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2004-2008: A Revolution in Hardware

Original Article Date: 2008-03-11

Since we started integrating servers and workstations in 2004, the hardware components landscape has changed markedly. The main highlights have been:

  • Dual and quad core CPUs have emerged, increasing price vs performance more than ten times, whilst improved CPU design and shrinking process technology has enhanced single-thread performance and reduced power consumption considerably.
  • 400MHz DDR memory has evolved into DDR2, where speeds have increased from 533MHz through 667MHz and (very recently) 800MHz.
  • IDE drives have all but disappeared in place of SATA, whilst Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), replacing the old Parallel SCSI, has brought a new dimension to enterprise storage. More importantly the price of a gigabyte of storage has plummeted over this time period.
  • Graphics capability continues to break new records, with a new generation of cards appearing every year.

These changes have meant that machines being sold today are many more times more powerful than their counterparts of four years ago. A $4,000 workstation today can do up to ten times the work in a given time than a $4,000 workstation bought four years ago. And because of reductions in CPU power, the machine will run much more quietly, and save on your electric bill.

These improvements in both performance and power consumption provide the two compelling reasons for upgrading any machine over three years old.

Don't believe the hype? Then let's look at one key area, if not THE key area affecting system performance - the CPU.

The Numbers Behind Intel CPU Trends 2004-2008


Image (c)2008 Electronics Nexus, Inc.
Source data (c)2003-2008 courtesy of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
Image (c)2008 Electronics Nexus, Inc.
Source data (c)2003-2008 courtesy of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

I compiled the above charts from SPEC2000 and SPEC2006 integer and floating-point performance benchmark data. If you're wondering what SPEC is, it's a non-profit industry-led corporation for sponsoring independent evaluation of computer hardware. Their benchmarks are regularly cited in press articles when comparing different CPUs, graphics cards etc. (The older CPUs in the list had only SPEC2000 data, and so I extrapolated these figures into SPEC2006 by using averaged ratios on CPUs that had both SPEC2000 and SPEC2006 data.)

What these charts show is how dramatically Intel's CPUs have improved in performance over the last four years. The left chart shows single-thread performance, i.e. how well a single core in a CPU can crunch integer and floating-point data, such as in a video render or scientific model simulation. When considering the all-important dual-processor Xeon series, you'll be able to see that the old Nocona single-core processors have been sidelined by the latest generation of 5400 "Harpertown" series Xeons, in which each-core is around three times the power of the old Nocona core at the same price point.

The right chart even more dramatically demonstrates how far CPU power has come, as these results now factor in the multiple core aspects of the more modern CPUs. For instance, the E5472 3.0GHz Quad Core Xeon has a integer throughput rate ten times that of the old Nocona 3.4GHz Xeon in a fully multi-threaded application. So you could render your HD video, or engineering simulation in, say, 6 minutes instead of an hour!

Factoring in the cost of upgrades

Are you sure you still want to keep using that old box? Well, yes, you say, because all this new and wonderful hardware must be way more expensive. Think again. Intel, AMD and most other hardware manufacturers have kept pricing of their key entry, mid-market and high-end products constant. So a Nocona Xeon 2.8GHz CPU four years ago would have cost the same as a Xeon E5410 today, and yet the E5410 has three-times more single-threaded performance and eight times the multi-threaded performance! So, assuming your performance applications are multi-threaded, your dollar investment is up to eight times more efficient!

The following charts, I hope, can illustrate the performance advantages available on each dollar invested. The graphs have been normalized to the performance/price for a Pentium 4 2.8GHz, to help show the advantage of newer CPUs more clearly.


Image (c)2008 Electronics Nexus, Inc.
Source data (c)2003-2008 courtesy of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
Image (c)2008 Electronics Nexus, Inc.
Source data (c)2003-2008 courtesy of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

Upgrading and your Business Bottom-Line

So we've talked about the cost of upgrades. But what about the cost of NOT upgrading? If you're a video professional or engineer, for instance, your time is perhaps the most valuable commodity in your company. Or if you're the IT manager, then the performance of the company web site or mail server can impact on your perceived competence (and possibly your salary!)

It is no understatement that the multi-core developments in CPUs over the last four years is nothing short of a revolution. To get eight times the power out of the same dollar invested four years ago (not even allowing for inflation, which would stretch the figures even further), is hardly a mild statement. If you can cut this much time off your rendering, or multiply the capacity and speed of your servers by such a huge factor, then the economic benefits to the rest of your business could be significant, and would more than likely pay off the cost of the new equipment.

And let's not forget that the newer CPUs are so much more power efficient. Intel's standard line quad-core 5400 series Xeons are rated at 80W, with low power versions coming soon at 50W. Compare this with the old single-core Nocona Xeons that would run at 100W+! That's another point to factor in on business costs, especially for servers running 24/7.

--

Okay, enough about upgrading. I have to be honest and say I wanted to write an article about upgrades and how I could dress up the reasons for moving to the newer architecture. But once I started analysing the data, I was genuinely surprised at what I found. The improvement in CPU performance in the last four years was much more dramatic than I had thought.

The result? No dressing! Just the facts. Do your own research at http://spec.org if you need to. I know I'm convinced enough to upgrade the elnexus.com web server that we've been running since 2005! I'm going to put my money where my mouth is!

Best regards,

Ben Ranson
Chief Systems Engineer