as Solaris 11.4 to encourage continuity. The M8+ processors listed on the now unpublished SPARC/Solaris Roadmap, were supposed to be released in 2020. Fujitsu released a roadmap of a SPARC memory increase of 1.5% in 2021, and Fujitsu came out with new memory risers to expand memory by 150%. Oracle matched & passed Fujitsu in 2022/2023 transition.
Recent M8 Platform Additions
The SPARC M8 Platforms, like the T8-2 systems, were given new phenomenal upgrades:
- Double Memory with memory DIMM upgrades from 64 GB to 128 GB
- Double SAN Storage Throughput from 16 GB to 32 GB HBA Cards
- Quadruple Network Speed Throughput from 25 GBit to 100 GBit NIC Cards
- Live Upgrade for Firmware
- Better Live Migration
The expense of the larger DIMMS is dramatic. Let's compare the rough costs.
- 1TB T8-2 Chassis /w 32GB DIMM's can be used as a baseline.
- 2TB T8-2 Chassis /w 64GB DIMM's is similar to buying 2x 1TB T8-2 /w 32GB DIMM's.
- 4TB T8-2 Chassis /w 128GB DIMM's is similar to buying 4x 1TB T8-2's /w 32GB DIMM's.
The cost of the new increase capacity is not for the faint of heart.
The 2022/2023 T8-2 Component Refresh
Trade rag coverage on SPARC hardware & software updates has been anemic, at best.
How could we see the future, when trade rags were negligent in their reporting?
Oracle released SPARC T8 features between end-2022 to start-2023, forecast in bug notes.
NOV 2022 - Firmware 9.10.5
- 33752815 NVME/T_IN read bad value 96 with Aura10-SFF Intel in T8 and S7
- 33627980 prtfru displays incorrect DIMM capacity for 128GB DIMMs
MAR 2022 - Firmware 9.10.4.a
Feature Request for Intel NVMe Solid State Drive Assembly Aura10 and improved live migration
- 33691051 Aura10 SFF support for SPARC
- 33741127 Add a subguest API minor version for migration-class2 bugfix presence
OCT 2021 - Firmware 9.10.3
Improvements to firmware patching, Ethernet Cards, Memory, and improved live migration.
- 33216275 Enable live patching in Hypervisor 1.20.6
- 33171094 Add card identification support for Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I210-T1 OEM Gen to ILOM
- 33005242 Add ereport.hc.dev_info for memory risers
- 32978497 T8-2 YMR VMEM ZL9025 ASCR_CONFIG change to match T8-1 value
- 32929538 Increase maximum chunks to account for larger dimms
- 32925557 Add Oracle ConnectX-6 Dx EN , 2x100GbE, Dual-port QSFP, Crypto and Secure Boot FW ILOM support (Mellanox ConnectX NIC - Mellanox 25G/100GbE Adapter) (NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx Network Adapters) (NVIDIA Connect X-6 Dx Datasheet: ConnectX-6 Dx provides up to two ports of 100Gb/s or a single port of 200Gb/s Ethernet connectivity and is powered by 50Gb/s (PAM4) or 25/10 Gb/s (NRZ) SerDes technology.)
- 32920850 HV support for a Tahoe+ migration class
- 32838122 Additional changes needed for live patching of 32625647/31561348 (live firmware patching)
JUN 2021 - Firmware 9.10.2
Feature request for Intel NVMe Solid State Drive 6.4TB Flash Accelerator F640 v3 NVMe PCIe Card (Aura 9 AIC), additional DRAM Support, and Network Cards
- 33691051 Aura10 SFF support for SPARC
- 32074098 Add Aura9 SFF support to SPARC platforms
- 31365759 [ILOM] "hwdiag pci info" does not show Aura8 SFF Subsystem Vendor ID, Subsystem Device ID, Part Number and Description
- 32385998 Aura 9 SFF fail post in some systems
- 32372784 Add timing data for more DRAM types
- 31447119 Device Monitor: Add support for CX-5 OCP,CX-5 2x100G OCP, CX-6 Dx, and CX-6 Dx 50G, and CX-6 Dx 50G Bifurcated cards
- 31365759 [ILOM]"hwdiag pci info" does not show Aura8 SFF Subsystem Vendor ID, Subsystem Device ID, Part Number and Description
APR 2021 - Firmware 9.10.1.a (available in 9.10.1.c)
Feature request for Intel NVMe Solid State Drive 6.4TB Flash Accelerator F640 v3 NVMe PCIe Card (Aura 9 AIC) and Live Firmware Patching
- 31792974 Updating Aura9 Descriptions and adding Samsung v2
- 32182811 Support multiple tcp connections on SSH-DCA port (security scanners)
- 32059898 Enable live patching in Hypervisor 1.20.5
AUG 2020- Firmware 9.10.0.a
Feature request for Intel NVMe Solid State Drive 6.4TB Flash Accelerator F640 v3 NVMe PCIe Card (Aura 9 AIC), Intel NVMe Solid State Drive 6.4TB Flash Accelerator F640 v2 NVMe PCIe Card (Aura 8 AIC), Intel NVMe Solid State Drive 6.4TB Flash Accelerator F640 v1 NVMe PCIe Card (Aura 7 AIC), 100 GbE Support, 128 GB DIMM, and Live Firmware Patching
- 31225789 Bug fix for Intel NVMe Solid State Drive Assembly Aura9
- 31388207 After reset /System, mctp_drive failed on Aura8 SFF
- 31225789 Device Monitor: Add support for Intel prototype Aura9
- 31218973 Failed to access Aura9 SSDs via MCTP/SMBus on E2-2C
- 31190919 add aura9/7 aic to i2c test
- 31181415 Enable live patching in Hypervisor 1.20.4
- 31181349 Device Monitor: Add support for Intel/Samsung Aura9
- 30898834 ILOM change request to support Aura9 SFF from Intel/Samsung and AIC from Intel
- 31440160 Add CX-6 Dx 50G iLOM support
- 31404646 Add CX-6 Dx 2x100G iLOM support
- 31388207 After reset /System, mctp_drive failed on Aura8 SFF
- 31388020 Add CX-5 2x100G OCP NIC support to iLOM
- 30793129 libfru DDR4 (SPD_128RW_FORMAT) CRC protection is ineffective
- 30766834 ILOM is not identifying the part number and description of the Cx5 card
- 30738307 DDR4 (SPD_RW128_FORMAT) SPD_Fault_Data Rrecord re-initialized on SP reboot.
Conclusion:
Oracle continues to refresh their SPARC S7 & T8 lines, with Memory & Network capacity, OS Capabilities, and Firmware Capabilities. We can see from the bug trail that it takes A LONG TIME for Oracle's development team to push features to fruition, about 2 years, but updates are still coming. It is great to see one of the fastest platforms on the planet, dating back to 2017, continuing to get hardware and software updates. More is coming.
