UltraSPARC T1
Encyclopedia
Sun Microsystems
' UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor
, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename "Niagara", is a multithreading, multicore
CPU
. Designed to lower the energy consumption of server computers, the CPU typically uses 72 W of power at 1.4 GHz.
The T1 is a new-from-the-ground-up SPARC
microprocessor implementation that conforms to the UltraSPARC Architecture 2005 specification and executes the full SPARC V9 instruction set
. Sun has produced two previous multicore processors (UltraSPARC IV and IV+), but UltraSPARC T1 is its first microprocessor that is both multicore and multithreaded. The processor is available with four, six or eight CPU cores, each core able to handle four threads
concurrently. Thus the processor is capable of processing up to 32 threads concurrently.
Similar to how high-end Sun SMP
systems work, the UltraSPARC T1 can be partitioned. Thus, several cores can be partitioned for running a single or group of processes and/or threads, whilst the other cores deal with the rest of the processes on the system.
The T1's cores are less complex than those of current high end processors in order to allow 8 cores to fit on the same die. The cores do not feature out-of-order execution
, or a sizable amount of cache
. Single-thread processors depend heavily on large caches for their performance because cache misses result in a wait while the data is fetched from main memory. By making the cache larger the probability of a cache miss is reduced, but the impact of a miss is still the same.
The T1 cores largely side-step the issue of cache misses by multithreading. Each core is a barrel processor
, meaning it switches between available threads each cycle. When a long-latency event occurs, such as cache miss, the thread is taken out of rotation while the data is fetched into cache in the background. Once the long-latency event completes, the thread is made available for execution again. Sharing of the pipeline by multiple threads may make each thread slower, but the overall throughput (and utilization) of each core is much higher. It also means that the impact of cache misses is greatly reduced, and the T1 can maintain high throughput with a smaller amount of cache. The cache no longer needs to be large enough to hold all or most of the "working set", just the recent cache misses of each thread.
Benchmarks demonstrate this approach has worked very well on commercial (integer), multithreaded workloads such as Java
application servers, Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) application servers, email (such as Lotus Domino) servers, and web servers. These benchmarks suggest each core in the UltraSPARC T1 is more powerful than the circa 2001, single-core, single-threaded UltraSPARC III, and at a chip to chip comparison, significantly outperforms other processors on multithreaded integer workloads.
(TI) in their 90 nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process with nine levels of copper interconnect.
:
and ultra-high performance applications, the chip is targeted at network-facing high-demand servers, such as high-traffic web server
s, and mid-tier Java, ERP, and CRM application servers, which often utilize a large number of separate threads. One of the limitations of the T1 design is that a single floating point unit
(FPU) is shared between all 8 cores, making the T1 unsuitable for applications performing a lot of floating point mathematics. However, since the processor's intended markets do not typically make much use of floating-point operations, Sun does not expect this to be a problem. Sun provides a tool for analysing an application's level of parallelism
and use of floating point instructions to determine if it is suitable for use on a T1 or T2 platform.
In addition to web and application tier processing, the UltraSPARC T1 may be well suited for smaller database applications which have a large user count. One customer has published results showing that a MySQL
application running on an UltraSPARC T1 server ran 13.5 times faster than on an AMD Opteron server.
, each of which can run an operating system instance.
Currently, Solaris
and Linux
are supported, and FreeBSD
support is under development.
charge their customers based on the number of processors the software runs on. In early 2006, Oracle
changed the licensing model by introducing the processor factor. With a processor factor of .25 for the T1, an 8-core T2000 requires only a 2-CPU license.
The "Oracle Processor Core Factor Table" has since been updated regularly as new CPUs came to market.
In Q3 2006, IBM
introduced the concept of Value Unit (VU) pricing. Each core of the T1 is 30 PVUs (each T2 core is 50 PVUs, and T3 is 70 PVUs) instead of the default value of 100 PVUs per core.
processor, which included 8 floating point units, as well as other additional features.
The T1 was only available in uniprocessor systems, limiting vertical scalability in large enterprise environments. This weakness was mitigated with the follow-on "Victoria Falls", commercially known as the UltraSPARC T2 Plus, as well as the next generation SPARC T3. Both the UltraSPARC T2+ and SPARC T3 offer single, dual, and quad socket configurations.
design, code-named Victoria Falls, was taped out
in October 2006. A two-socket server (2 RU
) will have 128 threads, 16 cores, and a 65× performance improvement over UltraSPARC III.
At the Hot Chips
19 conference, Sun announced that Victoria Falls will be in two-way and four-way servers. Thus, a single 4-way SMP server will support 256 concurrent hardware threads.
In April 2008, Sun released 2-way UltraSPARC T2 Plus servers, the SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240.
In October 2008, Sun released 4-way UltraSPARC T2 Plus SPARC Enterprise T5440 server.
, reported in June 2008 that the microprocessor will have 16 cores, incorrectly suggesting each core would have 16 threads. During the Hot Chips 21 conference Sun revealed the chip has a total of 16 cores and 128 threads. According to the ISSCC
2010 presentation:
In 2010, Larry Ellison
announced that Oracle will offer Oracle Linux on the UltraSPARC platform, and the port is scheduled to be available in the T4 and T5 timeframe.
.
via the OpenSPARC
project. The published information includes:
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
' UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename "Niagara", is a multithreading, multicore
Multicore
Multicore may refer to:* Multi-core processor ** Multicore Association, founded in 2005, a non-profit, industry consortium focused on multicore technology* multicore cable, a generic term for an electrical cable that has multiple cores...
CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
. Designed to lower the energy consumption of server computers, the CPU typically uses 72 W of power at 1.4 GHz.
The T1 is a new-from-the-ground-up SPARC
SPARC
SPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
microprocessor implementation that conforms to the UltraSPARC Architecture 2005 specification and executes the full SPARC V9 instruction set
Instruction set
An instruction set, or instruction set architecture , is the part of the computer architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O...
. Sun has produced two previous multicore processors (UltraSPARC IV and IV+), but UltraSPARC T1 is its first microprocessor that is both multicore and multithreaded. The processor is available with four, six or eight CPU cores, each core able to handle four threads
Thread (computer science)
In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process...
concurrently. Thus the processor is capable of processing up to 32 threads concurrently.
Similar to how high-end Sun SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
systems work, the UltraSPARC T1 can be partitioned. Thus, several cores can be partitioned for running a single or group of processes and/or threads, whilst the other cores deal with the rest of the processes on the system.
Cores
The UltraSPARC T1 was designed from scratch as a multi-threaded, special-purpose processor, and thus introduces a whole new architecture for obtaining high performance. Rather than try to make each core as intelligent and optimized as they can, Sun's goal was to run as many concurrent threads as possible, and maximize utilization of each core's pipeline.The T1's cores are less complex than those of current high end processors in order to allow 8 cores to fit on the same die. The cores do not feature out-of-order execution
Out-of-order execution
In computer engineering, out-of-order execution is a paradigm used in most high-performance microprocessors to make use of instruction cycles that would otherwise be wasted by a certain type of costly delay...
, or a sizable amount of cache
CPU cache
A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations...
. Single-thread processors depend heavily on large caches for their performance because cache misses result in a wait while the data is fetched from main memory. By making the cache larger the probability of a cache miss is reduced, but the impact of a miss is still the same.
The T1 cores largely side-step the issue of cache misses by multithreading. Each core is a barrel processor
Barrel processor
A barrel processor is a CPU that switches between threads of execution on every cycle. This CPU design technique is also known as "interleaved" or "fine-grained" temporal multithreading...
, meaning it switches between available threads each cycle. When a long-latency event occurs, such as cache miss, the thread is taken out of rotation while the data is fetched into cache in the background. Once the long-latency event completes, the thread is made available for execution again. Sharing of the pipeline by multiple threads may make each thread slower, but the overall throughput (and utilization) of each core is much higher. It also means that the impact of cache misses is greatly reduced, and the T1 can maintain high throughput with a smaller amount of cache. The cache no longer needs to be large enough to hold all or most of the "working set", just the recent cache misses of each thread.
Benchmarks demonstrate this approach has worked very well on commercial (integer), multithreaded workloads such as Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
application servers, Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...
(ERP) application servers, email (such as Lotus Domino) servers, and web servers. These benchmarks suggest each core in the UltraSPARC T1 is more powerful than the circa 2001, single-core, single-threaded UltraSPARC III, and at a chip to chip comparison, significantly outperforms other processors on multithreaded integer workloads.
Physical characteristics
The UltraSPARC T1 contained 279 million transistors and had an area of 378 mm2. It was fabricated by Texas InstrumentsTexas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
(TI) in their 90 nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process with nine levels of copper interconnect.
Systems
The T1 processor can be found in the following products from Sun and Fujitsu Computer SystemsFujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
:
- Sun/Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens SPARC EnterpriseSPARC EnterpriseThe SPARC Enterprise series is a range of UNIX server computers co-developed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu introduced in 2007. They are marketed and sold by Sun Microsystems , Fujitsu, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers under the common brand of SPARC Enterprise, superseding Sun's Sun Fire and...
T1000 and T2000 servers - Sun FireSun FireThe Sun Fire server brand is a series of server computers introduced in 2001 by Sun Microsystems . The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the UltraSPARC II-based Sun Enterprise series...
T1000 and T2000 servers - Sun Netra T2000 Server
- Sun Netra CP3060 Blade
- Sun Blade T6300 Server Module
Target market
The UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor is unique in its strength and weaknesses, and as such is targeted at specific markets. Rather than being used for high-end number-crunchingSupercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
and ultra-high performance applications, the chip is targeted at network-facing high-demand servers, such as high-traffic web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
s, and mid-tier Java, ERP, and CRM application servers, which often utilize a large number of separate threads. One of the limitations of the T1 design is that a single floating point unit
Floating point unit
A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...
(FPU) is shared between all 8 cores, making the T1 unsuitable for applications performing a lot of floating point mathematics. However, since the processor's intended markets do not typically make much use of floating-point operations, Sun does not expect this to be a problem. Sun provides a tool for analysing an application's level of parallelism
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
and use of floating point instructions to determine if it is suitable for use on a T1 or T2 platform.
In addition to web and application tier processing, the UltraSPARC T1 may be well suited for smaller database applications which have a large user count. One customer has published results showing that a MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
application running on an UltraSPARC T1 server ran 13.5 times faster than on an AMD Opteron server.
Virtualization
T1 is the first SPARC processor that supports the Hyper-Privileged execution mode. The SPARC Hypervisor runs in this mode, and it can partition a T1 system into 32 Logical DomainsLogical Domains
Logical Domains is the server virtualization and partitioning technology from Sun Microsystems released in April 2007. It has been re-branded as Oracle VM Server for SPARC since Oracle Corporation completed the acquisition of Sun in January 2010. Each domain is a full virtual machine with a...
, each of which can run an operating system instance.
Currently, Solaris
Solaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
are supported, and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
support is under development.
Software licensing issues
Traditionally, commercial software suites like Oracle databaseOracle database
The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
charge their customers based on the number of processors the software runs on. In early 2006, Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
changed the licensing model by introducing the processor factor. With a processor factor of .25 for the T1, an 8-core T2000 requires only a 2-CPU license.
The "Oracle Processor Core Factor Table" has since been updated regularly as new CPUs came to market.
In Q3 2006, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
introduced the concept of Value Unit (VU) pricing. Each core of the T1 is 30 PVUs (each T2 core is 50 PVUs, and T3 is 70 PVUs) instead of the default value of 100 PVUs per core.
Weaknesses
The T1 only offered a single Floating Point unit to be shared by the 8 cores, limiting usage in HPC environments. This weakness was mitigated with the follow-on UltraSPARC T2UltraSPARC T2
Sun Microsystems' UltraSPARC T2 microprocessor is a multithreading, multi-core CPU. It is a member of the SPARC family, and the successor to the UltraSPARC T1. The chip is sometimes referred to by its codename, Niagara 2...
processor, which included 8 floating point units, as well as other additional features.
The T1 was only available in uniprocessor systems, limiting vertical scalability in large enterprise environments. This weakness was mitigated with the follow-on "Victoria Falls", commercially known as the UltraSPARC T2 Plus, as well as the next generation SPARC T3. Both the UltraSPARC T2+ and SPARC T3 offer single, dual, and quad socket configurations.
Contemporary and subsequent designs
The "Coolthreads(TM)" architecture, beginning with the UltraSPARC T1 (with its positive and negative aspects), was certainly influential in the concurrent and future designs of SPARC processors.UltraSPARC T2
Formerly known by the codename Niagara 2, the follow-on to the UltraSPARC T1, the T2 provides eight cores. Unlike the T1, each core supports 8 threads per core, one FPU per core, one enhanced cryptographic unit per core, and CPU embedded 10 Gigabit Ethernet network controllers.UltraSPARC T2 Plus
In February 2007, Sun announced at its annual analyst summit that its third-generation simultaneous multithreadingSimultaneous multithreading
Simultaneous multithreading, often abbreviated as SMT, is a technique for improving the overall efficiency of superscalar CPUs with hardware multithreading...
design, code-named Victoria Falls, was taped out
Tape-out
In electronics design, tape-out or tapeout is the final result of the design cycle for integrated circuits or printed circuit boards, the point at which the artwork for the photomask of a circuit is sent for manufacture....
in October 2006. A two-socket server (2 RU
Rack unit
A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack...
) will have 128 threads, 16 cores, and a 65× performance improvement over UltraSPARC III.
At the Hot Chips
Hot Chips
Hot Chips is an IEEE sponsored technological symposium which is held every year in August on Stanford University campus since 1989. The general emphasis of the conference are microprocessors and integrated circuits. Processor makers often announce details about future processor designs at the...
19 conference, Sun announced that Victoria Falls will be in two-way and four-way servers. Thus, a single 4-way SMP server will support 256 concurrent hardware threads.
In April 2008, Sun released 2-way UltraSPARC T2 Plus servers, the SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240.
In October 2008, Sun released 4-way UltraSPARC T2 Plus SPARC Enterprise T5440 server.
SPARC T3
In October 2006, Sun disclosed that Niagara 3 will be built with a 45 nm process. The RegisterThe Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
, reported in June 2008 that the microprocessor will have 16 cores, incorrectly suggesting each core would have 16 threads. During the Hot Chips 21 conference Sun revealed the chip has a total of 16 cores and 128 threads. According to the ISSCC
International Solid-State Circuits Conference
International Solid-State Circuits Conference is a global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and Systems-on-a-Chip. The Conference offers a unique opportunity for engineers working at the cutting edge of IC design to maintain technical currency, and to network with leading...
2010 presentation:
"A 16-core SPARC SoC processor enables up to 512 threads in a 4-way glueless system to
maximize throughput. The 6MB L2 cache of 461GB/s and the 308-pin SerDes I/O of 2.4Tb/s
support the required bandwidth. Six clock and four voltage domains, as well as power
management and circuit techniques, optimize performance, power, variability and yield trade-offs
across the 377mm2 die."
SPARC T4
The T4 CPU was released in late 2011. The new T4 CPU will drop from 16 cores (on the T3) back to 8 cores (as used on the T1, T2, and T2+). The new T4 core design (named "S3")feature improved per-thread performance, due to introduction of out-of-order execution, as well as having additional improved performance for single-threaded programs.In 2010, Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Ellison is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. As of 2011, he is the third wealthiest American citizen, with an estimated worth of $33 billion.- Early life :Larry Ellison was born in the...
announced that Oracle will offer Oracle Linux on the UltraSPARC platform, and the port is scheduled to be available in the T4 and T5 timeframe.
SPARC T5
The new CPU is projected to be released after the T4. The new T5 CPU will leverage 16 per-thread speed enhanced T4 cores, similar to the quantity of cores in the T3. The T5 is projected to be manufactured with a 28 nanometer technology."Rock"
The original UltraSPARC T1 was designed for single CPU systems only and is not capable of SMP. "Rock" was a more ambitious project, intended to support multiple-chip server architectures, targeting traditional data-facing workloads such as databases. It was seen as more a follow-on to Sun's SMP processors such as UltraSPARC IV, rather than a replacement for the UltraSPARC T1 or T2, but was canceled in the timeframe of Oracle's acquisition of SunSun acquisition by Oracle
The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation was completed by Oracle on January 27, 2010. Significantly, Oracle, previously only a software vendor, now owned both hardware and software product lines from Sun The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation was completed by...
.
Open design
On March 21, 2006, Sun made the UltraSPARC T1 processor design available under the GNU General Public LicenseGNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
via the OpenSPARC
OpenSPARC
OpenSPARC is an open-source hardware project started in December 2005. The initial contribution to the project was Sun Microsystems' register-transfer level Verilog code for a full 64-bit, 32-thread microprocessor, the UltraSPARC T1 processor. On 21 March 2006, Sun released the source code to the...
project. The published information includes:
- VerilogVerilogIn the semiconductor and electronic design industry, Verilog is a hardware description language used to model electronic systems. Verilog HDL, not to be confused with VHDL , is most commonly used in the design, verification, and implementation of digital logic chips at the register-transfer level...
source code of the UltraSPARC T1 design; - Verification suite and simulation models;
- ISA specification (UltraSPARC Architecture 2005);
- The SolarisSolaris Operating SystemSolaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
10 OS simulation images.
External links
- Sun Microsystems' official UltraSPARC T1 Processor information
- Sun's OpenSPARC homepage
- OpenSPARC T1 Project home
- Sun Intros Eight-Core Processor – By Jessica Davis, Electronic News, 14 November 2005
- Sun’s Big Splash by Linda Geppert, in IEEE Spectrum, January 2005
- Niagara, a 32-way Multithreaded Sparc Processor by Poonacha Kongetira, Kathirgamar Aingaran, Kunle OlukotunKunle OlukotunOyekunle Ayinde Olukotun is a pioneer of multi-core processors, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University and director of the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory at Stanford....
, in IEEE Micro, March–April 2005 - Sun Talks About Victoria Falls
- Sun PDF Which Includes Victoria Falls Info