SGI launches R16000 352
nkrgovic writes " SGI has just launched a new CPU - the long expected R16000. The new CPU works on 700MHz, has 4MB secondary cache and more goodies.
For now the new CPU is only used in SGI's Fuel workstations, but we should expect to see it pretty soon in SGI's Origin servers as well. With new high density compute nodes this should make the Origin's the fastest supercomputing server per square foot."
It runs IRIX? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not a general purpose processor (Score:4, Interesting)
purpose processor like the P4 or Athlon. For
specific floating point intensive problems, they
can be quite effective. What is annoying is that
they are usually 2 or more generations behind in
manufacturing process capability. So the lines
and heat dissipation in the 3GHz P4 are much more
advanced than the R16000.
Also, SGI has an annoying tendency to use
proprietary ASIC's in the their memory which
make their entire system much more expensive
than it need be. Some of this is because
their design cycle is so long that when SGI
committed to a architecture, the performance
just wasn't there.
Given these constraints, it is hard to see
how SGI could market "cost-sensitive" systems.
Re:Behind the times. (Score:1, Interesting)
And then you finish with this gem:
"Clustering has nothing to do with the markets SGI sells in. Please don't mention it, it makes me think you don't know what you're talking about"
So please do apply your own advice first... and shut up.
Computer power per watt? (Score:3, Interesting)
SGI is dying (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other end, their HPC (super-computers) is being attacked from above. On that sector, price is not really a problem, its just pure performance. And there too they are being beaten, SGI just does not have the research power that
NEC or IBM can have. So they are starting to be pretty much behind, so they become not only more expensive (which does not really matter), but more importantly much slower...
Also on the workstation market, their desktop SUCKS, its just a pain to use. They are still stuck in the pre-win95 era... It might have been good compared to win3.1 or twm, but it just is not in the same world as GNOME, KDE, WinXP or MacOSX.
Also, their other strengh where there graphics board, they invented modern 3D hardware. And for a long time the roadmap for the PC 3d hardware was simple, they just had to do what SGI already had, but we have now passed a point where the PC hardware has actually more features then the SGI stuff. The only difference now between the pro and game markets are the amount of ram/cache and those "pro" cards exist on PCs. They do cost $ 2000-3000, but they are nowhere near the cost of the SGI workstation that includes them...
SGI has no future. They have been losing money for years. I have been thinking for quite a while that they where a good target for an acquisition, but now that MSFT has bought much of their patents. It might be cheaper to wait for them to go bankrupt and to pick up the pieces. They where in a fast playing game and they have gotten slow.....
Re:Not a general purpose processor (Score:3, Interesting)
proprietary ASIC's in the their memory
If you're refering to the ccNUMA-style systems, it's not just an MMU - it's a whole different architecture for the system. They don't have a bus - they have a switch between core components as the central feature of the system.
Re:too little too late (Score:4, Interesting)
The N64 did well as a system, and had far more power than the playstation. The playstation just did incredibly well.
Hollywood is a city, not a company. I am assuming you are talking about 3D and compositing visual effects studios, of which a few are near Hollywood, California. They aren't going to BSD, they are going to Linux, not just for rendering, but for workstations. Irix is unix and it makes it a very flexible choice for an OS. Because Linux is so similiar, it is also a flexible and powerful.
Re:SGI is dying (Score:2, Interesting)
riiiight, unless you think E&S and Quantum3D are selling regular pc's, enlighten me on:
- memory bandwith
- dynamic resolution
- genlocking
- multi channel displays
- hard real-time update rates
- calligraphic lights
Of course I won't choose SGI every time I need some graphics horse-power. But if you need to get a really big job done in real time, PCs don't cut it yet.
SGI's reality distortion field: fully operational (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh? Quick, everyone with Radeon 9700 PRO graphics boards in your PCs, make sure you have them in tower cases, or something!
For reference, the ATI specs page states:
I guess SGI might refer to actual output precision, i.e. the RAMDAC D/A-converters... In that case, it seems they still have the edge, since the ATI boards only have 10 bits per component. Still, I think that's of lesser value than the actual precision image operations are performed at.
Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA (Score:2, Interesting)
I've seen two jokes with Soviet Russia now. And I'm not laughing. Can someone let me in on the inside joke here?
Re:too little too late (Score:2, Interesting)
As you can guess from the above post, I don't like the x86 architecture, ugly_hack(){ ugly_hack(); }. There's something to be said about elegance in the design of a processor.
R16000 uses 0.13 micron (Score:3, Interesting)
This was true in the days of the R10000 and R12000. However, things began to change with the R12000A.
The R16000 uses a 0.13 micron process utilizing copper interconnects. It is indeed buzzword compliant.
SGI's R1x000 series is designed in-house these days and is fabbed for them by NEC.
Re:SGI's reality distortion field: fully operation (Score:3, Interesting)
the matrox card that does 48(? or was it 42), is actually using a dirty hack of some sort to get that depth on windows..
Re:Why only 700Mhz? (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you read the SPECint and SPECfp results posted above? The Pentium4 runs at 6 (six) times this cpu's speed, yet only scores twice. Talk about good cpu design.
You should also keep in mind that SGI has some ass kicking technology when it comes to cpu and memory interconnect. NUMAFlex makes it possible to have a penalty as little as 1.5 vs 1 for memory accesses outside the local ram banks. Now try doing that with commodity x86 hardware. For problems that aren't easily broken down in small parts and, that have huge datasets, nothing touches SGI.
Kudos to the SGI engineers for their great job.
A long time SGI fan :)