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STARFIRE: Extending the SMP Envelope

STARFIRE: Extending the SMP Envelope. Alan Charlesworth Presented By Bob Koutsoyannis. The Nature of Starfire. A complex Snoopy-Bus-Based Uniform-Memory-Access System. 1997 UltraSparc-II (250MHz) More to come…. Outline of Key Points. CCSMP Design Choices Starfire Design Choices

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STARFIRE: Extending the SMP Envelope

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  1. STARFIRE:Extending the SMP Envelope Alan Charlesworth Presented By Bob Koutsoyannis

  2. The Nature of Starfire • A complex Snoopy-Bus-Based Uniform-Memory-Access System. • 1997 • UltraSparc-II (250MHz) • More to come…

  3. Outline of Key Points • CCSMP Design Choices • Starfire Design Choices • Importance of ASICs • Elaborate Hardware Design • Starfire’s Extra Features • Dynamic System Domains • Evaluation/New Benchmarks

  4. The Three Generations of Snoopy-Bus-Based Uniform-Memory-Access Interconnects Derived Design Choices • Bus-Driving Logic • Switching Protocol • Bus Management • Cache Size • Rearranging Cache Protocols left out.

  5. Ultra Port Architecture • Write back MOESI coherency on 64-byte-wide cache blocks. • 18-byte-wide data lines (2ECC bytes) Centralized Coherency Controller Broad Range of expandability 4XBandwidth, DynamicSmall data Crossbar Lowest possible memory Latency Repartition, and more

  6. Starfire Design Choices • Increased Address and Data Bandwidth. • 4-way interleaved address buses. An 83.3-MHz system clock with snooping every other cycle and a 64-byte cache line width gives a snooping limit of 4buses X 0.5snoops/s X 83.3MHz X 64bytes = 10,667MB/s • 16x16 (18-byte-wide) Data Crossbar to support the snooping limit • Point-to-point routing with ASICs on a Centerplane • Add Dynamic Systems Domain Feature • Improve Reliability, Availability*, and Serviceability • Designed for external control from a System Service Processor via Ethernet with ASIC data available

  7. Application Specific Integrated Circuits Data Interconnect

  8. Two Rows of Eight Boards

  9. Closer Board View

  10. Elaborate Board Design • Centerplane • 27”X18”X141mils • 34 ASICs • 28 Layers • 14,000 nets, nearly 100% density with 95% done by hand. • 43,000 drill holes • System Boards • 16”X20” • Memory, I/O, 4 Processors, 5 power converters, 18 Asics • 24 Layers

  11. The Starfire, Ultra 10000 • Processor Cabinet • Flat Side Panel • Circuit Breaker (×11 on each side) • Curved Side Panel ("Styling Panel") • Fan Tray Centerplane • Left Front/Rear Door • Right Front/Rear Door • Fan Tray • AC/DC Power Shelf

  12. Dynamic System Domains • Unique Feature that allows the server to truly partition into separate domains • Provide Isolated Development/Production/Test environments • Easy to administer – System Service Processor • Easy to repair – hot swap components – Attach/Detach • Rapid reassignment of computing resources • I/O Flexibility • Cost/Convenience

  13. Domain Protection • Centerplane Filtering – SSP has control over the Global Arbiter ASICs • Board-Level Filtering • Domain Mask – 16 bit • Group Memory Mask – 16 bit • Group Memory Base and Limit Registers • Fault Tolerance: ASICs Generate and Check ECCs for Address Packets • Redundant Components • Crash Recovery Extra Features

  14. TPC-D 300-Gbyte Results

  15. Cost Breakdown and Record Breaking The Starfire records: • Online Transaction Processing (SAP R/3 and BAAN) • Cluster of 4 sustained over 100 Gflops on Linpack Parallel equation-solving • 2 Starfires lead the SPECrate_int95 integer-application throughput benchmark.

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