High-end Multiprocessors Windows NT Servers

Current NT is 32 bit, Alphas run it in 32 bit mode.

Win2K is 32 bit as well.  They are working on a 64 bit version, but don't expect it to be released anytime soon.  I believe the 64 bit version is expected 6-12 months after the 32 bit version is released.   As I understand it, Out-of-the-box NT Server, Enterprise Edition will support up to 8 CPUs.  Custom machines (you're probably better off contacting Microsoft) can handle up to 32 Processors.  

I heard a rumor to the effect that Dell is supposed to be coming out with an 8 CPU server sometime in the fall.  Otherwise, the fastest I can imagine that's fairly easy to find would be a quad Xeon 500/2MB Cache with 4 GB RAM.  Ultimately the fastest machine today will be the slower machine tomorrow.

NT is not as scalable as unix, I think the actual max you can have is i QUAD (4 CPU's), don't believe the marketing gumph for figures above this *yet*, NT only uses more CPU's by channeling the CPU's into streams so even though to may have 8 or 10 these are probably in 4 streams. You will not get much more performance out of a 32 Proc NT4 system until they make it scalable as with SMP unix systems.

Alpha CPU's are generally faster but if the OS is not geared up to using the hardware to it's full potential, whats the point.

Choose carefully, if you want some more "real" figures I'll have a chat to one of my hardware "buddies" and get back to you some time.

True, NT is not as scalable with multiple CPUs - using two doesn't double your speed.  But it does provide a big boost, especially for applications optimized to use multiple CPUs, such as SQL7.

"Leew"

Thanks for your respond and your explaination about Windows 2000 and the 64 bit stuff.

If i am not mistaken,I already know that Dell and Compaq are coming out with a Server with 8 processors (They are waiting for Intel to Launch the Pentium III Xeon 550 and 600 somewhere in October, is it the maximun ?

And i have came across it from Microsoft Knowledge Based site saying that Windows NT can cater for a maximun of 32 processor?  

So what machine can handle 32 processors ?

Is it for Alphaserver ?

What is the max processors for Alphaserver ?

And your answer on the Xeon 500/2MB, do you think Pentium III 600 will be faster?

Actually i am doing a Data Warehouse project, and i am planning to use MSSQL7 as a database instead of others, therefore i need a powerful server which runs on Win NT. And my database can go up to 100 - 200 GB

Thanks again Leew.

"RoadWarrior"

Thanks for you clarification on AlphaServer. So what is the significant differences from Alpha and Pentium ? And why people use AlphaServer?

"Jools"

Thanks a lot for your informative comment. I know Unix very scalable, i am running my Transaction Processing System on Unix and Oracle. Maybe i should reconsider Oracle for my Project....

And Why do they create AlphaServer since is not being fully utilised and why Microsoft are using it for their "www.terraserver.com" site with 8 440Mhz Alpha Processors ?

And i am looking forward for your buddies to reply too..

Thanks






 

I had a look around and found evidence to confirm my thinking that Alphas had about equivalent performance to Pentium Pro/Celeron/P11 processors of the same clock speed, alpha just got the drop for the high end because they were available in higher clock speeds, perhaps they work better in multi processor systems too.

on Linux, a 32 bit network operating system, a Pentium II/466 scores around 462.03 on the "bogomips" benchmark and an Alpha 21164/466 scores  around 464.51. I would expect that due to using the same technology in Ram, bus, disk and video hardware a single proc NT server would be as fast whether it were Pentium II/III or Alpha for the same clock speed.

Why do MS use alpha? it wouldn't be anything to do with intel's anti trust lawsuit would it????

regards,

Road Warrior.

I have no idea who makes a 32 CPU system.  I have doubts they exist (for NT, despite it's purported support.  They may, but they may be custom built systems by Compaq, Dell, IBM, or other such company, which would then also require a custom NT Server operating system.

I think that the Full Speed, 2 MB Cache of a Pentium III XEON 500 would be more beneficial than a quad normal Pentium III 600.  Additionally, if you're waiting for the 8 CPU systems from Dell or Compaq, then I'd suggest by the time that comes out (later this year, they'll probably have 550 or 600 MHz XEONs available with the 2 MB Cache.

Sequent put up to 32 pentium pros in their enterprise servers, webpage here...
http://www.sequent.com/direct/purchase.asp?loc=us&type=enterprise
Don't know whether NT would ever run on them, they run "Dynix ptx" which is a unix.

Here's a blurb for ya:         www.kryotech.com

April 29, 1999 /PRNewswire/ -- At the AMD 1999 annual shareholders' meeting here today, KryoTech and AMD demonstrated the KryoTech Super-G™ computer running at 1 GHz (1,000 MHz or one billion cycles per second). The Super-G is based on a thermally-accelerated AMD-K7™ processor and KryoTech's newest cooling system. KryoTech expects to deliver the Super-G to customers at speeds up to and including 1 GHz.

As an add-on to my previous answer, if you want 64-bit, NT isn't your boat, it won't actually support actively 64-bit processing until the 64-bit Intel chip comes out or when they finish work on developing NT to run 64-bit on Alpha which they are currently working on.  

Thanks rowcroft,

Are you saying that clustering 2 X 4 Pentium III Xeon 500 Servers is faster than a 8 way Pentium III Xeon 5000? I also believe that Intel are introducing a new chipset for the 8 way Server to increase the i/o (133 Mhz Bus).

If it is true that clustering is faster, then what sort of clustering is it? If i am not mistaken, the current NT version (Enterprise)can only perform failover clustering. Only Windows 2K can perform Scalability Clustering, which balance the processing on both servers.

Yah, you are absolutely right, 64bit is totally out of the question for now.

Just one more question, is AMD going to make ATHLON for servers? If they are buiding servers on ATHLON would they be faster and when are they going to launch it ?