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Sun Starfire: Extending the SMP Envelope

Sun Starfire: Extending the SMP Envelope. Presented by Jen Miller 2/9/2004. Starfire Overview. 24 – 64 processors Maximum of 4 processors per board Based on UMA, SMP snooping architecture Design focus on interconnect. System. 250 MHz processors with 4 MB external caches

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Sun Starfire: Extending the SMP Envelope

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  1. Sun Starfire: Extending the SMP Envelope Presented by Jen Miller 2/9/2004

  2. Starfire Overview • 24 – 64 processors • Maximum of 4 processors per board • Based on UMA, SMP snooping architecture • Design focus on interconnect

  3. System • 250 MHz processors with 4 MB external caches • 16 x 16 data crossbar • Active centerplane • Point to point routing • 4 GB memory separated into 4 banks • 4 way interleaved address bus

  4. Interconnect • Point to point routing: centerplane transfers addresses and data between boards • - Higher latency than traditional bus • - Better bandwidth, reliability, availability • 2 cycle address transactions • - Bus determined by 2 low-order cache bits • Data transactions • - Waiting packets are buffered and sent in 8 cycles buffer-to-buffer

  5. Dynamic System Domains • Can be dynamically subdivided into multiple computers • Each domain is a separate shared-memory SMP system • Errors confined to domain • Great for testing and development • Starfire can replace multiple smaller systems • Domains can be created for special functions • Implemented in centerplane and system boards via registers

  6. Reliability • ECC for data transfers and address packets • Optional hardware redundancy • Auto-reboot crash recovery

  7. Performance • Bandwidth increased dramatically over prior generations • Unix server flexibility with Dynamic System Domains • Reliable, available, and serviceable • “Can match or exceed performance of other parallel architectures for a lower system cost”

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