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