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Most excellent SLES 11 results on the IBM Power 595
Very nice new results posted this month using the latest SLES 11 enterprise operating system running on a 64-core IBM Power 595 system. Ideas International helps keep track of the overall Top 10 lists for workloads like SPECint_rate2006 and SPECfp_rate2006.
For "fp" workloads, the SLES 11 result is the #2 result of the overall SPECfp_rate2006 "peak" results published.
For "int" workloads, the SLES 11 result is the #5 result of the overall SPECint_rate2006 "peak" results published.
These results are based on an IBM Power 595, POWER6, 5.0GHz, 64 cores (32 chips, 2 cores/chip, 2 threads/core), 512GB Memory, demonstrating superior scalability that comes with SLES 11.
- Best SPECint_rate2006 64 core peak result of 2160, base result 1870.
- Best SPECfp_rate2006 64 core peak result of 2180, base result 1680.
Links to the published files:
Based on published results as of 4/14/09.
SPEC results source http://www.spec.org. See http://www.spec.org/spec/trademarks.html
Apr 21 2009, 05:42:58 PM EDT
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Novell ships SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
Novell has officially released the latest SUSE Linux Enterprise version of their SLES operating system product, which for the Linux on Power team is the culmination of months of focused efforts and improvements.
Many of the key features being introduced or updated with SLES 11 will be described in more detail in the coming weeks over on the DeveloperWorks wiki pages:
Several of us work on performance so we are particularly interested in scalability and performance. The Linux on Power support in SLES 11 includes features like an improved scheduler, 64KB page support, a significantly updated Linux kernel base, improved HPC clustering and Infiniband support, newer version gcc and glibc, and more. Of course, there's much more to the operating system than just performance enhancements, check out the Novell web sites for more information!
Categories
: [ Linux | LinuxP | Novell | Power | SUSE ]
Mar 31 2009, 12:50:24 PM EDT
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Linux achieves One Half of a TeraFlops on a single IBM Power 575
One system. Half a Teraflop. Linux.
Recently the IBM Linux Performance team submitted a LINPACK HPC result of 500 GFlops (half a teraflops!) on a single IBM Power 575 compute node. These water-cooled systems pack significant compute power and memory into a dense form factor.
This result was produced using the 32 4.7GHz POWER6 cores with 128 GB DDR2 533 MHz of memory and the latest RHEL 5.2. Other software includes IBM XL Fortran V11.1 & IBM XL C/C++ V9.0 for Linux Compilers, IBM Engineering Scientific Subroutine Library (ESSL) V4.3.1.1 for Linux on Power, libhugetlbfs v1.0.1 (transparent 16MB large pages) and Open MPI 1.2.5. Compared to non-super computing systems, this was the best result published on a 32 core system as of May 30, 2008, impressive for a dense 2U form factor.
With the introduction of 64KB memory page size support for the Power processors in RHEL 5, applications benefiting from larger page sizes now realize significant performance gains right out of the box. See 64KB pages on Linux for an introduction on how Linux leverages the alternative page sizes provided by the POWER hardware. As usual, performance gains obtained are dependent on the application, software used, and tunings leveraged.
Top 500.org and LINPACK
LINPACK has been a highly respected and utilized benchmark metric for more than 20 years. It was developed to target highly vectorized supercomputers. The following is the description of the LINPACK benchmark from http://www.netlib.org/linpack.
- “LINPACK is a collection of Fortran subroutines that analyze and solve linear equations and linear least-squares problems. The package solves linear systems whose matrices are general, banded, symmetric indefinite, symmetric positive definite, triangular, and tridiagonal square. In addition, the package computes the QR and singular value decompositions of rectangular matrices and applies them to least-squares problems. LINPACK uses column-oriented algorithms to increase efficiency by preserving locality of reference.”
The Rpeak of the IBM Power 575 4.7GHz is 602 GFlops, which is the theoretical limit the system can achieve. The Rpeak is calculated by taking the number of cores times the CPU frequency times the number of floating point operations/second. In this case, 32 * 4.7 * 4 = 601.6. At 500GFlops, this combination of RHEL 5.2 and other software on the IBM Power 575 system achieved an impressive 83% performance of the systems maximum capability.
A complete listing of published LINPACK results can be found at http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/performance.pdf.
IBM Power 575 with Linux
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The IBM Power 575 system is designed for extreme high performance and parallel computing for customers who require a highly scalable solution. Hundreds of the IBM System 575 frames can be clustered with each frame supporting up to 3.5 TB of memory, 448 Power 6 cores available in building blocks of 14 2U nodes per frame. Along with the benefit of chilled water cooling, this system is the ideal solution for customers requiring scalable, compute intensive systems with economical TCO. For more information on the IBM System 575 see this report.
For more performance related information on LINPACK, RHEL 5, POWER6, and other related benchmark and stack components, check out the paper: An Assessment of Leadership Performance with POWER6 Processors and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1
IBM and the Linux community continue to focus on improving the HPC software stack for customers. This single system result demonstrates the building block used by customers to scale up to tens and hundreds of nodes in HPC clusters.
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Categories
: [ Linux | Performance ]
Jul 09 2008, 09:38:27 AM EDT
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YDL Powerstation and Community News
Linux on PPC Community News... Robert MacFarlan
While PPC-based game consoles and eval boards abound, there hasn't been much thought given to a PPC-based Linux developer optimized platform since Apple bailed on PPC, until now. Terra Soft Solutions are offering a 2.5GHz PPC97MP-based development platform dubbed YDL Powerstation featuring four cores, Open Source firmware which in theory also provides access to Open Source virtualization technologies on PPC, Open Source graphics drivers, Open Source operating system and even the chassis is easy to open. :-) I am told the system is incredibly quiet which is also a bit of a strange twist for a Power compatible system with a price point of less than two grand. I can't wait to get one.
You know you've hit geek'ish mainstream when you are featured in Popular Mechanics. This months magazine features an article of how to install and boot Linux on a PS3 - "Turn Your PS3 into a Computer". They also have an article - "How the PS3 Helped Build the World's Fastest Supercomputer" referring to IBM provided "Roadrunner" hybrid AMD and Cell Broadband Engine cluster delivered to Los Alamos National Lab. Doesn't get much more mainstream than that!
Community work on PPC has continued as well. A fair number of the major community-based distributions have continued or added support for PPC. Some support levels have changed a bit, but it continues to be the 3rd major architecture receiving support from the likes of Debian, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Gentoo, Slackware and even after all of the controversy, Ubuntu still carries "community supported" PPC and PS3 images for their latest releases. Last I checked CentOS was adding 64-bit support for PPC as well.
Key Open Source projects that have historically been a gap for PPC have released support in the last year or so - some examples include Gnash, OpenVZ, ffmpeg, LSB testing suite, to name just a few.
So my friends, while Linux on PPC may have seemed to have gone quiet, there has actually been a lot going on and people continue to innovate.
Categories
: [ Linux | PPC | PS3 ]
Jun 10 2008, 10:20:00 AM EDT
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And we're back. Time for Power 6 and more. Bill Buros
Whew. Over two years have flown by since anyone has posted here.
Recently several of us got together and decided it was high time we got this blog active again.
Linux continues to mature at an amazing rate and the world of Power continues to grow and expand. Since the last posts back in 2006, Red Hat has shipped RHEL 5, which is already on its second update. Novell has shipped SLES 10, which is also already on its second update. Underlying it all is the rollout of Power based systems and solutions.
So what's new? Here's some example obvious pieces.
- SLES 10 (2.6.16 based) and RHEL 5 (2.6.18 based)
- The Linux kernel is up to 2.6.25 heading for 2.6.26
- POWER6 systems and Cell Blades
- Even Linux on a Sony PlayStation 3 (definitely something I "need" for work...)
On the Linux side...
Brian Warner has started a Planet LTC web site which consolidates various public bloggings from LTC Linux advocates across a gamut of topics. Good regular reading.
Here on this LinuxOnPower blog we'll try to stay on top of things happening in the marketplace which people might be interested in. There are a lot of good things continuing to flow from the Linux community, customers and software vendors, and the POWER hardware and solution teams around the world.
IBM POWER6 is out and is featured across the IBM Power system products. Today many of us are working on Linux running on the new IBM Power 575 system, a sweet water-cooled technology base designed for clusters, and the IBM Power 595 system, which supports up to 64 cores and all of the technology advances inherent in the POWER6 technology base.
My focus these days is on Linux Performance and I'll be highlighting performance, scalability, HPC, energy/performance trade-offs, and other related topics. In particular, there's some cool things emerging from a strong focus on the HPC front, some examples are covered in a recent article seen on HPCwire. Check it out.
Jun 09 2008, 12:43:14 PM EDT
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IBM BladeCenter JS21 announces!!! ~ Cliff Spinac
The new IBM BladeCenter JS21 was announced. This new Bladecenter comes with Two single-core 64-bit IBM PowerPC 970MP processors at 2.70GHz, or two dual-core processors at 2.50GHz. It also has optional support for Advanced POWER Virtualization, including support for Virtual LAN, Micro-Partitioning (up to 40 partitions), Shared processor pool, Virtual I/O Server, and the Integrated Virtualization Manager.
It can run Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4 for POWER, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for POWER (as well as AIX 5L v5.2 and v5.3).
You can read the highlights and product features at: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/js21/
Feb 14 2006, 05:44:00 PM EST
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Top 25 reasons for Linux...not really. Ron Gordon
Seems there is a website with the Top 25 reasons for choosing Linux (http://www.bellevuelinux.org/reasons_to_convert.html)
Take a look. I think there is overemphasis on the "no cost" which is not really true in most enterprise environments. If you get it free from the kernel.org site, it is free but it is not a total os. But, places like Debian do provide a "free" version of an OS but usages is lower than RH and SUSE.
but anyway...I think a missing point is the ability to be consistent within an enterprise so you have consistent procedures, levels, security, etc. and you can match it to the platform that best matches the applicaiton need.
what do you all think the top reason why you choose Linux?
Jan 14 2006, 04:09:00 PM EST
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Linux on POWER workshop for ISVs and Developers ~ Cliff Spinac
The worldwide IBM Innovation Centers provide IBM Business Partners with easy access to IBM skills and equipment, to help them migrate, test and optimize their applications.
http://www.developer.ibm.com/isv/spc/
Throughout 2006 the IICs will be offering a Linux on POWER workshop for ISVs and developers. This workshop will help developers to better understand the potential of developing applications for Linux on POWER, and the resources available.
The workshop schedule for the first quarter includes:
Feb 15-16 2006, San Mateo, California
Feb 28 - Mar 1 2006, Chicago, Illinois
Mar 14-15 2006, Paris, France
Improve your versatility with Linux on POWER
What you will discover by attending this workshop
Learn how new technologies and open standards combine to let you consolidate your resources and support a broader range of customer needs than ever before. See how to leverage your existing knowledge of Linux and make your applications truly scalable.
Workshop description and enrollment is at:
https://www.developer.ibm.com/isv/spc/events/linuxpower.html
Jan 11 2006, 04:53:00 PM EST
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More Microsoft vs Linux surveys Ron Gordon
In an article by Phil Hockmuth, he reports that Microsoft commissioned a survey that showed that Linux required 68% more maintenance time then Windows. Wow! what a suprise!!
(elsewhere, a survey said that opensource developers claim they can fix any security bug in less than 8 hours).
I love surveys. Especially ones that show results favoring the commissioning body. Phil, I love, apparently agrees and says "Don't pay too much
attention to industry surveys; do your own lab evaluations,
tests and pilot deployments, and see for yourself what works best" and "should be taken with a unit of sodium as large as a farm animal's salt lick."
Apparently Redhad and Novell agree.
We all know that email is now becoming the peanut butter that is gumming us all to a stop. I wonder how much productivity is lost in companies the create FUD and force others to respond.
Maybe there should be a law..oh I take that back since now the government might get involved. argh...
Dec 01 2005, 10:43:00 AM EST
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Oracle Database 10g Release 2 is now available for Linux on POWER ~ Cliff Spinac
Did you see that on Nov 17th Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Database 10.2 for Linux on POWER?
They announced support for the Enterprise and Standard Edition of Oracle DB.
Now application developers and customers can use scalable applications that utilize Oracle DB, and still take advantage of the capabilities of POWER5 based servers. This includes full application 64-bit implementations, Advanced POWER Virtualization with micro-partitioning, and the Virtual I/O Server. Using APV and VIOS, you can consolidate a firewall server, Web server, application server, and database server into one POWER5 system. This can even be done on a small System p5 or OpenPower server!
Oracle also announced the availability of Oracle Database 10g Client Release 2 and Oracle Clusterware Release 2.
Oracle Clusterware can be used when creating a Linux cluster solution. Linux clusters are becoming popular as a method to provide a high-performance, low-cost data warehousing solution.
Information on this announcement, including some of the features and advantages, can be found in the awareness white paper:
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 for Linux on POWER - Awareness document
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/p/software/whitepapers/oracle_awareness.html
(click on the Full text white paper - View Arcobat link)
Oracle provides downloads at the Oracle Database 10g Downloads Web site:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle10g/index.html
Select Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) for Linux on Power New! (17-Nov-05)
This will give you access to downloads for the following:
- Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) Enterprise/Standard Edition for Linux on Power
- Oracle Database 10g Companion CD Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) for Linux PowerPC
- Oracle Database 10g Client Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) for Linux PowerPC
- Oracle Clusterware Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0) for Linux PowerPC
You can also follow links from here to the following installation guides and general Oracle Database 10g documentation:
- Release Notes for Linux on POWER
- Quick Installation Guide for Linux on POWER
- Installation Guide for Linux on POWER
- Client Installation Guide for Linux on POWER
The Oracle Database 10g home page includes additional information including Oracle white papers and data sheets:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/oracle10g/index.html
Nov 30 2005, 06:41:00 PM EST
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New! Linux Business Partner RSS feed
Our first Linux Business Partner RSS feed to Business Partners launched giving Business Partners real-time notification of Linux announcements as they work. They can refer to the announcements in feed readers or include them in MyYahoo or other customized portals and integrate them into their own community Web sites. Check this out! http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/pat_linux_rsslanding.html
You can download a feed reader here:
http://www.feedreader.com/
Our Business Partner web homepage highlights the feed.
This is a great benefit to our Business Partners - they get the latest information delivered how they like it in a timely manner.
Love this stuff! If you are an IBM Business Partner you will definitely benefit from this tool.
Take care!
Helen
Nov 29 2005, 08:08:00 PM EST
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Microsoft looking over their shoulder?
Hey there - Did you read about Open Invention Network? Check this out on CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/10/technology/linux.reut/index.htm
IBM has partnered with Sony, Phillips Red Hat and Novell to create Open Invention Network. (OIN) Quoting the article linked above, "If OIN's approach to managing intellectual property wins acceptance, it could overcome a big stumbling block to wider corporate adoption of Linux and pose challenges for major opponent Microsoft Corp. (Research), which has argued that relying on "open source" software poses legal risks."
Ok, so not so sure that there is a stumbling block to corporate adoption of Linux - you have seen the growth rates but clearly this is another step of broadening the market for Linux.
Hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather and note that more change is in the air! Stay tuned!
Nov 10 2005, 09:14:00 AM EST
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More updates for the Linux on POWER community
Long time, no blog. Yes, I'm guilty. I admit it. I've been hunkering down, focusing on some project work, ramping up for the new year and trying to focus on coming up with some creative new initiatives.
I spent a few days down in Austin, TX meeting some of my remote colleagues face-to-face. Robert, Hayden, Tiffany, Helen, Kathy and others. I had a great time overall. It was great to see the IBM campus, get lost on Loop 1 several times, meet people I've only seen in email, and accomplish much more in-person than we could have ever done through email or phone calls. Put everyone in the room, lock the door, and let the brains and neurons heat up.
To summarize Austin in a few sentences:
1.) LOTS of driving, loooooong commutes
2.) Mediocre food and restaurants (but I didn't explore much)
3.) Very friendly people in every corner of the city
4.) Great weather all around! What? No snow?!
I'm from the Northeast, we invented bad weather, bad driving, bad attitudes and bad spending habits. Austin was a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively.
As for the new initiatives, I can't tell you what they all are yet, but they will be really interesting and engaging for everyone in the community; developers, users and other supporters. We're still building that "Linux on POWER Ecosystem" I've mentioned previously, and putting a lot of resources behind it to keep it "moving forward". We believe in it, and we're committed to it.
As Helen mentioned, there's a new'ish portal open now for public use at OpenPowerProject, which has lots of links to resources and access to remote machines you can use to test-drive PowerPC/POWER architecture. There are a few new universities coming online along with the two pillars that have been there since the beginning; Augsburg and Peking. University of Portland is also online and we're working on at least two more in Russia and India.
There's also quite a few new public events happening out in the community: OLS, linux.conf.au, Linux Kongress and others. We're trying to see what we can do (budget allowing, of course) to help support the community at these events, through either face-to-face meetings, BoFs, or outright presentations. If you've got any ideas we haven't thought of, throw them my way (daviddes@us.ibm.com).
The other initiative that's getting off the ground, is the Linux on POWER Advisory Council. This has been a bit slow to get moving, and the legal entanglements aren't speeding things up, but it looks like all of the proposed candidates have accepted and are routing their paperwork back to us so we can get started.
The purpose of the "LoPAC" as I affectionately call it, is to help us oversee the various materials, collateral and initiatives we're targeting to deliver or publish in the community to make sure we're conveying the right message.
There's a lot more to it that I can't go into, but you can be sure we're taking their ideas, and the suggestions of the broader community, to heart. Each candidate represents a country of interest, including the US, Uk, Germany, Japan and Brazil. We may add additional countries and members if the need grows, but this should work for now. Baby steps.
The holidays are upon us, and that means working double-time to get things done, closed-off, signed-off, and in-progress before the new year begins. 2006 promises to be a very "interesting" (and I say that lightly) year with IBM, Linux, technology in general, and the rest of our friends and competition.
Nov 07 2005, 01:15:00 PM EST
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Redhat may move to better licensing model for virtualization by Ron Gordon
Did you see that Redhat said that with the emphasis on XEN work, they MAY also move to a model where you do not get charged per instance. That's good...and what Novell SUSE is doing now. This could close a sore point for RH users.
But remember, you could probably always make a volume agreement with Redhat..but what if you were a small company, 1 server and want to run 4 partitions. This could save you money! Unless you are in Europe where there is alreay a 10 -1 promotion for Redhat Linux. URL for promo:
http://www.europe.redhat.com/partners/IBM/powerpromo/
Nov 05 2005, 02:06:00 PM EST
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Open Solaris has a leg up on Linux....are you kidding me??!!! by Ron Gordon
Wow...some people drink funny stuff...or are starting to do reporting like CNN. So at http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,105786,00.html?source=NLT_ES&nid=105786
SUN is more open and more of an OS than Linux. The argument is that Open Solaris is an OLD OS that is only made with one stem. On the otherhand, Linux has lots of distributors and they create the Linux DISTRIBUTION differently and hence create all different version so Linux OS. Wow...The linux kernel has the same root in all of the various distributions and the flexibility lets people use and build what they want. Now you are saying that is bad...funny, ISVs can write to the same API and get the same functionality, users have choice of which distribution to use and there are THOUSANDS of contributors to advance the kernel and surrounding suppport code.
Open Solaris (yeah right!) has how many people contributing? and I bet the whole opensource community is dropping support for Linux and moving to extend Solaris. And I am sure you can just compile Solaris is the GCC compilers to run on any platform..and I bet Redhat and Novell will soon create Open Solaris distributions and provide support for them...and Open Solaris will integrate XEN and have all device drivers you want...
Yeah that's it...that's a leg up.
Nov 05 2005, 02:02:00 PM EST
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Linux on POWER
