Eight-way Intel against Unix servers
Summary
In 1999 Compaq and more than 20 other PC makers wanted to attack the Unix RISC systems of Sun, IBM and HP with eight-way Intel servers running Windows NT. They were based on the Profusion chipset with a crossbar switch from Intel’s acquisition Corollary; earlier attempts such as Axil’s Pentium Pro server had failed. heise saw the weak point at Microsoft: nobody trusted NT 4.0 to meet the demands of large data centres.
Ideas
- A crossbar switch connects eight processors without a shared bottleneck bus.
- PC makers wanted to offer Unix performance at a third of the cost.
- The hardware could also run Unix, but Windows NT was what was advertised.
- Earlier eight-way projects had failed because of the investment required.
Insights
- Scalable hardware is of little use if the operating system does not scale with it.
- Standard hardware usually displaces special systems through price, not peak performance.
Facts
- The Profusion chipset came from Corollary, which Intel had taken over.
- Axil, a subsidiary of Hyundai America, had already shown an eight-way Pentium Pro server at CeBIT 1997 and later gave up.
- After taking over DEC and Tandem, Compaq itself owned Alpha and NonStop systems.
References
Critique
- The manufacturers’ bold quotes remain without benchmarks that would prove the performance comparison with Unix systems.
Remarks
- x86 servers later established themselves in the data centre mainly with Linux, less with Windows NT.
Recommendations
- With multiprocessor systems, check whether the operating system and application actually use the additional cores.
- Compare server platforms by cost per performance under your own load, not by marketing claims.
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