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Conference mvblab::alphaserver_4100

Title:AlphaServer 4100
Moderator:MOVMON::DAVISS
Created:Tue Apr 16 1996
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:648
Total number of notes:3158

466.0. "466 SPEC results are official" by PERFOM::HENNING () Mon Feb 03 1997 18:02

    AlphaServer 4100 5/466 SPEC95 results have been posted to
    
       http://tlg-www.zko.dec.com/~henning/TidBits.html
    
    and more will be added over the next week.
    
    Briefly, SPECint95=14.0 
              SPECfp95=18.9  (single cpu)
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
466.1News flash - .0 might improvePERFOM::HENNINGWed Feb 05 1997 17:161
    ah, but they may improve slightly in the next few days.  
466.2FinalPERFOM::HENNINGTue Feb 11 1997 05:36269
    Attached are the final results.  Note that they improved slightly from
    the results referenced in .0
    
    A web-ified edition of the attached (with appropriate hyperlinks) will
    be posted to 
    
           http://tlg-www.zko.dec.com/~henning/TidBits.html
    


   SUBJ: Final SPEC CPU95 for Rawhide/466

   Summary:

      - Leadership has been achieved in 5 out of 8 categories:

             I. SPECint95                second place
            II. SPECfp95 (4 cpu)         leadership
           III. SPECfp95 (2 cpu)         leadership
            IV. SPECfp95 (1 cpu)         fourth place
             V. SPECint_rate95 (4 cpu)   leadership
            VI. SPECint_rate95 (2 cpu)   leadership
           VII. SPECfp_rate95 (4 cpu)    second place
          VIII. SPECfp_rate95 (2 cpu)    leadership

      - We have an opportunity to ask HP some embarrassing questions
        about their Runway bus.



Here are the current results compared to the competitors' results as posted
to the SPEC web site, http://www.specbench.org, through February 10, 1997.

I. Top 10 SPECint95 

       Rank System                       SPECint_base95    SPECint95
       ---- -------------------------    --------------    ---------
         1   AlphaStation 500/500             12.6            15.0           
     ..new...AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........12.1............14.1.....
     ..new...AlphaServer 4000 5/466...........12.1............14.1.....
         2   AlphaServer 8200 5/440           11.2            13.6           
         3   AlphaServer 8400 5/440           11.2            13.6           
         4   AlphaStation 500/400              9.77           12.3            
         5   AlphaServer 4000 5/400           10.1            12.1           
         6   AlphaServer 4100 5/400           10.1            12.1           
         7   HP 9000 Model K460EG             10.8            11.8           
         8   HP 9000 Model K460               10.8            11.8           
         9   HP 9000 Model C180-XP            10.8            11.8           
        10   AlphaServer 1000A 5/400           9.61           11.5

The AlphaServer 4x00 5/466 has a solid lead over HP, 19% for SPECint95
and 12% for SPECint_base95.


II. Top 10 SPECfp95 (4 CPU) 
                                                   SPECfp_         
     Rank System                         CPUs     base95        SPECfp95
     ---- ------------------------       ----     -------       -------- 
    .new..AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........4.......27.8...........36.1.....
       1  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           4       26.6           33.4 
       2  AlphaServer 8200 5/350           4       21.9           27.9 
       3  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          4       20.3           27.3 
       4  AlphaServer 8400 5/300           4       11.7           25.9 
       5  AlphaServer 4100 5/300           4       18.9           21.8 
       6  AlphaServer 2100A 5/300          4       14.9           19.4 
       7  AlphaServer 2100 5/300           4        9.00          19.2 
       8  AlphaServer 4100 5/300E          4       17.7           18.4 
       9  AlphaServer 2100 5/250           4       14.0           17.7 
      10  origin200                        4       14.5           15.6 


III. Top 10 SPECfp95 (2 CPU)
                                                  SPECfp_         
     Rank System                         CPUs     base95        SPECfp95
     ---- ------------------------       ----     -------       -------- 
    .new..AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........2.......22.2...........26.5.....
    .new..AlphaServer 4000 5/466...........2.......22.2...........26.5.....
       1  AlphaServer 4000 5/400           2       20.7           24.2 
       2  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           2       20.7           24.2 
       3  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          2       16.8           20.7 
       4  AlphaServer 2000 5/375           2       16.8           20.7 
       5  AlphaServer 8200 5/350           2       17.0           20.3 
       6  AlphaServer 8400 5/300           2       11.9           18.1 
       7  AlphaServer 4100 5/300           2       15.2           16.7 
       8  AlphaServer 4100 5/300E          2       14.2           15.1 
       9  Ultra 2 Series 2200              2       13.3           14.7 
      10  AlphaServer 2100 5/300           2        9.02          14.0 

At both 2 and 4 CPUs, the AlphaServer 4x00 5/466 has broken the SMP SPECfp
records established by the AlphaServer 4x00 5/400, and with these new
results 10 out of the top 10 systems will be Alpha systems.


IV. Top 10 SPECfp95 (1 cpu)
                                                     SPECfp_         
        Rank System                         CPUs     base95        SPECfp95
        ---- ------------------------       ----     -------       -------- 
         1    AlphaStation 500/500           1        18.3           20.4
         2    HP 9000 Model K460             1        18.3           20.2
         3    HP 9000 Model K460EG           1        18.3           20.2
      ..new...AlphaServer 4000 5/466.........1........17.8...........19.2.....
      ..new...AlphaServer 4100 5/466.........1........17.8...........19.2.....
         4    HP 9000 Model K450             1        17.0           18.8
         5    HP 9000 Model C180-XP          1        17.2           18.7
         6    RISC System/6000 595           1        15.4           17.6
         7    AlphaServer 4000 5/400         1        16.0           17.2
         8    AlphaServer 4100 5/400         1        16.0           17.2
         9    AlphaServer 8200 5/440         1        16.0           17.0
        10    AlphaServer 8400 5/440         1        16.0           17.0

With the new AlphaServer 4x00 5/466 results, Alpha gains 3 out of the
top 5 single-CPU SPECfp95 results, displacing two HP systems in the top
5.  The AlphaServer 4x00 5/466 trails the HP K460 by 5% on single-CPU 
SPECfp95 (but leads it by 19% on SPECint95 - see table I.). 

        NOTE: The above table was produced by doing a query for 
        #cpu=1 at the SPEC website; therefore it leaves out the 
        SGI origin2000, which is listed as:

                                                     SPECfp_         
                                 Number of CPU(s)    base95        SPECfp95
                                 -----------------   -------       -------- 
              origin2000         "32 (1 CPU used)"    17.4           19.0

        If one were to include the orgin2000 in table IV, it would 
        appear just below the new AlphaServer 4x00 results.



V. Top 10 SPECint_rate95 (4 cpu) 
                                                SPECint_        SPECint_
     Rank System                         CPUs   rate_base95     rate95
     ---- ------------------------       ----   ----------      --------
    .new..AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........4.......419............485.....
       1  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           4       349            422 
       2  HP 9000 Model K460 4-CPU         4       380            418 
       3  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          4       336            397 
       4  RM400 Model C90                  4       375            375 
       5  RM400 Model C90                  4       375            375 
       6  HP 9000 Model K450 4-CPU         4       342            375 
       7  origin200                        4       278            304 
       8  superserver J654i                4       292            292 
       9  AlphaServer 4100 5/300           4       255            278 
      10  AlphaServer 8400 5/300           4       261            261 



 
VI. Top 10 SPECint_rate95 (2 cpu) 
                                                SPECint_        SPECint_
     Rank System                         CPUs   rate_base95     rate95
     ---- ------------------------       ----     --------     -----------
    ..new.AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........2.......210............250......
    ..new.AlphaServer 4000 5/466...........2.......210............250......
       1  HP 9000 Model K460 2-CPU         2       192            212   
       2  AlphaServer 4000 5/400           2       180            211   
       3  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           2       180            211   
       4  AlphaServer 2000 5/375           2       170            204   
       5  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          2       170            204   
       6  HP 9000 Model K450 2-CPU         2       172            189   
       7  HP 9000 Model D370 2-CPU         2       168            184   
       8  HP 9000 Model D270 2-CPU         2       168            184   
       9  superserver J652i                2       151            151   
      10  AlphaServer 4100 5/300           2       129            144

Both 2 and 4cpu SPECintrate_95 are handily won by the AlphaServer 4100
5/466.

                                               
VII. Top 10 SPECfp_rate95 (4 cpu)
                                                SPECfp_         SPECfp_ 
     Rank System                         CPUs   rate_base95     rate95
     ---- ------------------------       ----   -----------     -------
       1  Power Challenge                  4       449            471   
    .new..AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........4.......437............466.....
       2  origin200                        4       405            446   
       3  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           4       420            439   
       4  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          4       328            438   
       5  AlphaServer 8200 5/300           4       400            420   
       6  AlphaServer 8400 5/300           4       400            420   
       7  HP 9000 Model K460 4-CPU         4       368            398   
       8  HP 9000 Model K450 4-CPU         4       356            383   
       9  AlphaServer 4100 5/300           4       294            303   
      10  AlphaServer 2100 5/300           4       246            251   

The AlphaServer 4100 5/466 shows some key strengths in 4-CPU SPECfp_rate95. 
It handily beats SGI's much hyped origin 200 system, and almost catches
SGI's Power Challenge with 195 MHz R10000 and 8-way memory interleaving. 
But if the term "mid-range" is defined to mean systems that hold up to
4-CPUs, the latter is clearly not a mid-range system.  It should also be
noted that various additional high-end servers would appear at or near the
top of this list if they were to be  measured with only 4 cpus, including
both the origin 2000 and the AlphaServer 8400 5/440.  

More importantly, this result tops the HP K460 by 17%.  One might ask,

     "What's wrong with the K460, HP?  It seems your CPU might be sort
     of OK, since EV56 and PA-8000 each take one round in the single-CPU
     SPECint and SPECfp race (see tables I and II).  But what happens
     with scaling?  Why does the K460 drop off so much compared to the
     AlphaServer 4100?  Is it possible that your Runway bus with its
     alleged theoretical 960 MB/sec peak can't deliver more than a small
     fraction of that bandwidth in real applications?  And by the way
     why haven't you ever published a McCalpin STREAMS bandwidth number
     for a K460?"



VIII. Top 10 SPECfp_rate95 (2 cpu)
                                                SPECfp_         SPECfp_ 
     Rank System                         CPUs   rate_base95     rate95
     ---- ------------------------       ----   -----------     -------
   ..new..AlphaServer 4100 5/466...........2.......278............301.....
   ..new..AlphaServer 4000 5/466...........2.......278............301.....
       1  HP 9000 Model K460 2-CPU         2       267            297   
       2  HP 9000 Model K450 2-CPU         2       252            279   
       3  AlphaServer 4000 5/400           2       257            275   
       4  AlphaServer 4100 5/400           2       257            275   
       5  HP 9000 Model K420 4-CPU         2       264            275   
       6  AlphaServer 2100A 5/375          2       244            258   
       7  AlphaServer 2000 5/375           2       244            258   
       8  Power Challenge                  2       229            241   
       9  AlphaServer 8200 5/300           2       205            215   
      10  AlphaServer 8400 5/300           2       205            215   

Even at 2 CPUs, the AlphaServer 4100 5/466 shows better scaling than the
HP K460.
                                               



Finally, comparing Rawhide/400 vs. Rawhide466:

     Metric                #cpus     Rawhide/400     Rawhide/466   Ratio
     -------------------   -----     -----------     -----------   -----
     SPECint95                1          12.1            14.1       1.17
     SPECint_base95           1          10.1            12.1       1.20
                                                               
     SPECfp95                 4          33.4            36.1       1.08
     SPECfp95                 2          24.2            26.5       1.10
     SPECfp95                 1          17.2            19.2       1.12
                                                               
     SPECfp_base95            4          26.6            27.8       1.05
     SPECfp_base95            2          20.7            22.2       1.07
     SPECfp_base95            1          16.0            17.8       1.11
                                                               
     SPECint_rate95           4         422             485         1.15
     SPECint_rate95           2         211             250         1.18
     SPECint_rate95           1         109             127         1.17
                                                               
     SPECint_rate_base95      4         349             419         1.20
     SPECint_rate_base95      2         180             210         1.17
     SPECint_rate_base95      1          90.6           109         1.20
                                                               
     SPECfp_rate95            4         439             466         1.06
     SPECfp_rate95            2         275             301         1.09
     SPECfp_rate95            1         155             173         1.12
                                                               
     SPECfp_rate_base95       4         420             437         1.04
     SPECfp_rate_base95       2         257             278         1.08
     SPECfp_rate_base95       1         144             160         1.11

   Note that a 17% improvement in clock speed (466 vs. 400) has translated
   into a similar improvement for most integer metrics, and sometimes even
   more than 17%, due to compiler and tuning improvements. 

   For floating point benchmarks the improvement is much less than clock
   speed, especially as the number of CPUs increases, because SPECfp95
   depends heavily on main memory bandwidth.