Anand's Dual Palomino/Tyan Thunder 760MP review is up!!! :)

[Wingznut]

"it would have been interesting to see how duron @ 933 on 133 bus would do."

That would've been very, very interesting indeed.

 

[pidge]

That was one of the most impressive reviews I have seen in a while. Good job Anand. I think AMD needs to make their AMD Athlon MP processors with more cache and need to make their chipset support at least up to 4 processors. For now, it seems like it will cater more to smaller businesses and not companies like Nasa or 3d studios where they generally use a multitude of processors in their servers.

 

[fkloster]

Very impressive review. I am shocked. 😕 Anyone ever here of this Dual Xeon offering from Iwill: Iwill DX400-SN? Check it out just for fun!!

DX400-SN Specifications
Processor
Supports single or dual Intel® Xeon? (Socket 603) processor
Supports processor speeds from 1.3 GHz to 1.7 GHz and higher


Chipset
Intel® 860 chipset
MCH (1012 OLGA) - memory & graphic controller
ICH2 (360 EBGA) - I/O controller
FWH (32 PLCC) - BIOS and management controller
P64H (241 mBGA) - 64-bit bus master PCI expander
SCSI controller - dual channel Ultra 160 SCSI controller (64-bit PCI)
Intel 82550 controller - LAN (supports 10/100 Mbps bandwidth - RJ45 LAN connector)
Onboard AOL2 (Alert-ON-LAN 2) controller chip


Bus Frequency
Supports 400 MHz front side bus
Provides 3.2 GB/s transfer speed between the processor and memory


System Memory
Supports MECC for memory expansion (Memory Expansion Card Connector)
Supports DRDRAM modules (RAMBUS memory)
Supports PC800 and PC600 RAMBUS
Maximum of 8 GB memory capacity (when using MEC8)
MEC8 (Memory Expansion Card)
Support for up to 8 GB DRDRAM
Two-way memory bank interleaving provides outstanding memory performance
8 slots support 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1 GB DRDRAM modules
Frame/bracket mounting kit included


On Board SCSI
Integrated 64-bit PCI-to-Ultra3 SCSI
64-bit, 33 MHz and 66 MHz PCI (backward compatible with 32-bit)
Double Edge Clocking, transfer rates up to 160 MB/s per channel
Domain Validation / Cyclical Redundancy Checking
Dual channel SCSI / Low host CPU utilization
ACPI Power Management
Supports Windows® 95, 98 and NT; NetWare® UnixWare® Solaris® x86; Linux® I2O and others


On Board IDE
Dual ATA 100/66/33 IDE Channels
Supports ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, ZIP-100 & LS-120


Audio
Audio Codec '97 (AD1881A) compatible using an AD1881 audio codec
AC'97 2.1 compliant link for audio and telephony CODECs
4-pin CD-ROM audio (ATAPI) header


Expansion Slots
1 x AGP PRO slot supports AGP PRO (1.5V only) and 4X
2 x 64-bit/66 MHz Bus Master PCI slots
3 x 32-bit/33 MHz Bus Master PCI slots
2 x ATA/100 connectors


I/O Interface
1 x SMBus header
1 x Internal IR connector
3 x Audio ports (Line-IN, Line-OUT, MIC)
1 x Floppy port
1 x 9-pin 16550-based serial port
1 x 25-pin SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port
2 x PS/2 connectors (Keyboard and Mouse)
6 x USB ports (2 x internal USB)


Power Management
LAN Resume by LAN/Modem/PS2 mouse, keyboard/RTC
Supports Intel LDCM/LDSM (optional)
Supports ACPI
Supports APM
Supports DMI
Supports BIOS ROM flash control to provide H/W and BIOS protection
Supports AC Loss Recovery


PC Health Monitoring
Supports voltage sensor to detect out of range values
Supports three (3) fan speed monitoring and controller
System temperature monitoring
Chassis intrusion detection


Board Size
ATX Form Factor - 305mm x 330mm
MEC8 board size - 325mm x 140mm
8 layer PCB
DX400-SN PHOTO


Package Contents
1 x Iwill DX400-SN Motherboard
1 x MEC8 (Memory Expansion Card)
1 x User Manual
1 x Iwill Power Installer CD
1 x ATA/100 IDE cable
1 x Ultra160 SCSI cable
1 x Floppy cable

 

[NFS4]

<< Very impressive review. I am shocked. 😕 Anyone ever here of this Dual Xeon offering from Iwill: Iwill DX400-SN? Check it out just for fun!!

DX400-SN Specifications
Processor
Supports single or dual Intel® Xeon? (Socket 603) processor
Supports processor speeds from 1.3 GHz to 1.7 GHz and higher


Chipset
Intel® 860 chipset
MCH (1012 OLGA) - memory &amp; graphic controller
ICH2 (360 EBGA) - I/O controller
FWH (32 PLCC) - BIOS and management controller
P64H (241 mBGA) - 64-bit bus master PCI expander
SCSI controller - dual channel Ultra 160 SCSI controller (64-bit PCI)
Intel 82550 controller - LAN (supports 10/100 Mbps bandwidth - RJ45 LAN connector)
Onboard AOL2 (Alert-ON-LAN 2) controller chip


Bus Frequency
Supports 400 MHz front side bus
Provides 3.2 GB/s transfer speed between the processor and memory


System Memory
Supports MECC for memory expansion (Memory Expansion Card Connector)
Supports DRDRAM modules (RAMBUS memory)
Supports PC800 and PC600 RAMBUS
Maximum of 8 GB memory capacity (when using MEC8)
MEC8 (Memory Expansion Card)
Support for up to 8 GB DRDRAM
Two-way memory bank interleaving provides outstanding memory performance
8 slots support 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1 GB DRDRAM modules
Frame/bracket mounting kit included


On Board SCSI
Integrated 64-bit PCI-to-Ultra3 SCSI
64-bit, 33 MHz and 66 MHz PCI (backward compatible with 32-bit)
Double Edge Clocking, transfer rates up to 160 MB/s per channel
Domain Validation / Cyclical Redundancy Checking
Dual channel SCSI / Low host CPU utilization
ACPI Power Management
Supports Windows® 95, 98 and NT; NetWare® UnixWare® Solaris® x86; Linux® I2O and others


On Board IDE
Dual ATA 100/66/33 IDE Channels
Supports ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, ZIP-100 &amp; LS-120


Audio
Audio Codec '97 (AD1881A) compatible using an AD1881 audio codec
AC'97 2.1 compliant link for audio and telephony CODECs
4-pin CD-ROM audio (ATAPI) header


Expansion Slots
1 x AGP PRO slot supports AGP PRO (1.5V only) and 4X
2 x 64-bit/66 MHz Bus Master PCI slots
3 x 32-bit/33 MHz Bus Master PCI slots
2 x ATA/100 connectors


I/O Interface
1 x SMBus header
1 x Internal IR connector
3 x Audio ports (Line-IN, Line-OUT, MIC)
1 x Floppy port
1 x 9-pin 16550-based serial port
1 x 25-pin SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port
2 x PS/2 connectors (Keyboard and Mouse)
6 x USB ports (2 x internal USB)


Power Management
LAN Resume by LAN/Modem/PS2 mouse, keyboard/RTC
Supports Intel LDCM/LDSM (optional)
Supports ACPI
Supports APM
Supports DMI
Supports BIOS ROM flash control to provide H/W and BIOS protection
Supports AC Loss Recovery


PC Health Monitoring
Supports voltage sensor to detect out of range values
Supports three (3) fan speed monitoring and controller
System temperature monitoring
Chassis intrusion detection


Board Size
ATX Form Factor - 305mm x 330mm
MEC8 board size - 325mm x 140mm
8 layer PCB
DX400-SN PHOTO


Package Contents
1 x Iwill DX400-SN Motherboard
1 x MEC8 (Memory Expansion Card)
1 x User Manual
1 x Iwill Power Installer CD
1 x ATA/100 IDE cable
1 x Ultra160 SCSI cable
1 x Floppy cable >>




That's not good enough fkloster. You can't just come in hear and say you're shocked then post some Xeon board specs in a 760MP thread.


What do you REALLY think of Dual Athlon MP's and 760MP ???????????????? 😀 😀 Be VERY detailed too😉

 

[fkloster]

O.k. NFS4, I'm impressed, too say the least. I'm going to digest this for a while...whats all this about each processor on the AMD board bieng able to use the full 2.1gb/s independantly anyways? How can one proc use all the memory and the other do the same @ the same time?

 

[Armitage]

Anybody know if you can do network booting from the integrated NICs on this board?
I can't wait for a stripped down version (no SCSI basically). Would be awesome for a beowulf!

I'm in a hard place ... can't wait to get funding for my cluster but should really wait for a reasonably priced 760MP(X) MB!

 

[supernova87a]

!!!!!!!! GO AMD !!!!!!!!!

I want AMD to take a huge chunk out of Intel's marketshare -- especially after reading those reports about Intel's tactics at the computex...

I would buy it if I could afford it, to support their efforts. Maybe in a year or so when the prices come down...

!!!!!!!!! GO AMD !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Fandu]

fkloster:

LDT my friend. Lightning Data Transport. Each CPU has a dedicated channel to the north bridge. Same idea as HyperTransport. It's not a shared bus like the GTL+.

 

[Pabster]

The reason why both CPUs have dedicated bandwidth is because of the bus. The Intel GTL+ is a &quot;shared&quot; bus - each CPU must vie for access - AMD's LDT offers each processor an independent channel to the north bridge. This has enormous performance benefits, and I think the initial reviews show that. I'm sure with some tweaking, it will get even better.

 

[HaVoC]

Wow Pabster...I must say that last post was actually pretty intelligent and non-flammable. Maybe us old-timers have drilled some sense into you. 😛

Anyhow, ever since AMD went with EV6 I thought it would be an advantage in MP but only now are we seeing the results of their decision.

On the minus side the EV6 PTP scheme results in a lot of traces and large Northbridge chips. This is why I suspect more than 2-CPUs will be a long time coming for AMD. OTOH, you see quickly diminishing returns with more than 4-processor PIIIs/PIIs on GTL+ bus due to bus contention. After that you get into exotic switched fabrics/crossbar architectures for the very high end x86 servers. I don't know of any greater than dual-CPU P4 servers though.

 

[Duvie]

WOW...I think I just saw my 3d studio viz/ CADD workstation for home...

I wonder what the test would be like with 1.4 to 1.533 palominos...1.2's handled the 1.7's of the p4's pretty easy...

&quot;Even with Pentium 4/Xeon optimizations, Photoshop is clearly faster on 760MP.&quot;

Got to love this...so much for wait for optimization!!! (I know it could still get better, but when?) A lot of ifs....

I would have liked to see some mpeg4 or flaskmpeg results....

gotta read a few more reviews...BYE

 

[Fandu]

Duvie:
Nether Flask MPEG nor the DivX codecs are SMP aware....soooo there won't be much for performance increases. Yes I know that Flask 0.6 is 'SMP enabled' but we all know it doesn't work worth a steaming pile of dog poo.

Yes your right, the EV6 bus does have a higher pin count....but look at the performance gains. But highend server boards arn't cheap to start with, so I doubt a few more traces is going to be a big deterant.

 

[Boonesmi]

bump for a good thread

 

[LXi]

Some of you might be interested in what GTUB has to say...

&quot;Here we have it guys, the 760MP has made it out the door!

Rejoice!

How long has it been since AMD's desperate PR tactic, releasing a few unfinished 760MP sample boards to the hardware sights in a vain, transparent effort to steal the thunder away from i850? Well here we have it, and despite wishful thinking, no, the MP turns out NOT to be &quot;under $200&quot;. The price is a bit steep for a low-quality, un-qualified, low-performance with lightwieght scalability.

It is being positioned as an enteprise market product - which is silly. A 2-way board like this are used primarily in workstations. Xeon is small and mid-range server class, and Itanium, SunSPARC and Alpha are enteprise. It would be amusing to compare these silly little Athlon-MPs with an UltraSPARC III, but not really fair. However, AMD seems to invite this comparison.

The Unisersity of Delaware (was that the one?) has a 128-way Athlon server farm. It suffers from severe heat issues.

And one last thing, Marcus' bias for anything AMD is starting get really sickening. A business-only product like the 760MP here gets a news item, while the launch of the Itanium doesn't get a mention - but you can be sure that if there is any bug found, or recall that Comarade Comisar Marcus will put that stunning news up in bold italics.

But as always, I'm always here to keep it real in 01&quot;

...

&quot;AMD marketing is STATING that the 760MP will be an enteprise product, but clearly judging by it's praice and lack of scalability that is a midle-end workstation product.

The new Xeons can be scaled much further. So you can have your 2-way Athlon, but the Xeon can be scaled far further than that. It's selling point is it's cost--but if you need heavy-duty content creation horespower, you don't care by nature if you spend a few hundred dollars less in equipment that costs many thousands of dollars, probably over 10k in many serious workstations.

The 760MP was supposed to be SMT for the masses, but this obviously could not or did not happen. It's performance compared to it's positioned rivals (the 64-bit powerhouses like UltraSPARC III, Alpha and Itanium) will make the 760MP look like it belongs in kindergarden.&quot;

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=3092#usercomments

 

[robg1701]

ROFLMFAO @ GUTB....

back to the topic though.....

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