HP Professional sp750 Better Solutions for Parametric Technology Corporation's - Page 16

WHITE PAPER (cont.) Compaq is part of an industry working group, including Intel, that has published the Developer's Interface Guide for IA-64 Servers. The guide specifies a common baseline hardware interface for IA64 solutions. It provides developers with the tools and information they need to successfully implement reliable, scalable and interoperable IA-64 processor-based server solutions within complex enterprise-wide environments. The guides include migration tools, test criteria and validation test suites, and a three-year road map to help developers plan and create reusable and lasting designs. These sustained efforts are designed to help deliver to IA-64 the same powerful advantages that make IA-32 so compelling. The broad support of the developer community, the widest operating system and application choice, and the benefits of a high-volume computing platform will combine to make IA-64 the ideal platform for tomorrow's e-Business solutions. Performance Selections Chip Selection The AP250 series uses the Intel Pentium III processor, with the 820 chipset. The AP550 series uses the Intel Pentium III processor, with the 840 chipset. The SP750 series uses the Intel Xeon processor, with the 840 chipset. The XP1000 series uses the Alpha 21264 processor and its own dedicated motherboard design. Floating Point Vs Integer Performance It's important to note that Pro/ENGINEER and to an even larger extent Pro/MECHANICA demand large floating-point performance from the base level processor. Integer performance is important, but floating-point performance significantly drives the application speed. Cache Selection The AP250 series has integrated 256 KB level two cache. The AP550 series and the SP750 series has integrated 256 KB level two cache per processor, with up to two processors supported. The XP1000 series has a 4MB level two cache per processor. Multiprocessor selection Multiple processors should only be selected when the underlying application shows a performance advantage. Pro/MECHANICA is being upgraded to take advantage of multiprocessors. Pro/ENGINEER is designed for a single processor, except for one small piece, which shows slight improvement with a second processor. Memory selection Rambus is a memory technology company that has developed the next generation of memory technology called Rambus or RDRAM. RDRAM is capable of delivering 1.6GB/s per channel bandwidth because its interface is 2 bytes wide running at 400MHz clock, double pumped. This is a streamlined approach to memory access, and RDRAM delivers three times the effective bandwidth of PC100 SDRAM. Direct RDRAM supports 32 devices per channel, each of which supports three RIMM connectors/modules, with maximum memory determined by the 32 devices used on each RIMM. 16