Re: The first problem with your post is that Sun does not have a blade architecture.
SUN has been marketing modular multi-processor systems for almost 2 decades. They used to use VME bus (when I first started working with them) and have since moved on. The fact that Intel and its advocates think this is a revelation shows just how little they know about high end systems.
SUN, IBM, and Compaq/Digital dominate the use of advanced buses in their enterprise (non-Intel) systems including CompactPCI (which is all but synonymous with SUN), but they generally relegate CompactPCI to I/O and embedded applications: they left the CompactPCI BUS that they perfected years ago far behind as an enterprise interconnect.
Nonetheless, the strategy and architecture of hot swapable components in large scale clustered systems, remains a successful SUN strategy that Intel architecture systems are starting to attempt to emulate.
The only sense in which SUN doesn't have a "Blade Architecture" is that their technology is real and not slide ware.
More and more companies are consolidating applications onto single, large capacity servers - like the 64-way Sun Enterprise 10000 system - to lower costs and ease system management.
Dynamic partitioning is an important component of such consolidation plans because it allows multiple applications to be run in isolated environments on a single server. Resource allocation across individual domains can be done on the fly, without rebooting any of the partitions, which is crucial to maintaining a mission-critical computing platform in IT environments that are increasingly expected to deliver higher levels of services.
With the introduction of third generation domain management software, Sun[tm] has enhanced the ability to divide a Sun Enterprise 10000 server into several partitions, known as Dynamic System Domains (DSDs). Sun has improved its support for Dynamic System Domains by increasing the number of available domains from eight to 16. In this new generation of Dynamic System Domains technology, Sun has also added Automated Dynamic Reconfiguration (ADR) and InterDomain Networks (IDN), which allow data center customers to better utilize the system's domain capabilities.
Automated Dynamic Reconfiguration (ADR)
ADR removes the need for manually entering commands when reconfiguring domain resources. Instead of using a keystrokes or mouse clicks, ADR automates the domain reconfiguration process with a simple script of code that can be run when needed. Scripts can be written and executed by system administrators to address peak load situations, reallocating resources on the fly, dynamically moving system boards from one domain to another.
InterDomain Networks (IDN)
IDN facilitates data transfer between domains by providing a high-speed network connection between individual domains via the Gigaplane-XB[tm] interconnect. This virtual link between domains can be temporarily set up when needed for data mart loads, network backup and other high-bandwidth inter-domain communications. Rather than setting up network connections outside the box, customers can take advantage of IDN without making changes to their network configuration or applications. With IDN, data center managers have greater flexibility and lower system administration costs.
sun.com
Gigaplane-XBTM Interconnect
Connections to the Future
At the heart of the Enterprise 10000 server is Sun Microsystems' innovative interconnect--the Gigaplane-XBTM Interconnect. This unique crossbar, unlike traditional buses, ensures fast, uniform, conflict-free memory access throughout the entire system, bringing the promise of MPP and NUMA systems' high performance, low cost, and scalability to the wide range of SMP applications and exceptional data center manageability.
The Gigaplane-XB interconnect offers up to 12.8 Gbytes/sec data bandwidth with less than 500 nanosecond constant latency. Adhering to UPA standards, the Gigaplane-XB uses separate data and address routers, allowing each to be optimized for its functions. Each processor is directly connected to every other processor with these high speed routers, allowing linear scalability throughout the entire range of processor, memory, and I/O expandability. This separation of functions allows the Gigaplane-XB to operate with fewer than all four address buses, offering increased availability without loss of data.
The Gigaplane-XB allows powerful functions either never before available or too expensive on traditional servers--industry-leading database performance, self-contained partitions, unmatched linear scalability, and the cost advantages of a highly manageable, single-server solution.
sun.com
SUN is shipping this technology, not just wishfully thinking up names like infiniband and trying to figure out what it should look like.
Re: can you give me even a single instance, anywhere in the world, where Sun's CompactPCI design was used outside the Telco market?
SUN's CompactPCI is used in almost every SUN that's been shipped in recent years, but it's usually used as a peripheral interconnect bus, since the high performance of SUN's processors needs higher bandwidth for a processor bus.
Itanium, of course, is evidently enough of a slug that CompactPCI is sufficient for it even in a multiprocessor compute server. |
