Summary of the content on the page No. 1
Xserve G5
Technology Overview
January 2004
Summary of the content on the page No. 2
Technology Overview 2 Xserve G5 Contents Page 3 Introduction Page 4 Product Overview Key Features Rack-Optimized Server Design High-Density Cluster Node Configuration Page 7 Performance Overview Processor Performance Networking Throughput Page 11 PowerPC G5 Processor Apple and IBM Partnership 64-Bit Computing Power Next-Generation PowerPC Architecture Page 13 High-Bandwidth Server Architecture Gigahertz Frontside Bus Point-to-Point System Controller Advanced ECC Memory Technology High-Perform
Summary of the content on the page No. 3
Technology Overview 3 Xserve G5 Introduction In May 2002, Apple introduced Xserve, a high-density, 1U rackmount server that What’s New? was applauded for its value and versatility. In 2003, we built on that success with • Single or dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 processors performance enhancements, more storage, and flexible build-to-order options. Now using 90-nanometer process technology in its third generation, this highly acclaimed server gets a huge burst of power from • Gigahertz frontside bus
Summary of the content on the page No. 4
Technology Overview 4 Xserve G5 Product Overview Key Features Xserve G5 combines 64-bit processors, a high-bandwidth system architecture, and massive storage with Apple’s legendary ease of use. The following features make Xserve a robust, versatile server solution for businesses and institutions everywhere. Xserve G5 Apple’s new Xserve packs high-density Single or dual 2GHz processors. Each 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor features an PowerPC G5 computing power and fast, optimized Velocity Engine u
Summary of the content on the page No. 5
Technology Overview 5 Xserve G5 Rack-Optimized Server Design With enormous processing power and ample storage in a compact 1U-high, 19-inch- wide enclosure, Xserve G5 is designed from the ground up for performance, service- ability, and easy integration into a wide range of computing environments. All the necessary rackmounting hardware is in the box, including rack rails with sliders, mounting brackets for industry-standard four-post racks and telco center-post racks, and complete setup instruc
Summary of the content on the page No. 6
Technology Overview 6 Xserve G5 High-Density Cluster Node Configuration With the compute performance of two superscalar 2GHz PowerPC G5 processors, the Xserve G5 cluster node configuration is ideal for High Performance Computing (HPC) in scientific and technical environments, as well as for workgroup clusters and render farms. One dual processor node can execute over 9 billion double-precision floating- Most innovative HPC hardware point operations per second, or 9 gigaflops per U. That means a
Summary of the content on the page No. 7
Technology Overview 7 Xserve G5 Performance Overview Apple’s new Xserve G5 is designed to deliver phenomenal performance with industry- leading ease of use. Thanks to 64-bit processing power, server-optimized I/O, and a high-throughput storage architecture, Xserve G5 is optimized for demanding server and cluster operations. Apple compared preproduction Xserve G5 units with currently available, top-selling 1U servers. The following results are based on benchmark testing performed in January 2004
Summary of the content on the page No. 8
Technology Overview 8 Xserve G5 LINPACK: Double-Precision Calculations $333 per gigaflop Xserve G5 Apple offers compute power at the Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 9 gigaflops lowest cost per gigaflop of any tier- one vendor—only $333 per gigaflop, Dell PowerEdge 1750 5 Dual 3.2GHz Xeon or $333,000 per teraflop. IBM eServer x335 Dual 3.2GHz Xeon IBM eServer x325 Dual 2GHz Opteron 24 6 8 10 Billions of floating-point operations per second (gigaflops) Two double-precision floating-point units enable the du
Summary of the content on the page No. 9
Technology Overview 9 Xserve G5 HMMer 2.3.3 HMMer is another application that demonstrates the advantages of Xserve G5 with Velocity Engine for processor-intensive scientific analysis. HMMer is a genome sequence–matching application that uses Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to identify similarities in genetic structures. The core routines of HMMer repeatedly perform the same operation on large amounts of data. To test the performance of the HMMer code, Apple searched for an HMM created from a 358-
Summary of the content on the page No. 10
Technology Overview 10 Xserve G5 WebBench For fast network throughput, Xserve G5 features dual onboard Gigabit Ethernet con- trollers, as well as optimized network drivers and a high-performance BSD network stack in Mac OS X Server. Apple used WebBench from eTesting Labs to demonstrate the superior web server performance of Xserve G5 based on the number of connec- tions each server can support. WebBench: Apache Web Serving 8000 Dual 2GHz Xserve G5 7000 Dual 2GHz IBM eServer x325 6000 Dual 3.2GHz
Summary of the content on the page No. 11
Technology Overview 11 Xserve G5 PowerPC G5 Processor The breakthrough performance of the 64-bit PowerPC G5 is now available to Apple server customers. With 64-bit-wide data paths and registers, this revolutionary pro- cessor can address vast amounts of main memory, while handling multiple 64-bit integer and double-precision floating-point math calculations in a single pass. Its wide execution core manages immense operations in parallel, supporting up to 215 in-flight instructions. Apple and
Summary of the content on the page No. 12
Technology Overview 12 Xserve G5 Vast amounts of addressable memory The move to 64-bit processing results in a similarly dramatic leap in the amount of memory supported. A memory address is a special kind of integer, and each address points to one byte in memory. Since memory addresses are computed in 64-bit regis- Support for more memory in ters capable of expressing 18 billion billion integers, the PowerPC G5 can theoretically Mac OS X Server address 18 exabytes (18 billion billion bytes) of v
Summary of the content on the page No. 13
Technology Overview 13 Xserve G5 High-Bandwidth Server Architecture The PowerPC G5 is only part of the Xserve performance story. Xserve G5 features the industry’s fastest frontside bus to keep data moving in and out of the processor, and a superefficient point-to-point system controller allows data to move directly between all subsystems. Bandwidth is further enhanced by a 400MHz, 128-bit memory bus and a high-speed HyperTransport interface that connects the PCI-X controller and the I/O subsyst
Summary of the content on the page No. 14
Technology Overview 14 Xserve G5 Gigahertz Frontside Bus Xeon Xeon PowerPC G5 PowerPC G5 To harness the power of the G5 processor, a 64-bit Double Data Rate (DDR) frontside bus speeds up communication between the PowerPC G5 and the memory controller. Unlike conventional processor interfaces, which carry data in only one direction at a time, this dual-channel frontside bus has two 32-bit point-to-point links: One link Industry’s fastest frontside bus travels into the processor and another travel
Summary of the content on the page No. 15
Technology Overview 15 Xserve G5 Support for up to 8GB of RAM Xserve G5 comes standard with 512MB or 1GB of DDR SDRAM. Main memory is scalable up to 8GB in eight DIMM slots, allowing you to increase memory as application and networking requirements increase. More main memory enables the system to run strenuous processes simultaneously and to accommodate spikes in demand. Enormous files and data sets can be loaded into RAM for rapid processing by the PowerPC G5— without having to access disk sto
Summary of the content on the page No. 16
Technology Overview 16 Xserve G5 Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports deliver near-line-rate throughput of up to 980Mb/s per port, alleviating bottlenecks even with very large files and expediting mail, web, file, and printer sharing services. Together with the multihoming function in Mac OS X Server, dual network ports enable Xserve G5 to serve more client systems; provide redundant links; or support an isolated management network that is independent of a client services network. Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Summary of the content on the page No. 17
Technology Overview 17 Xserve G5 Affordable, Scalable Storage Exponential growth in the creation and distribution of digital content is driving the need for high-capacity storage in business and education. Large databases, digital video footage, immense scientific data sets, and uncompressed audio all place enormous demands on server storage resources. Xserve G5 addresses these growing requirements by providing up to 750GB of afford- 1 able internal storage capacity. With each Apple Drive Modul
Summary of the content on the page No. 18
Technology Overview 18 Xserve G5 Xserve Storage Scalability Read 165MB/s Three drives Write 139MB/s 110MB/s Two drives 115MB/s 57MB/s One drive 44MB/s 60 120 180 Megabytes per second Apple tested the scalability of Xserve G5 storage using Bonnie++, an open source benchmark that measures drive throughput. This test shows that both read performance and write performance improve as drives are added to the system. Hot-plug Apple Drive Modules 4 The three Xserve drive bays provide affordable storag
Summary of the content on the page No. 19
Technology Overview 19 Xserve G5 Software and Hardware RAID Options Affordable and easy-to-install drive modules make it simple to expand Xserve systems to meet growing storage needs over time. For even greater storage capacity or to share storage among multiple servers, high-throughput PCI-X slots enable users to connect to external rackmount storage and backup systems, including SCSI devices and Apple’s Xserve RAID. Software RAID in Mac OS X Server Using software RAID built into Mac OS X Serve
Summary of the content on the page No. 20
Technology Overview 20 Xserve G5 Integrated Hardware Monitoring Xserve G5 includes built-in remote monitoring capabilities that enable network administrators to stay in touch with their Xserve systems from anywhere on the network or over the Internet. Xserve monitoring tools run over TCP/IP using robust password authentication to protect management data and server deployments from unauthorized access. With 38 sensors in the enclosure, Xserve G5 is the most instrumented server in its class. Emb
