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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 25, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 34
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Special Features:
SUN TO UNVEIL NEW BLADE
PROCESSOR
Sun Microsystems plans to unveil its new generation of low-power
microprocessors at a symposium in Palo Alto California.
The "Gemini" processor will be Sun's first UltraSparc chip to contain a
dual-
processor core, but it will be based on the older, simpler UltraSparc IIi
design.
The chip's design reflects a trend to improve performance without simply
bumping up the chip's clock speed or number of transistors.
The Gemini processors, which will run in the 1GHz to 1.2GHz range, will
power
Sun's next generation of blade, 1U (4.44- centimeters or 1.75-inch thick) and
2U (8.89- centimeters or 3.5-inch thick) server systems. Each processor core
on Gemini will have 0.5M bytes of L2 cache and the chips will contain 80
million transistors.
Sun plans to begin shipping systems based on Gemini in 2004. Because the
new
chips will be compatible with the UltraSparc IIIi's Jbus system bus interface,
Sun will be able to snap them in as upgrade processors to UltraSparc IIIi
systems such as the Sun Fire V210 and V240 servers, he said.
With its two processor cores, Gemini will spend less time waiting for data
to
be transferred from the computer's memory to the chip itself. Today's
processors can spend as much as three quarters of their time waiting for data
to be pulled from the computer's memory to the chip's cache. With a dual-core
processor, however, one core can keep working while the other is waiting for
data.
Gemini will have a maximum power consumption of 32 watts when running at
1.2GHz.
This low power consumption would make Gemini an ideal candidate for blade
servers, and possibly even laptop computers, like those manufactured by
UltraSparc OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Tadpole Computer Inc, he
said.
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