Intel to tell all about roaring 96GB/s QuickPath interconnect

The Register ^ | 30 January 2008 | Ashlee Vance

[ShadowAce]

You horrible cynics out there looked at Intel's mushy Montvale chip and scoffed. "That's the end of the Itanic."

Ah, but there's a fresh monster on the horizon known as Tukwila, and systems based on that puppy should fly if its brand new QuickPath interconnect arrives as expected. Next week Intel will disclose details on QuickPath at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. [It's like the Folsom Street Fair - Google at your own risk - but with more brain and less testicle torture - Ed.]

What will Intel say?

Well, according to the conference program, showgoers will hear about:

An Itanium processor is implemented in 8M 65nm CMOS and measures 21.5×32.5mm2. The processor has four dual-threaded cores, a system interface and 30MB of cache. Quickpath high-speed links enable peak processor-to-processor bandwidth of 96GB/s and peak memory bandwidth of 34GB/s.

We'll wait to hear a bit more from Intel before squaring QuickPath - formerly known as CSI - against Hypertransport 3.0, which can aggregate 41.6GB/s in two directions.

CSI should ship with the four-core Tukwila chip in 2008.

QuickPath whiz and analyst David Kanter is more willing to tackle the Hypertransport debate based on information he uncovered last year.

He tells us, "It looks like Tukwila's QPI links are running at 4.8GHz, which is about the same speed as Hypertransport 3 (maximum speed of 5.2GHz). Realistically, Intel will pack quite a bit more bandwidth on - because they are using 4+1 QPI links (4 to talk to other processors and 2 half links for I/O), compared to the 4 HT3 links that AMD will be using in future MPUs (that's right, no HT3 in the MP version of Barcelona). What's most impressive about Tukwila is the memory bandwidth - it has the same bandwidth as a full 4 socket Opteron system, all in one socket.

"Will Intel finally catch up with arch-rival IBM's POWER6? This is probably one of Intel's better chances since IBM took the lead with the Power5. It looks like a single Tukwila will probably have about the same performance on major benchmarks as a single Power6."

Dude? 30MB of cache? Maybe this is like the Folsom Street Fair after all.®

[ShadowAce]

[papasmurf]

Sweet!

Now that I have some Linux-ing under my belt, and I am pretty close to figuring what I like/need/want relative to Ubuntu distro’s, I was just thinking it’d be nice to purpose build an Ubuntu machine.

Bow I’ve got another thing to add into the mix to think about. :)

[ThePythonicCow]

Bow I’ve got another thing to add into the mix to think about. :)

The Itanium chips tend to be expensive, and tend to go with motherboards, power and memory that are expensive.

I have no actual numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if the usual Tuckwila configuration cost one to a few thousand dollars, per socket, for the combination of the chip, motherboard, memory and power.

If that's the sort of rig you give serious consideration to, excellent, go for it. It's a bit rich for my blood.

[papasmurf]

That is just what I’m thinking about. :)

I haven’t built a high end box, for myself, since 01. Now I have laptops that outperform that high end one.

I need one that will take me into my “golden years”. (That’s about another year or two) LOL

[ThePythonicCow]

I need one that will take me into my “golden years”.

Hmmm ... I wonder if it counts as the "golden years", if one has the years, but not yet the gold?

But enough of my situation.

For personal use, even high end boxes, Xeon is better suited than Itanium. The best available single processor speeds of Itanium won't be much better than Xeon (actually, the other way around, for some loads.)

The Itanium will provide support for terabytes of main memory, dozens or hundreds of parallel processors, world class floating point, and the sorts of power and exception handling required for extreme uptime.

Getting an Itanium for personal use could be like getting a Peterbilt for your personal car:

[papasmurf]

OK. What does a 379 Pete with, what, 8” straight cut’s, a polished cow crusher, and a Wilson Cellular antenna, have to do with a CPU, and why are they on this post? LOL

RE; Xeon vs. Tukwila Itanium. Tukwila and its associated chipset bring socket compatibility between Xeon and Itanium processors, by introducing the new interconnect called Intel QuickPath Interconnect. QuickPath, was called Common System Interface (CSI). This will reduce costs for both Intel and MoBo manufacturers.
Tukwila has four “full” QuickPath links and two “half” links. Xeon doesn’t.

And, Whitefield, the Xeon that had QuickPath, suffered so many project delays and development problems, its been canceled.

Husband, Father, Brother?

[ThePythonicCow]

Dang -- someone knows his trucks, and his chips.

I just like the looks of those rigs, and do my best to stay out of their way in my dinky econobox (or whatever truckers call them) <grin>.

[papasmurf]

Dang -- someone knows his trucks, and his chips.
Trucks I still know. Chips I have to re-learn every 6 months, or as needed. :) But I don't know how to program! LOL

...my dinky econobox (or whatever truckers call them)
Generically, all cars are called 4 wheelers. Pick-ups are called pick-em-up-trucks. 10-4?

[ThePythonicCow]

all cars are called 4 wheelers.

Yeah - I guess it doesn't much matter if you run into a big car or a little car; same downtime filling out paper work ;).