Intel

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Intel 5520 Chipsetwith Nehalem
micro-architectureSoftware Ecosystem
Readiness2H 2008

• Shannon SchroederSoftware and Services Group
• Product Marketing Engineer

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Software Readiness Executive Summary

• SW Is Ready NOW for Great Intel 5520 Chipset
  Performance1
• Including Operating Systems, Virtual Machine
  Monitors, Middleware and Applications
• Intel works in advance with SW vendors in
  preparation of upcoming features
• Most tested solutions are showing performance
  increases out-of-the-box
• Tests in progress by Intel, OSVs, ISVS yielding
  exciting preliminary results
• Hundreds of Intel application engineers around
  the world work closely with the ecosystem
• SW Performance Optimizations Possible? Yes!
• Technologies That Can Be Optimized in Software
• Multi-core, HT, SSE4.2 instructions, Intel
  Virtualization Technology (VMMs), NUMA
• See here Intel recommendations to the software
  ecosystem for Tylersburg
• Check with your provider for their latest Intel
  feature support release dates

The Intel Roadmap is Backward Compatible for
Software Intel Pentium -- Intel Core --
Nehalem
1. Intel, OSVs, ISVs run tests on hundreds of
released and pre-release server workstation
applications before an Intel launch
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A Whos Who Of Software Works with IntelThe best
in their segments around the world have been
working on Nehalem

• Operating Systems, Virtual Machine Monitor
  Vendors, Middleware
• Proprietary and Open Source
• Application Examples
• Enterprise
• Database, Customer Relationship Management,
  Enterprise Resource Planning, Business
  Intelligence, Security, Telco, Infrastructure,
  Application Servers, Video Conferencing
• High Performance Computing
• Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing,
  Energy, Engineering Automated Design, Geospatial,
  Life and Medical Sciences, Data Analysis and
  Mining
• Workstation
• Digital Content Creation, Computer Aided Design,
  Computer Aided Engineering, Digital Content
  Management, Electronic Design Automation

Over 250 HPC, Workstation, Enterprise Software
Solutions Optimized with Intel Around the World
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Operating System VMM Examples

• Intel QuickPath includes Non-Uniform Memory
  Access
• Showcase optimized applications will appear in
  the Enabled Software Marketing Guide
• Contact your solution provider for the latest
  releases with Intel technology enabled.

• Vendor Example of NUMA-Optimized Solution
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise
  Edition and later
• Sun Solaris 9 and later
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Server and later
• Novell SUSE Linux Server 9 and later
• VMware ESX v2 and later
• Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and later

Software Works On Intel Architecture Intel
Pentium -- Intel Core -- Nehalem
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Software Readiness FAQ

• Q1. Do software companies have to re-compile
  their products to work on Nehalem-based
  micro-architecture?
• A1. Quite simply no. Recompiling legacy software
  that runs today on Intel Pentium and Intel
  Core micro-architectures could yield additional
  performance and take advantage of new
  instructions but is not a requirement. Most of
  the software Intel application engineers have
  tested on pre-production hardware works better
  out-of-the-box on Intel 5520 Chipset.
• Q2 What is Intel doing to ensure the ecosystem
  is ready for the latest product?
• A2. Intel begins working with the software
  ecosystem when new products are being
  conceptualized on both sides, and continues this
  joint work through planning, development and
  testing. There are Intel application engineers
  around the world teaching, coding and consulting
  with their peers at OSVs, VMM vendors and ISVs.
  Intel also develops software tools that
  developers can use to easily take advantage of
  the latest Intel product features.
• Q3 How will I know which software works best on
  Intel 5520 Chipset servers and workstations?
• Q3 Intel publishes performance information at
  launch. An Enabled Software Application Guide,
  usually released before launch, includes OS, VMM
  and application optimization details and results.
  It is made available to Intel field on
  smcr.intel.com.

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Thank You!
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Back Up
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Intels 2007 Recommendation Slide to the Software
EcosystemIntels Next Generation 2-socket
Intel Xeon Server Platform
Biggest leap ever in platform capabilities for
mainstream servers
Intels ISV Enabling Recommendations

• Intel QuickPath architecture validation
• Use Intel SW tools to reduce potential NUMA
  latency
• Update sizing guides with new performance info
• New instruction set enabling
• Text string search, pattern matching
• XML accelerators for SOA, DB, Infrastructure,
  Web
• Recompile with Intel Compilers, add additional
  intrinsics as noted in documentation
• Take advantage of additional processing
  capabilities
• Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT)
• Continue ongoing thread and core optimization
• Additional thread capabilities can be turned off
  from bios

1. based on Intel internal component
SPEC-fp_rate2006 server OLTP forecasts