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Document ECG026/0498
W
P
HITE
APER
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APPENDIX
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Q
U E S T I O N S A N D
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System Design
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What is Compaq Highly Parallel Systems Architecture?
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Compaq' s Workstation engineers did extensive application profiling to understand the
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nature of the bottlenecks inherent when running complex, resource intensive applications
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such as those found in CAD/CAE, EDA, and financial trading environments. To
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provide a truly balanced, high performance system, we realized there was a need to offer
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not only multiprocessing capabilities, but also dual memory controllers so memory
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requests can be processed in parallel. In addition, dual-peer PCI buses were
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implemented so I/O requests can also be processed in parallel.
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The Compaq Professional Workstation 5100 has been designed with the Highly Parallel
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Systems Architecture to maximize system bandwidth, which improves overall system
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performance. No other Intel based Windows NT system on the market today provides
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this optimized architecture. Designed using industry standard components to deliver the
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uncompromising performance that workstation users require, Compaq Highly Parallel
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System Architecture consists of the following:
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Dual memory architecture: provides exceptional performance in resource-intensive
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applications by providing 1.07GB/sec memory bandwidth: two to four times faster
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than other Windows NT / X86 systems
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Dual-peer PCI buses: provides I/O bandwidth of 267MB/sec – twice that of single
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bus implementations – and allow for better balanced I/O system performance
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Optimized multiprocessing support: 1-2 Pentium II processors; 266MHz/512KB,
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300MHz/512KB, or 333MHz/512KB
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Typical workstation designs include dual processing capabilities with a single memory
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controller and a single PCI bus. Under this design the processors must compete for
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access to the critical subsystems such as memory and hard drives. By providing dual
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memory controllers with dual peer PCI buses, data from the multiple processors has
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double the access to critical subsystems, which significantly improves overall system
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performance for the demanding applications in the target segments.
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Q.
Will the new Highly Parallel System Design provide improved system performance
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for all applications?
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A.
This new design does provide improved performance for most applications when both
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sets of DIMM sockets on the system board are populated with memory. This allows for
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concurrent access to the dual memory controllers and dual PCI buses, which improves
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overall system throughput and ultimately overall system performance. This is especially
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true for customers using large data sets in the CAD/CAE and DCC segments.
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Q.
Is this new design a proprietary Compaq design?
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The Compaq Highly Parallel System Architecture design is based on industry standard
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components. Thus, if customers need to upgrade components such as memory or hard
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drives, they are not limited to Compaq-specific solutions.
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32
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A
N S W E R S
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