Question IBM POWER architecture. Cores or CPUs? Help me

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
Hello, I found Ebay listing of old POWER 7+ server and seller state that it has dual socket and 16 CPUs and 64 cores. Is that correct? I though it should be 2 CPUs, 16 cores and 64 threads...at least that is what I got used to in Intel.
Any thoughts?

<redacted> ebay links are not allowed here
Markfw Anandtech Moderator
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sort by date Sort by votes
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
Jimzz said:
Its 2 8 core chips that use SMT4. So its not 64core, but 64 threads.
Click to expand...
I thank you for your opinion but I do not think you are right.

Looking at the wikipedia article Power7 is using multi-chip modules, the same tech Intel is using for some of it's mobile chips to add the eDram or the Intel chips with vega graphics. There are up to four distinct CPUs on the package that plugs into a socket.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jimzz

Jimzz

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2012
4,399
190
106
yours02 said:
I thank you for your opinion but I do not think you are right.

Looking at the wikipedia article Power7 is using multi-chip modules, the same tech Intel is using for some of it's mobile chips to add the eDram or the Intel chips with vega graphics. There are up to four distinct CPUs on the package that plugs into a socket.
Click to expand...


Look again at the max core count and the SMT the Power chips use.
The max core count is 8 per chip. 2 chips X 8 cores each X 4 SMT = 64 Threads
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Charlie22911

Charlie22911

Senior member
Mar 19, 2005
614
228
116
yours02 said:
Do not get me wrong but I am speaking about CPUs not chips.
Click to expand...

In this context, CPUs and “chips” are synonymous. Your question has been correctly answered multiple times, but I confess that I am concerned with your choice. If you are unable to work all of this out on your own, then I’m skeptical that this is the machine you should be purchasing.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: thecoolnessrune, yours02, CHADBOGA and 2 others
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
Charlie22911 said:
In this context, CPUs and “chips” are synonymous. Your question has been correctly answered multiple times, but I confess that I am concerned with your choice. If you are unable to work all of this out on your own, then I’m skeptical that this is the machine you should be purchasing.
Click to expand...
That was funny :) Thank you.
So if you have worked that out maybe you know why during LPAR configuration via IBM HMC the system says: "Total usable processing units" = 16 (on the screen it says 20 because it is from another machine). Or maybe IBM mean that is not central processing units?
What do you think? I am waiting for you reply Senior Member Charlie22911. Thanks.


Lpar.PNG
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Charlie22911

Charlie22911

Senior member
Mar 19, 2005
614
228
116
yours02 said:
That was funny :) Thank you.
So if you have worked that out maybe you know why during LPAR configuration via IBM HMC the system says: "Total usable processing units" = 16 (on the screen it says 20 because it is from another machine). Or maybe IBM mean that is not central processing units?
What do you think? I am waiting for you reply Senior Member Charlie22911. Thanks.

View attachment 14420
Click to expand...


Glad I could provide some entertainment, perhaps you will also find the product specification guide for the server you linked equally entertaining. More to the point, page 16:

And in case you need me to hold your hand:
0E35B63F-B0DD-427B-BD66-AE1953C82DB2.jpeg

So as stated above, 2x 8 core CPUs with 4-way SMT = 64 threads.
 
  • Like
Reactions: thecoolnessrune, yours02 and Jimzz
Upvote 0 Downvote
sdifox

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,999
15,122
126
Logical Partition is basically a vm. In this context processing units = vcores. It is of course not CPU, or they would have said CPU.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
sdifox said:
Logical Partition is basically a vm. In this context processing units = vcores. It is of course not CPU, or they would have said CPU.
Click to expand...
No. As you can see on my screenshot processing units seems to be real cores!
What a mess IBM has with cpu\vcore\core\thread meanings!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sdifox

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,999
15,122
126
yours02 said:
No. As you can see on my screenshot processing units seems to be real cores!
What a mess IBM has with cpu\vcore\core\thread meanings!
Click to expand...


Vcores in the sense that you can have multiple lopars with combined processing units greater than the total physical cores.

What exactly are you trying to do with that system?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
sdifox said:
Vcores in the sense that you can have multiple lopars with combined processing units greater than the total physical cores.

What exactly are you trying to do with that system?
Click to expand...
I just think that this server is underestimated for now on the auction. Even if it has 16 cores and 64 threads still the best CPU setup for that P7+ generation
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Hitman928

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2012
5,262
7,890
136
The auction still has 5 days left. I don't know how it works with items like this, but in my experience on ebay, if the item really is something people want, usually the price has the most movement when there's less than a day left. It's not uncommon for ebay auctions to have anywhere from a 2x to a 10x jump in price just in the final hours of an auction. I also don't know how much people will really want that server, I mean, the Power7 line launched almost 10 years ago now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jimzz
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
Hitman928 said:
The auction still has 5 days left. I don't know how it works with items like this, but in my experience on ebay, if the item really is something people want, usually the price has the most movement when there's less than a day left. It's not uncommon for ebay auctions to have anywhere from a 2x to a 10x jump in price just in the final hours of an auction. I also don't know how much people will really want that server, I mean, the Power7 line launched almost 10 years ago now.
Click to expand...
It is not POWER7 but POWER7+ that was released in 2013. So it is not that old.
Do you expect price to go up in the end of auction? Seems like bid are been made
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Hitman928

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2012
5,262
7,890
136
yours02 said:
It is not POWER7 but POWER7+ that was released in 2013. So it is not that old.
Do you expect price to go up in the end of auction? Seems like bid are been made
Click to expand...

The 740 Express released in 2010 with a Power7 CPU, not Power7+.

You never know with an auction, but typically if an item really is desirable, more people will see it as it nears the end of auction which means more people will bid driving the price higher. Again, not like this is a rule or anything, just what typically happens for in demand stuff.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yours02

Banned
Dec 14, 2019
14
0
6
Hitman928 said:
The 740 Express released in 2010 with a Power7 CPU, not Power7+.
Click to expand...

I believe that is 740 Express with P7+ CPU because of highCPU clock. 4.2Ghz were availabe on P7+ only and that comes with 160 Mb L3 cache in total for the server.

Charlie22911 said:
I think for anyone here to give an honest assessment, it’d help to know what you aim to do with it.
Click to expand...
I want it because of high amount of memory and powerful CPU. A lot of memory helps to develop programs without optimization in first place. I am dealing with C, fortrun, numpy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom