Post on 31-Dec-2015
Hardware Trends
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Memory
DDR 3• Released in 2007• 1.5 v Power Consumption
– DDR2 -> 1.8v– DDR -> 2.25v
• Peak Transfer Rate:– 2 x 106 transfer/s
• Normal Transfer Rate:– ~(0.8 to 1.2) x 106 transfer/s
• NOT backwards compatible.• 8 GB Chip Capacity• 16 GB Module Capacity
DDR 4• Expected 2015 release• 1.2v Power Consumption• Peak Transfer Rate:
– ~4 x 106 transfer/s• Normal Transfer Rate:
– ~2 x 106 transfer/s• Not backwards compatible
with previous versions• Expected 16 GB Chip Capacity.• Expected 32 GB Module
Capacity.
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Hard Drives
• Current High Speed Interfaces:– SATA (Serial ATA)– SAS (Serial Attached
SCSI)• Current Capacity: 2TB• Time to read (seek):– 1956: 0.1 sec– Now: 0.003 sec
• Random Access Time:– Between 1 and 5
seconds– Between 5 and 10 ms
• Price:– 1956: $15,000 / MB– Now: $100 / TB
• Size:– 1956: 8 in.– Now: 2.5 in.
Hard Drives
• New: SSD (Solid State Drives)– Positives
• Flash Based rather than mechanical.
• Lower Power / less voltage
– Current max capacity: • currently up to 512 GB
– Time to read:• < 0.1 ms
– Size:• 1.8 inch
– No Seek Times– No slowdown to
fragmentation.– No acoustics.– No data loss to shock.– Controllers can read
AND write asynchronously.
– Very low power consumption.
Hard Drives• Negatives:– Price: $1.20 to $2.00 per GB– Size: typically 512 GB or less– Typically slower writes than reads– Flash models are “write limited”
• Can only write to same sector of flash memory limited number of times before that sector becomes unusable.
• All drives contain a special controller that minimizes this problem!• Trends:– 2 year trend:
• 50% price decrease• 200% capacity increase
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Processors
• Old and Busted?– Single core processors
• Pentium IV Extreme Edition– Max spd: 3.73 GHz– Clock rate: 1066 MHz– L1 & L2 cache for instruction pre-fetch– Fastest single core processor ever created.
Processors
• New and shiny:– Multi-core processors /
Many-core processors
• Why?– Multiple CPU cores per
chip• Dual (2)• Quad (4)• Hexa (6)• Octa (8)• Dodeca (12)
• Slower cores used in chips.– Typically < 2.6 GHz
• Performance dependant on software!
• Processors– Have own L1 cache– Share L2 and L3 cache
Processors
• Intel Core i7 (“Nehalem” architecture)– 4 cores– 1 MB L2 cache | 8 MB L3 cache– 2 x DDR3 RAM bus– .65 to 1.4 V– 731 x 106 transistors
Processors
• Why do my programs run slower on multi-core processors?– Software doesn’t care about the underlying
architecture.– Most software is single-threaded (especially
legacy applications)
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Network
• Current: 1GB Ethernet– Less used: Myricom / Infiniband• Proprietary interfaces and cables• Up to 80GB/s transfer speed
• New:– 100 GB switch demonstrated by Cisco in 2008– 100 GB NIC demonstrated in June 2009– January 2011:• Lucent introduced 100 GB Ethernet interfaces that
support current broadband technology.
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Accessories
USB 2.x• Throughput:
– 35 to 40 MB/s
• Max cable length:– 16.4 ft
• Half-duplex– Only 1 operation at a time
(read/write)
USB 3.0• Throughput:
– Tested ~100 MB/s
• Max cable length:– 9.8 ft.
• Bi-directional traffic• Signaling rate: 625 MB/s• Increased Power over USB
for devices.• Max # devices: 127
Accessories• Future:– Intel (Light Peak)– Optical Cabling– 10 GB/s bi-directional data transfer– Handles multiple communication protocols
• USB• Video• Firewire• Etc…
– Testing 100 GB/s protocols & devices– 1st adopters: Apple for new iMacs
Contents
• Memory• Hard Disks• Processors• Network• Accessories• Future
Future???
• Predictions:– Power requirements for PCs will continue to decline.– Processing throughput and storage speed discrepancy
will continue to widen– Increase in distributed computing:
• More netbooks• Fewer servers• Faster interfaces• “Slower” processors but more computational throughput
– Software vendors:• Increase software parallelization
Future???
– SSDs will begin to replace SATA/SAS– Teaching trends?• Parallel computing• Software parallelization
– Compilers:• Parallel optimizations for software