Compaq 6000 Supplementary Manual
Highly parallel system architecture for professional workstations
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Supplementary Manual
November 1998
Compaq Computer
Corporation
ISSD Technology
Communications
C
O N T E N T S
Introduction ......................3
Architecture Overview.......3
Advanced SMP ..................3
Pentium Pro Processor ........ 4
Pentium II Processor ........... 4
Dual Memory Buses ..........5
Dual-Peer PCI Buses .........8
Multiple Drives..................8
Alternative
Architectures ....................9
Typical NT/X86
Architecture ....................... 9
Unified Memory
Architecture ....................... 9
Crossbar Switch
Architecture ..................... 11
AGPset Architecture .......... 12
Conclusion ..................... 13
ECG066/1198
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ECHNOLOGY
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Highly Parallel System Architecture for
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Compaq Professional Workstations
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5100, 6000, and 8000
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As critical applications for financial analysis, computer-aided design (CAD), computer-
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aided engineering (CAE), and digital content creation (DCC) place growing demands on
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system resources, increasing system bandwidth becomes a critical business issue. After
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evaluating available system architectures, Compaq determined that only a new, highly
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parallel system architecture could provide the required levels of performance, processor
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and I/O expandability, and bandwidth to satisfy the needs of workstation users. Compaq
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is therefore implementing a new architecture that delivers the greatest bandwidth
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available today for systems running such demanding applications under the Microsoft
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Windows NT operating system.
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This technology brief describes the new Highly Parallel System Architecture and
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differentiates it from other architectures used in X86 systems.
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Please direct comments regarding this communication to the ISSD Technology Communications Group at this Internet address:
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TechCom@compaq.com
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Summary of Contents for Compaq Compaq 6000
- Page 1 November 1998 Highly Parallel System Architecture for Compaq Professional Workstations Compaq Computer Corporation 5100, 6000, and 8000 ISSD Technology Communications As critical applications for financial analysis, computer-aided design (CAD), computer- aided engineering (CAE), and digital content creation (DCC) place growing demands on O N T E N T S system resources, increasing system bandwidth becomes a critical business issue.
- Page 2 ECHNOLOGY OTICE The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF...
- Page 3 ECHNOLOGY N T R O D U C T I O N Achieving greater system bandwidth is a critical issue to businesses running applications for such demanding tasks as financial analysis, computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and digital content creation (DCC). As a technology leader, Compaq anticipated the growing need for increased bandwidth and pursued possible solutions.
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Page 4: Pentium Ii Processor
ECHNOLOGY Figure 1. Block diagram of the Highly Parallel System Architecture as implemented in the Compaq Professional Workstation 6000. This architecture supports up to four processors in the Compaq Professional Workstation 8000. The new Highly Parallel System Architecture implemented by Compaq provides excellent scalability for increased system performance. - Page 5 ECHNOLOGY up to 16 instructions. Because multimedia operations such as video and audio use a number of redundant instructions, MMX achieves some efficiencies by using a technique called SIMD (single instruction multiple data). SIMD reduces the required number of clock cycles by performing redundant instructions on multiple sets of data.
- Page 6 ECHNOLOGY Because each of the two memory buses in this architecture is capable of returning data to the processor at the full 533-MB/s speed of the processor bus, it could seem superfluous to have more memory bandwidth than can be sent across the processor bus. One could envision the system looking like a funnel, with the bottleneck being the processor bus.
- Page 7 ECHNOLOGY memory size and evenly splitting those DIMMs between the two memory channels. Table 1 is a DIMM configuration guide for optimizing performance of dual memory buses. The table shows matched memory sizes on both banks. Other memory configurations are valid. * The degree of performance optimization is indicated by a numerical range.
- Page 8 ECHNOLOGY Users should also consider tradeoffs in system cost and memory expansion that may result from optimizing memory performance. In some cases, optimum memory performance can reduce the amount of available memory expansion. For instance, a cost-effective and performance-enhanced 128-MB configuration can be built with eight 16-MB DIMMs. Upgrading such a system to 512 MB, however, would require the addition of 128-MB DIMMs, which currently are not as cost effective as eight 64-MB DIMMs or as replacing some of the 16-MB DIMMs with 64-MB DIMMs.
- Page 9 ECHNOLOGY L T E R N A T I VE Compaq is implementing this new Highly Parallel System Architecture because other architectures do not provide equal levels of bandwidth, performance, expansion, and cost effectiveness. Typical NT/X86 Architecture Most workstations in the NT/X86 market support two processors to process instructions concurrently (Figure 5).
- Page 10 ECHNOLOGY rate of 334 MB/s. The large amount of memory bandwidth consumed by monitor refreshing is not available to the processor and graphics controller for other tasks. In contrast, all graphics cards used in Compaq workstations use dual-ported memory that does not take bandwidth from the graphics controller.
- Page 11 ECHNOLOGY Crossbar Switch Architecture A crossbar switch architecture provides multiple, independent paths to system memory. As Figure 8 illustrates, individual paths can be established to memory from each processor or I/O bus. Thus, a crossbar switch can avoid contention of multiple memory requests on a given bus. This style of crossbar switch is used in the Sun Microsystems Unified Port Architecture (UPA) and the Compaq TriFlex architectures.
- Page 12 ECHNOLOGY AGPset Architecture The 440LX AGPset (LX chipset) from Intel is designed primarily for the commercial desktop and consumer desktop markets. However, some workstation vendors are deploying the LX chipset in machines targeted for workstation applications. Key features of the LX architecture include Figure 9 illustrates the LX chipset architecture.
- Page 13 ECHNOLOGY The LX chipset supports an early version of AGP graphics. AGP provides a dedicated 66-MHz PCI bus connection between the graphics card, processor bus, and main memory. Full-AGP graphics systems are able to store texture and Z-buffer information into non-cacheable system memory.