Re: Any comparisons of Opteron F and Woodcrest yet?

It's pretty simple actually and not confusing at all. Just apply the
universal TANSTAAFL principle. In this particular case L=SMP+ECC+max
memory capacity.

Thanks again...

Well, you're a bit over my head. What do L, SMP and ECC mean?

TANSTAAFL = There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
L = Lunch
ECC = error correcting codes, it is one of the features that
differentiates a server (which will almost always have ECC) and a
desktop (which will rarely have ECC). ECC can automatically fix some
errors in memory, and it useful because you can be more certain that
your calculations are in fact, correct.
SMP is a term to describe the ability to have multiple processors share
memory.

I'm confused why the whole world is excited about the F and Woodcrest
if these other chips are more capable in a workstation, unless the
whole computing world is focused on servers. That can't be... Does
the fact that we are working on huge data in RAM, and woodcrest has a 4
meg L2, affect anything?

Socket F and AM2 are very similar, as are Conroe and Woodcrest. The
best way to think of them is like different models of the same car.
You might have one car that comes with snow tires, mud flaps, floor
mats, etc. and one with a racing stripe and racing tires.

Each Woodcrest/Conroe and Socket F/AM2 processor contains 2 cores. The
difference between WC and Conroe and Socket F and AM2 is that with
Woodcrest and Socket F, you can have multiple processors in a system
(1-2 for Woodcrest, 1-4 for Socket F). WC and Socket F also have ECC
and some other features that I don't feel like discussing.

The key point that you have identified is that your workload is single
threaded, that is, having 2 or 4 or 8 processors won't speed anything
up. Moreover, because of the memory requirements, you cannot run
multiple copies on the same machine.

This means that the extra money you pay for a server chip (Woodcrest,
Socket F) is largely wasted, unless you plan to get a lot of memory
(like 4-16GB). You're paying for a lunch you won't eat.

Maybe there are websites for workstations that I just haven't come
across.

The 'workstation' as we know it has really disappeared and been
replaced by either:
1. An upjumped desktop system
2. A server system with graphics support

It's not really much of a discrete market when it comes to processors.


I'll try to outline the differences here:

1. Woodcrest/Conroe are generally much faster in single threaded
performance than Socket F/AM2.

2. Woodcrest and Conroe have very strong SSE/SIMD execution
capabilities and generally beat Socket F/AM2 by a large margin on any
code with lots of SSE.

3. Socket F/AM2 do well (but do not usually beat Woodcrest or Conroe)
for benchmarks that require lots of memory bandwidth.

Given what you have said, it sounds like you want to call the vendor
and ask if their software uses SSE instructions. If it does, you
probably want to buy an Intel system. You might ask what they
recommend as well.

DK

.

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