IBM unveils Power8 and OpenPower pincer attack on Intel’s x86 server monopoly
http://www.slideshare.net/insideHPC/power8-open-power-podcast
- IBM Unveils Power8 Chip As Open Hardware
- IBM Launches POWER8 Systems, OpenPOWER Roadmap
- What Power8 and OpenPOWER Might Mean for HPC
- IBM, Google Show Off Power8 Systems And OpenPower Efforts
Afinal o NVLink da nVidia anunciado para o Pascal vai ser usado para comunicar directamente com o Power8.
- Nvidia to Offer Full CUDA Support for OpenPOWER in 4Q2014
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/181102-ibm-power8-openpower-x86-server-monopoly
With more than 4 billion transistors, packed into a stupidly large 650-square-millimeter die built on IBM’s new 22nm SOI process, the 12-core (96-thread) Power8 CPU is one of the largest and probably the most powerful CPU ever built.
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There are 12 CPU cores, each with 512KB of L2 SRAM and 8MB of L3 EDRAM, for a total of 6MB L2 and 96MB L3 cache respectively. There is then a further 230GB/sec of bandwidth to 1TB of DRAM.
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We expect the Power8 will eventually be capable of clock speeds around 4.5GHz, with a TDP in the region of 250 watts.
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Power8 also introduces CAPI (Coherence Attach Processor Interface). CAPI is a direct link into the CPU, allowing peripherals and coprocessors to communicate directly with the CPU, bypassing (substantial) operating system and driver overheads. CAPI is similar to Intel’s QPI, but where QPI is closed and proprietary, IBM is opening up CAPI to third parties. IBM’s Power Systems CTO, Satya Sharma, told me in an interview that in the case of flash memory attached via CAPI the overhead is reduced by a factor of 20. More importantly, though, CAPI can be used to attach coprocessors — GPUs, FPGAs — directly to the Power8 CPU for some truly insane workload-specific performance boosts.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/181102-ibm-power8-openpower-x86-server-monopoly/2The OpenPower Foundation
Basically, IBM is making the Power8 architecture and detailed technical documentation open to members of the Foundation. Currently, the foundation consists of Altera, Google, Nvidia, Micron, Samsung, Tyan, ZTE, and others. Each of these members will use the Power documentation in different ways. Altera is developing FPGAs that connect directly into the Power8 chip via CAPI, to provide stupendous speed-ups for specific tasks. Tyan, with help from Google, will create third-party motherboards that are compatible with the Power8 chip, with the goal of producing cheap, Power8-based machines for internet-scale server farms. Nvidia, like Altera, will develop a Tesla-like GPU coprocessor that connects directly to the CPU via CAPI. Suzhou will license the Power architecture to make its own Power8-compatible chips for China’s domestic server market.
http://www.slideshare.net/insideHPC/power8-open-power-podcast
- IBM Unveils Power8 Chip As Open Hardware
- IBM Launches POWER8 Systems, OpenPOWER Roadmap
- What Power8 and OpenPOWER Might Mean for HPC
- IBM, Google Show Off Power8 Systems And OpenPower Efforts
Afinal o NVLink da nVidia anunciado para o Pascal vai ser usado para comunicar directamente com o Power8.
- Nvidia to Offer Full CUDA Support for OpenPOWER in 4Q2014