The First Processor That Supports 256Terabytes of RAM

Third Eye · 12-04-2007, 07:47 AM

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Seeing how the battle for the best processor for the desktop market is currently owned by Intel, everybody else has to try and make up by engulfing other unsuspecting markets. AMD
for one is trying its luck on the mobile market, they've recently announced that they are responsible for the ImageOn processor behind LG's KE850 PRADA phone.

Others aren't sharing the enthusiasm of conquering new worlds, seeking out new civilizations; they have even given up on their own processors, most of them anyway. I'm referring to Apple, which have favored Intel's processors over their successful line of IBM-made processors. They even did a rewrite of the operating system so that it would support the x86 architecture over a 3-month period, and pulled it off. On the other hand, there are manufacturers such as VIA, which have a stronghold on the UMPC and PDA market due to their C3-C7 processors.

But, when there is room for one, there is room for more, and as many of the markets already have a competitors battling for the supremacy on those particular segments, there isn't much headroom for newcomers, or even new ideas. But what about a veteran with a new idea, that might work, and it's just the thing the computer industry would require, some fresh information to feed upon. Guilty for bringing the intel is Sun Microsystems, whose CEO and president, Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog about new processor, called the Rock, no connection to the guy interpreting the Scorpion King from The Mummy.

The Rock processor has 16 cores, and it can support up to 256Terabytes of RAM “in a single software domain (plain vanilla OpenSolaris, no less)”. The CPU has 2395 pins, 812 used for signaling and 1514 for power/ground purposes, the other serving (apparently) no purpose whatsoever. Schwartz also said about the memory support that: “That is an awful lot of RAM in a single system (and given the cost of memory nowadays, you'd want to post an armed guard next to that machine).” But on the other hand, details such as “how many threads per core; why this chip heralds the golden age of effortless parallel programming; how it brings fault tolerance to the masses” are still being kept secret for the time being, but it sure sounds like whatever they have prepared for us is going to be big. As for a time frame when this product will be available on the market, I'll just have to paraphrase Mr. Schwartz and say “stay tuned”.

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ambandla · 12-04-2007, 10:01 AM

Nice post. In the enterprise, nothing beats Sun SPARC processors. And "The Rock" takes them to a whole new level.

I have a SUN Blade workstation in office. Though it's processor speed is 650MHz, it's damn fast and powerful.