Recent tests by Neal Nelson & Associates, an independent computer performance consulting firm, have reported that in 36 of the 57 cases tested, an AMD (NYSE:AMD) Opteron based server delivered better power efficiency than a comparably configured Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Xeon based server.
CHICAGO (BusinessWire EON) August 30, 2007 --
Recent tests by Neal Nelson & Associates, an independent computer
performance consulting firm, have reported that in 36 of the 57 cases
tested, an AMD (NYSE:AMD) Opteron based server delivered better power
efficiency than a comparably configured Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Xeon based
server.
The tests were performed on servers configured with 2, 4, 6 and 8
gigabytes of main memory at various transaction processing load levels.
The results show that, for certain configurations and at certain load
levels, the Intel Xeon based server was 2.4 to 11.7 percent more power
efficient while in other cases the AMD Opteron based server was 9.2 to
23.1 percent more power efficient. In addition, when the systems were
idle and waiting for transactions to process, the AMD server was 30.4 to
53.1 percent more power efficient.
Power consumption while the servers are idle is particularly significant
since many servers spend most of their time waiting for work. A November
16, 2006 press release(1) from IBM quotes a report by the Robert Frances
Group(2) which states that on average servers in datacenters are idle 80
to 85 percent of the time.
Other observations that can be made from the test results include: 1)
Larger memory configurations deliver both higher throughput and better
energy efficiency, 2) Intel’s power efficiency
advantages decrease as memory size increases, 3) AMD’s
power efficiency advantages increase as memory size increases, 4) For
primarily calculation workloads the Xeon delivers 8.0 to 14.0 percent
higher peak throughput, and 5) For primarily disk I/O intensive
workloads the Opteron delivers 11.3 to 19.4 percent higher peak
throughput.
These test results were collected by Neal Nelson’s
second generation Server Power Efficiency Benchmark. This test is a
client server benchmark where world wide web transactions are processed
against a server configured with Novell’s SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server, the Apache2 web server software and the MySQL
relational database. The benchmark subjects a server to various user
loads, reports the power consumed at each load level and provides
meaningful comparisons of server power usage.
These tests were not financed or sponsored by any company or group. Neal
Nelson conducted these tests in response to a statement made by Intel
CEO Paul Otellini in a July 18, 2007 analyst conference call. During
that call Mr Otellini referred to Intel’s “lead
in power efficiency.” Neal Nelson decided to
use his company’s benchmark toolset to
determine if Intel actually had a lead in power efficiency. “It
appears that Mr. Otellini’s statement is
inconsistent with the test results,” observed
Nelson.
Nelson's firm has a long history of data processing consulting to some
of the world's largest computer customers including the U.S. Army, U.S.
Navy, the Internal Revenue Service, McDonalds, WalMart and Federal
Express. Nelson’s benchmarking laboratory is
available to commercial and government users for independent computer
performance tests.
A link to a white paper with more detailed information is available on
the world wide web at http://www.worlds-fastest.com/wfz991.html,
by calling Neal Nelson & Associates at (847) 851-8900 or by sending an
email request to neal@nna.com.
Trademarks that may be mentioned in this document are the property of
their owners.
(1) http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/20633.wss
(2) "The Rise to Power of Power: Dealing with the New Data Center
Constraint," Jerald Murphy, Robert Frances Group. (2006)
Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/Q3Jhcy1JbnNlLUluc2UtSW5zZS1UaGlyLVplcm8=
|
