MaximumPC 2007 11

10 MAXIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2007

quick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL

F

or years now, AMD has been crowing about the

integrated DDR controller in its processors—

something Intel’s chips don’t have. Integrating

the memory controller with the CPU definitely has

performance advantages, but what’s the next step

in CPU integration?

For clues, consider Sun Microsystems’s new

server processor, the UltraSPARC T2 (code-named

Niagara 2). The first thing everyone notices about this

“server on a chip” is that it has eight 64-bit processor

cores—twice as many cores as the best server pro-

cessors from AMD and Intel. In addition, each core can

simultaneously run eight threads of execution—four

times as many threads per core as the best Hyper-

Threading processor ever shipped by Intel.

With eight processor cores per chip and

eight threads per core, the UltraSPARC T2 can

simultaneously execute 64 threads. Using Sun’s

virtualization extensions, a single chip can run

64 different operating systems (or 64 instances

of the same operating system) at the same time.

Because each core runs at 1.4GHz, Sun likens the

chip’s aggregate CPU performance to a single-

threaded chip running at 89.6GHz—a stretch of

the truth, but impressive nonetheless.

However, I consider the chip’s other integrated

features even more impressive. The UltraSPARC

T2 has four integrated memory controllers, two

10-gigabit Ethernet controllers, an eight-lane PCI

Express controller, and eight cryptography accelera-

tors. Each dual-channel memory controller supports

Fully Buffered (FB) DIMMs. The Ethernet controllers

are multithreaded independently of the processors, so

their actual throughput should handily beat an external

Ethernet solution. The PCI Express interface runs at

2.5GHz, nearly twice as fast as the processor cores.

The eight crypto engines support the most common

security algorithms (such as DES and AES) and are

much faster than general-purpose CPUs at this kind of

number crunching.

Sun isn’t exaggerating much by calling the

UltraSPARC T2 a server on a chip. And despite its

unprecedented level of integration for a server

processor, it consumes less than 100W and starts

at less than $1,000. But the most interesting thing

about the UltraSPARC T2 is what it foretells about

x86 PC processors in terms of multicore integration,

massive multithreading, and peripheral integration.

Eventually, I believe, AMD and Intel will go with the

flow of this Niagara.

Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior editor for Byte magazine

and is now an analyst for Microprocessor Report.

The Future

of CPU

Integration

FAST FORWARD

TOM

HALFHILL

Maximum PC Online!

Because PC gearheads shouldn’t have to wait a whole month for more of what they love

Universal Tests

DRM-Free Tunes

World’s largest recording company will try

watermarking to track songs

C

ould DRM be making an exit? Universal

Music Group recently announced that it will

sell DRM-free MP3s through a variety of ven-

dors, including Amazon, through January 2008,

as an experiment.

One place you won’t be able

to get the unencumbered

music tracks, though, is

iTunes. Universal says

it’s using Apple’s

store as a control

group, but we think

the test could prove

whether it’s possi-

ble to break Apple’s

dominance over dig-

ital distribution.

Universal will use

digital watermarks to iden-

tify songs that have been downloaded via the

service; the watermarks won’t contain a unique

user identifi er but will presumably be used to see

which of the songs are shared by P2P users.

We hope Universal’s experiment will con-

vince the company that it’s more profi table to

ensure fair use than it is to treat its customers

like criminals.

Google

Ponders

Spectrum

Plans

When the FCC announced it would

auction off a chunk of the 700MHz

wireless spectrum—useful for its

powerful signal and ability to pass

through walls—Google pledged

to bid at least $4.6 billion for it if

four open-access standards for

the spectrum were met.

Of Google’s conditions—

open networks, open applica-

tions, open devices, open ser-

vices—the FCC has adopted just

the latter two, which will give

users greater freedom in choos-

ing hardware and software. But

the winner of the auction will

not be required to allow spec-

trum access to its competitors,

which Google views as essential

to ensuring that “customers,

along with service providers of

all shapes and sizes, will have a

seat at the table.”

According to Google’s Adam

Kovacevich, the search provider

is “currently evaluating the FCC

auction rules and [has] not made

any decisions about participating

in the auction.”

MaximumPC.

com offers all

the PC good-

ness found in

the magazine,

plus a whole

lot more—in-

cluding our

weekly No BS

Podcast.

DRM