This article tries to explain why workstations are no longer an appropriate tool for the present working environment, what the alternatives are, and what consequences it has for the development of OSes.
First I would like to explain why I feel competent enough to write this article. I'm a hardware engineer and I work as an EDA (Electronic Design Automation) consultant, this means I often change projects and customers and I'm using UNIX-based environments to get my job done. All the developments, which I describe in following, are affecting me, so probably either they are similar for other engineers not necessarily from the EDA industry, or they will affect them in the near future.
The tool is the same, but the task is changing
Let's step back for a moment and remember how it was just a few years ago. Every engineer had his own UNIX-workstation in his office. All the project data was stored on a file server, so for changing the data, first thing to do was to fetch them over LAN. If the data were coming directly from customer, they were stored on tape, so they had to be loaded on local disk, after that the engineer could start working on them. The workstation was powerful enough to handle the amount of data. If data had to be shared, the engineer stored the data back on the file server, so his colleague could access them. The communication was handled over email or over phone. All electronic correspondence inside the company was using the same data format. The team, who was working on data was present in the same office.
There are at least two developments, which changed this peaceful picture: globalization and flexibility.
Globalization
Nowadays several engineering teams from all over the world must have access to the project data. That means that the file server can be located anywhere and must be accessible over comparably slow WAN connection. Since several people might work simultaneously on the same data, versioning systems must be used. The amounts of data are increasing rapidly. It takes too much time to fetch them and store on the local disk and write them back after processing. Additional problem is that providing necessary power to process this data to every single engineer is just too expensive. The resources must be shared. These factors lead to conclusion that it might be easier to let the data on server, or just copy them over a fast connection from the file server to the grid of computing servers, which cost less than the certain number of workstation and can be used more efficient. So the only data connection, which is required is a remote display, which let the engineer start the jobs and see the results. X11 has network transparency build in, but the protocol is not very efficient for WAN connections, so better optimized solutions would be Citrix ICA connection. A free solution is e.g. VNC. Another important point is that Citrix clients are available for Windows, MacOSX, Solaris and Linux, so the OS on engineer's desktop is completely independent from the OS being used on the server. Additionally it is possible to share a connection, that means it is possible to see what another Citrix user is doing, that is very nice for solving problems or providing online training. One solution is to provide an inexpensive terminal with slim Linux distribution, which can run Citrix client and possibly RDP protocol to connect to a Windows server, so the user can use software from both worlds. All the production data is stored on UNIX server, all other data on Windows.
Flexibility
Flexibility means for the engineer two things. Being flexible means not only to work on the technical side on the project, but also contribute more, than just processing the data. Today the engineer must write the documentation, meet the international customers and held presentation about the project status, provide training, fill-out various web-based forms, like timecards or expense reports, attend webinars, telephone and video conferences, communicate with other project teams on various channels. He receives several dozens mails a day from colleagues, mailing lists and customers, works on different projects at the same time, and must always learn new things. He is responsible not only for the project itself, but also for the pre- and post-sales support. Another aspect of flexibility means, that the engineer is not longer bound to his office. Lot of companies do offer possibility to work from home, either because they want to be seen as family-friendly, or just want to avoid expensive offices. Some companies do not have enough space for all the employes, so they come to the office only twice a week. During critical project stages the engineer must have possibility to look at the data without making long way to the office. During customer visits he must have lot of data available to be prepared for every question the customer may ask. To fulfill all these demands the engineer must use a notebook with a OS which helps him organize all the data, which are project related, but which are not production data.
So the combination of these two trends shows that the ideal platform for a nowadays engineer is a notebook with a modern desktop OS, installed VPN and Citrix or VNC client. He can connect it to a broadband connection and have access to the server for working on project data or use the applications of the notebook OS for all the communication and office related work.
What kind of consequences does it have for the development and usage of operating systems?
We can draw a very sharp line between the server OS and the desktop OS. Both systems have completely different demands. From the view of user the server OS is visible in his Citrix client window as an application. In fact it is comparable with a WebOS, which are running in a browser window. Server OS must be stable, reliable and scalable. It must run on big servers, handle lot of load and users, support virtualization, be fault-tolerant and self-healing. The windows manager must be simple, but still effective enough, to help handling several open windows and terminals in a session with a resolution and color depth as small as possible to minimize the network traffic, but still large enough to display all relevant data.
There are already server-only OS, like zOS, VMS or OS/400, but our definition would declare also AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and all BSDs as server OS (Note: I don't mention Linux here, it is a special case). There are lot of minimalistic window-managers and desktop environments available (CDE, FVWM, WindowMaker), which comply with the requirements described above. Which leads us to the question, which software is required for a serverOS? Obviously programs for the work on the project data are needed. Then a development environment with a tool chain to be able to write programs for the OS. A web-browser with PDF-plugin and an IMAP-based email program for simple communication. What software is not required for it? No advanced communication software, no multimedia programs, no office-software, no bloated desktop environments like KDE or GNOME, no 3D-acceleration, no search software, nothing what might disturb the user or the computer system from work. The ideal case would be, if the home directory of the user would stay empty, all the project data are stored in project directories in versioning systems, accessible for other project users.
On the other hand the desktop or notebook OS must have every feature which helps the engineer to organize his work and should help him to be able to communicate with every possible client and manage all his data. He should be able to read and write every document format and be able to access every website. International customers might send him documents in every possible format and he cannot reject it, with an excuse that's because his desktop OS does not have an application, which is able to read it. The stability and reliability do not play a very important role. If the system crashes, it is still possible to connect to the Citrix session and continue working. Currently there are only 3 OSes which to some degree support these demands: Windows, MacOSX and Linux.
By using Windows the chance to have all the programs for communication like VoIP, IM, video-conferencing is higher than on other platforms. Windows-based application like Microsoft Office are used by most customers and non-technical departments in the company. OpenOffice is available for Windows as well, in case that somebody is sending ODF data around. It is sad, but there are still lot of web-forms, which are used in Intranets and which work only with Internet Explorer. For group-ware functionality Exchange-Outlook is still the most popular combination. Multimedia plugins and codecs for all relevant formats are available. Windows Vista has integrated search, which helps to find documents and emails on the basis of different criteria, for earlier Windows version applications like LookOut or Google Toolbar can be used. Windows supports Unicode and lot of different char-sets, which is also important, since customer from Eastern Europa or Asia might use different char-set on their web-page or in the email.
MacOSX is also able to read and write most of the popular formats. It has its problems with multi-platform groupware-functionality and while VoIP and text-messaging with different IMs is possible, video-conferencing with a Windows user might become a bigger problem. Not every web-page can be viewed with Safari and if Microsoft removes VBA-functionality from its next Office for Mac software version, all the Excel tables with Macros cease to work. MacOSX has very advanced searching capabilities and is good suited for writing of documentation, especially because of the build-in PDF creator, so the documents can be viewed on all platforms, even on server OSes.
Linux can be used as server and as desktop OS. While optimized distributions make good shape on server, the Linux desktop still has a long way to go to become as helpful for the engineer as Windows. All the arguments, which are valid for MacOSX, are valid for Linux even more. Even if the company is pure open source and uses only standardized document formats and communication paths, the customers might not and there must always be a way to be able to read everything, what a customer might send. Group-ware solutions on Linux are available, but the Exchange support is fluky, MSOffice-Macros might sometimes work with OpenOffice most of the time they do not, I'm not aware on any cross-platform videoconference software which is available for Linux. Codecs and plugins are often not available as well. Recently Linux also got a search-engine. But the advantage of Linux is, that it is possible use the notebook as development machine and run the code on Linux server, without recompilation. It is possible to demonstrate software and provide training on the notebook, without having connection to the server.
Conclusion
Due to the change of the working environment workstations are not the right tool to do the job anymore. They are too expensive, can be used only by single user, the data amount is too large to be downloaded and processed. Better solution is to leave the data on server and send them through fast network on computing grid. As control station either a terminal or a notebook can be used. Notebooks offer better flexibility as it can be used for work from home or during traveling. ServerOS should not be optimized for desktop usage but concentrate on such tasks like reliability, stability, scalability. Only lightweight windows managers should be used to save the bandwidth and processing power. The OS on the notebook must be able to help the engineer to communicate, manage his data and organize his work. Windows is currently the most advanced OS for these tasks, but Linux's advantage is, that it is flexible enough to be used as serverOS and on desktop.
Posts mit dem Label workstation werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label workstation werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Mittwoch, 29. Juni 2011
A Take on the Workstation Market one Year After
There is a saying that one year in IT industries is equal to 8 years in traditional industries. One year ago I wrote an article about the workstation market, if I compare this article to the situation today, quite everything has changed in this pretty short period of time. So now it's time for an update.
Last year I refused to call computers with x86 processor a workstation. 64 bitness for x86 processors was quite a new thing, the operating systems which were supporting this feature were not ready for production, the software packages from ISVs were not supporting 64 bit on these processors. This changed completely.
Today the definition of workstations might be as following: It's a mini-computer for a single user, with a processor, which can also be used for servers, with several gigabytes of memory, big storage, OpenGL-capable graphics system and UNIX or UNIX-like OS. I do not include Windows OS in this definition, because although there is a Windows XP Professional x64 Edition which supports x86 processors with 64 bit extension, there aren't lot of compatible drivers and the usage model of the OS is very different from all the other workstation OSes. This may change with the release of Windows Vista, because there will be a 64-bit version from the beginning with lot of drivers included and through the inclusion of Windows Services for UNIX (called SUA), which should make Windows OS a bit more UNIX like, so the user of traditional unices should become familiar with this OS.
So let see what platforms are still available today:
1. PowerPC 970 and POWER5+ with AIX5L and Linux from IBM
IBM defines its workstations as small server, which can also be used as a workstation. The main area of these workstations is Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. One of the most used software packages is CATIA, which is an engineering software package for mechanical engineers. IBM advertises explicitly the ability of running Linux and AIX5L on these workstations. There are several Linux distributions which support POWER processor and IBM is actively supporting porting of software for this platform. However there isn't lot of commercial software packages yet, which means that this kind of workstation might be used as development machine for the successful embedded PowerPC applications. IBM also does not recommend to use Linux on these workstations for 3D graphics, which underlines its status as development machine
Currently there are two workstation models available:
- IntelliStation POWER 185 Express
This workstation is equipped with 1-2 PowerPC 970 processors, the same processors as G5 for Apple's PowerMac. Each processor can have 2 cores, which are clocked with 2.5 GHz. The maximum memory expansion is 8 GB. Each processor has 1 MB second level cache memory, but no 3rd level cache memory. The graphics subsystem is proprietary IBM, it has 4 PCI-X and one PCI slot. This workstation is the cheapest workstation ever produced by IBM.
- IntelliStation POWER 285 Express
The processor in this workstation is POWER5+, which is the most recent processor also used in p- and iSeries of IBM servers. It can be chosen between 1 or 2 processors, each of them has 2 cores, which are clocked 1.9 or 2.1 GHz. Each processor has 1.9MB L2 and 36 MB of 3rd level cache. The total amount of memory can be up to 32 GB. It has 6 PCI-X slots and a proprietary graphics system.
It is not very certain, if there are plans for a successor of the PowerPC970. While the main customer of these processors Apple has abolished it, IBM is using PowerPC970 in its blades and in the IntelliStation. There are other customers who have plans to build computer systems based on this processor (most famous one is Genesi, who are building PowerPC based computers with Linux), but whether the demand is big enough for funding development of the next generation is more than uncertain. On the other side the success of PowerPC as embedded processor also creates a need for development platform. Wild speculations are rising around the Cell processor, which usage is discussed for multimedia workstations. Workstations which have 1-2 POWER processors remain in IBM products portfolio as long as AIX is alive.
2. Alpha with True64 UNIX/OpenVMS from HP
This platform is still offered for customers as a development solution for their servers with Alpha processors. The last orders for these servers at HP is October 27th, then this platform is officially dead (support offerings will continue for some years of course). No new workstation models are offered since the last article.
3. PA-RISC with HP-UX from HP
There is only one workstation available with this combination of processor and OS: the c8000, which also hasn't changed since last year. PA-RISC systems are still sold, although Itanium processor was meant as a replacement for them. But since Itanium is quite unpopular, HP's PA-RISC systems still remain in their product line. HP is one of the heaviest Linux promoters and certifies and offers x86 systems with latest Linux distributions pre-installed.
4. MIPS with Irix from SGI
SGI's MIPS workstation have not been updated since last year, and this is quite certain that no follow-up models will appear. The software, which has been running on these workstations can be used on SGI PRIZM series without further modification or recompilation.
5. Itanium with Linux from SGI
One of the main surprises this year is the appearance of a family of workstations called PRIZM from SGI, which are powered by combination of Itanium and Linux and are meant as a solution for virtualization of large data sets like in medical research, industries with demand for virtual reality, climate research and so on. PRIZM can be used as a workstation, but also can be connected into a cluster with single, system-wide shared memory, so several processors and graphic pipelines can be combined for virtualizing even larger data-sets. The workstation consists of 1-2 Itanium 2 processors, 1-2 graphic pipes (ATI FireGL cards), the main memory is expandable to 24 GB and it includes 6 PCI/PCI-X slots.
This is one of the technically most interesting solutions currently available. Itanium 2 processors are very fast on optimized software and their EPIC design fits exactly for the tasks, the PRIZM is used for, that means for high speed computation of large data-sets. The possibility of combination of several PRIZMs into one cluster with unified memory, where processor and graphic resources are simply recombined for larger tasks is something which makes it very unique in the world of IT. Unfortunately SGI is currently in financial troubles, so it is hard to say, if PRIZM will be further available in recent future.
6. SPARC with Solaris 10 from Sun
For the last few years the direction Sun is taking was pretty hard to explain. Sun tried out several options of changing its business and expand it in other areas. Currently the business model became more clear, but surprises still have to be expected. However Solaris workstations still remain in the product line, beside x86 based computers they are the most widespread "traditional" workstations. Their main usage is for CAD, CAE, CAM, EDA, JAVA development. The current line-up consists of three models:
- Sun Ultra 25
This workstation includes one UltraSPARC IIIi processor with 1.34 GHz and 1 MB of 2nd level cache. Maximum memory is 8 GB. This workstation offers 3 PCI-Express and two PCI-X slots, one of the PCI-Express slots is occupied by a XVR-2500 3-D graphics accelerator. The operating system is Solaris 10.
-Sun Ultra 45
Ultra 45 includes 1-2 UltraSPARC IIIi processors with 1.6 GHz. Maximum memory is 16 GB, other data equal with Ultra 25.
- Sun Ultra 3 Mobile
This is the only mobile workstation beside the top line of x86 laptops, which are very hard to find with Linux pre-installed or even supported. Mobile is a bit misleading, it can be transported, but it's not meant for work in the train on one's lap. It consists of 550-650 MHz UltraSPARC IIi or 1.2 GHz UltraSPACR IIIi processor, can have up to 2 GB memory and 80 GB of IDE internal disk storage. It has wireless LAN and 15-17-inch display. The main usage of this workstation is presenting something to the customer in a predefined environment or developing some server applications without having a server around. Although the performance of this workstation is very comparable with a desk-side workstation, it lacks a proper 3-D graphics accelerator, which makes all CA* packages unusable on it.
I think SPARC based workstation still have long life, as long, as Sun is producing SPARC-based servers, which is still bread-and-butter business for them. Interesting question arises which SPARC processor will they use for the next workstation. Niagara is certainly not optimized for desktop usage, it is quite hard to keep all the 8 cores busy with desktop applications. The floating point unit is also too weak for computation-intensive tasks. This might change with Niagara II, but still it is very unlikely that Sun will produce Niagara workstations. On the other side the processors Sun will develop with Fujitsu are very expensive server processors, which will rise the prize for the workstations equipped with them. I still speculate for SPARC IV+ based workstation in the next future.
7. Opteron with Solaris 10 from Sun
One attempt of expanding into other business areas for Sun was the introduction of Opteron based workstation which support Windows, Linux and Solaris 10. x86 based Solaris version has been always a kind of training OS where the system administrators could get some skills for working with real fat iron, which was SPARC based. This changed completely with introduction of Solaris10. Now several servers and workstations with Opteron processor are offered by Sun and they cover more and more areas which were exclusively reserved for SPARCs. Here is a workstation overview:
- Sun Ultra 20
One dual core Opteron processor with up to 2.4GHz, single core versions up to 2.8 GHz and 1 MB of 2nd level cache. 4 GB of RAM is maximum memory, 3 PCI-Express and 4 PCI slots. There is a wide variety of graphic controllers to be chosen from, beginning from ATI Rage XL PCI Controller with 8 MB of memory, ending with NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450 PCI Express with 128 MB of graphics RAM and support for two displays. The pre-installed OS is Solaris 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Microsoft Windows are officially supported by Sun.
- Sun Ultra 40
Two dual or single core Opterons, up to 32 GB of RAM, 2 PCI Express x16 slots, 2 PCI Express x4 slots and 2 legacy PCI slots. This allows to use the NVIDIA SLI technology where 2 graphic cards nearly double the graphical performance of the system.
With the opening of Solaris source code, it was required that Solaris can run on common hardware, so interested developers could download and install it easily on their hardware without the need of buying an expensive SPARC box. This attempt was very successful for Sun, Solaris is one of the well recognized OSes and the download numbers are impressive. However the ISVs of the workstation relevant software are very slow in adopting a new platform, even if Sun suggests, that supporting Solaris10 x86 requires only a recompilation of SPARC Solaris based program. More than one year after appearance of x86 Solaris 10 systems there is still no commercial software for workstations. Linux is considered as good enough solution, Solaris for x86 does not provide advantages which would justify the support of an extra platform. The situation might be different for servers, but currently though lot of open source software has been ported to Solaris x86, it is not a workstation platform with the bright variety of software. It might change in the future, but I'm personally quite skeptical about it. What I don't understand is why Sun is not providing an emulation layer for SPARC software on Opteron, like SGI and Apple are doing, just that the transition might become easier, and users of performance critical software can demand the portage of it. I think this would help a lot for the acceptance of Solaris/Opteron among workstation users.
8. PowerPC/Intel with MacOSX from Apple
Last year was very surprising for users of Macs. Steve Jobs announced a change of processor architecture for all Apple computers. New Inter-based PowerMacs (some rumor sites call them Mac Pro) will be probably announced at Apple Developer Conference in August. Though there is already a number of software packages available as universal binaries (which is a package consisting of two binaries, one for PowerPC, one for Intel x86), there is no professional software ported to the new architecture (expect software, which is developed by Apple itself). Adobe, which is the most important ISV for Mac, hasn't ported its software yet, it also remains unclear if the new Creative Suite version which includes the most important programs like Photoshop will support both architectures, or only the Intel one. There is also no ISV for the technical software, who considers porting its applications to MacOSX. So it has to be seen, whether Intel-based Mac platform will become a success among the professional users. It is also interesting to see, how Apple will support remaining PowerPC users who are not able to migrate because the application they're using is not available as x86 binary and emulation is too slow. Current policy of Apple is quite radical one, when an Intel model of Mac is available, the equivalent PowerPC system gets discontinued. Maybe this is OK for home users, but certainly not for professionals, who cannot migrate overnight and still need PowerPC based systems as a replacement for broken ones. If Apple cannot provide them, I suppose this can destroy lot of trust in Apple as professional users friendly company.
9. Opteron/Athlon/Xeon64ET with Linux from various manufacturers
This combination is still the most viable in the current workstation market. In the meantime lot of software, which was available on traditional UNIX 64-bit RISC platforms is ported to 64-bit Linux. One year ago 64-bit Linux was quite experimental, this changed completely, as RedHat and Novell are supporting it with their enterprise distributions. Lot of criticism regarding fast changes of Linux kernel and incompatible distributions are resolved by certifying only these two distributions. Recently Ubuntu also tries to become a distribution which is supported by the ISVs, but I think this will take lot of time and though Ubuntu is well received among home Linux users, it does not have such reputation across professionals. One major advantage which Linux has compared to the other UNIX OSes, is it's user friendly Desktop Environment (KDE or GNOME). It is really a shame, that all traditional UNIces (with the exception of Sun) still have the completely outdated CDE as default DE. One might argue that KDE and GNOME are also available for AIX or HP-UX, but they're not supported by the vendors and a normal user cannot install them, usually only system administrator is able to do this. So a normal user still has a working environment from the beginning on the 90th, which is outdated by any definition. This user friendliness and massive cost advantage will further spread Linux and nag on the user base of other solutions.
10. Thin terminals with server with grid software
This is certainly not what one would call a workstation, but recently more and more workstation users are getting rid of their computers and get thin terminal box on their desk. This box is connected with terminal server and the user can send computing intensive jobs to compute servers. Installed grid software automatically chooses a computing server with required specifications and smallest load. What are the advantages of this solution:
- Better utilization of expensive processors and large memory sets
- Only server have to be upgraded, the user notices the increase of speed/capability without exchange of his hardware
- More place on user's desk and silent offices
- Terminal is OS-independent, that means it is possible to switch between several servers with different OSes, so no extra computer is required for Windows software and the issue of sending jobs for Linux or Solaris server is only a matter of a different parameter to the job sending command
- Terminal has no moving parts, it is quite stable and robust
- Data storage and backups can be better managed on server side
- Some terminals like Sun Ray allow the user to save his session token on a smart card, that means, that if he puts his smart card in every available terminal, the session is restored
Of course not every workstation user can use such solution. 3-D intensive tasks or multimedia programs require great graphic performance and small latency, which a server cannot provide due to limited bandwidth and latency of the network, but e.g. EDA software is perfectly suitable for such scenario.
Conclusion:
Lot of development has happened since the last article. The most noticeable point is certainly the incredible development of Linux, so that nowadays x86 64 bit workstations are probably the most common platform for technics-oriented user. The future of workstations which are using processors from server lines, which are still in production is considered to be safe, they're still needed as a development platform, but the combination of grid-software and thin terminal is very viable alternative to a desk-side system. The future of MacOSX as a system of professionals is quite uncertain, it depends on the support from Apple side during the transition period and their advertising of the advantages of MacOSX compared to Linux and Windows. This might be a hard task, since the OSes are now directly comparable with each other because they are running on the same hardware. Solaris 10 is while very technically advanced system, still the ISV's must be convinced that supporting of this platform is not a waste of resources, because Linux is already there. For me the most interesting approach is still the PRIZM platform, which is certainly usable for a small amount of workstation users, but the concept behind it is ahead of time. But as we know from the history, not always the best concept is accepted by the most buyers.
Disclaimer: All informations about the technical data of workstations have been taken from the product description pages of the manufacturers of these workstations
Last year I refused to call computers with x86 processor a workstation. 64 bitness for x86 processors was quite a new thing, the operating systems which were supporting this feature were not ready for production, the software packages from ISVs were not supporting 64 bit on these processors. This changed completely.
Today the definition of workstations might be as following: It's a mini-computer for a single user, with a processor, which can also be used for servers, with several gigabytes of memory, big storage, OpenGL-capable graphics system and UNIX or UNIX-like OS. I do not include Windows OS in this definition, because although there is a Windows XP Professional x64 Edition which supports x86 processors with 64 bit extension, there aren't lot of compatible drivers and the usage model of the OS is very different from all the other workstation OSes. This may change with the release of Windows Vista, because there will be a 64-bit version from the beginning with lot of drivers included and through the inclusion of Windows Services for UNIX (called SUA), which should make Windows OS a bit more UNIX like, so the user of traditional unices should become familiar with this OS.
So let see what platforms are still available today:
1. PowerPC 970 and POWER5+ with AIX5L and Linux from IBM
IBM defines its workstations as small server, which can also be used as a workstation. The main area of these workstations is Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. One of the most used software packages is CATIA, which is an engineering software package for mechanical engineers. IBM advertises explicitly the ability of running Linux and AIX5L on these workstations. There are several Linux distributions which support POWER processor and IBM is actively supporting porting of software for this platform. However there isn't lot of commercial software packages yet, which means that this kind of workstation might be used as development machine for the successful embedded PowerPC applications. IBM also does not recommend to use Linux on these workstations for 3D graphics, which underlines its status as development machine
Currently there are two workstation models available:
- IntelliStation POWER 185 Express
This workstation is equipped with 1-2 PowerPC 970 processors, the same processors as G5 for Apple's PowerMac. Each processor can have 2 cores, which are clocked with 2.5 GHz. The maximum memory expansion is 8 GB. Each processor has 1 MB second level cache memory, but no 3rd level cache memory. The graphics subsystem is proprietary IBM, it has 4 PCI-X and one PCI slot. This workstation is the cheapest workstation ever produced by IBM.
- IntelliStation POWER 285 Express
The processor in this workstation is POWER5+, which is the most recent processor also used in p- and iSeries of IBM servers. It can be chosen between 1 or 2 processors, each of them has 2 cores, which are clocked 1.9 or 2.1 GHz. Each processor has 1.9MB L2 and 36 MB of 3rd level cache. The total amount of memory can be up to 32 GB. It has 6 PCI-X slots and a proprietary graphics system.
It is not very certain, if there are plans for a successor of the PowerPC970. While the main customer of these processors Apple has abolished it, IBM is using PowerPC970 in its blades and in the IntelliStation. There are other customers who have plans to build computer systems based on this processor (most famous one is Genesi, who are building PowerPC based computers with Linux), but whether the demand is big enough for funding development of the next generation is more than uncertain. On the other side the success of PowerPC as embedded processor also creates a need for development platform. Wild speculations are rising around the Cell processor, which usage is discussed for multimedia workstations. Workstations which have 1-2 POWER processors remain in IBM products portfolio as long as AIX is alive.
2. Alpha with True64 UNIX/OpenVMS from HP
This platform is still offered for customers as a development solution for their servers with Alpha processors. The last orders for these servers at HP is October 27th, then this platform is officially dead (support offerings will continue for some years of course). No new workstation models are offered since the last article.
3. PA-RISC with HP-UX from HP
There is only one workstation available with this combination of processor and OS: the c8000, which also hasn't changed since last year. PA-RISC systems are still sold, although Itanium processor was meant as a replacement for them. But since Itanium is quite unpopular, HP's PA-RISC systems still remain in their product line. HP is one of the heaviest Linux promoters and certifies and offers x86 systems with latest Linux distributions pre-installed.
4. MIPS with Irix from SGI
SGI's MIPS workstation have not been updated since last year, and this is quite certain that no follow-up models will appear. The software, which has been running on these workstations can be used on SGI PRIZM series without further modification or recompilation.
5. Itanium with Linux from SGI
One of the main surprises this year is the appearance of a family of workstations called PRIZM from SGI, which are powered by combination of Itanium and Linux and are meant as a solution for virtualization of large data sets like in medical research, industries with demand for virtual reality, climate research and so on. PRIZM can be used as a workstation, but also can be connected into a cluster with single, system-wide shared memory, so several processors and graphic pipelines can be combined for virtualizing even larger data-sets. The workstation consists of 1-2 Itanium 2 processors, 1-2 graphic pipes (ATI FireGL cards), the main memory is expandable to 24 GB and it includes 6 PCI/PCI-X slots.
This is one of the technically most interesting solutions currently available. Itanium 2 processors are very fast on optimized software and their EPIC design fits exactly for the tasks, the PRIZM is used for, that means for high speed computation of large data-sets. The possibility of combination of several PRIZMs into one cluster with unified memory, where processor and graphic resources are simply recombined for larger tasks is something which makes it very unique in the world of IT. Unfortunately SGI is currently in financial troubles, so it is hard to say, if PRIZM will be further available in recent future.
6. SPARC with Solaris 10 from Sun
For the last few years the direction Sun is taking was pretty hard to explain. Sun tried out several options of changing its business and expand it in other areas. Currently the business model became more clear, but surprises still have to be expected. However Solaris workstations still remain in the product line, beside x86 based computers they are the most widespread "traditional" workstations. Their main usage is for CAD, CAE, CAM, EDA, JAVA development. The current line-up consists of three models:
- Sun Ultra 25
This workstation includes one UltraSPARC IIIi processor with 1.34 GHz and 1 MB of 2nd level cache. Maximum memory is 8 GB. This workstation offers 3 PCI-Express and two PCI-X slots, one of the PCI-Express slots is occupied by a XVR-2500 3-D graphics accelerator. The operating system is Solaris 10.
-Sun Ultra 45
Ultra 45 includes 1-2 UltraSPARC IIIi processors with 1.6 GHz. Maximum memory is 16 GB, other data equal with Ultra 25.
- Sun Ultra 3 Mobile
This is the only mobile workstation beside the top line of x86 laptops, which are very hard to find with Linux pre-installed or even supported. Mobile is a bit misleading, it can be transported, but it's not meant for work in the train on one's lap. It consists of 550-650 MHz UltraSPARC IIi or 1.2 GHz UltraSPACR IIIi processor, can have up to 2 GB memory and 80 GB of IDE internal disk storage. It has wireless LAN and 15-17-inch display. The main usage of this workstation is presenting something to the customer in a predefined environment or developing some server applications without having a server around. Although the performance of this workstation is very comparable with a desk-side workstation, it lacks a proper 3-D graphics accelerator, which makes all CA* packages unusable on it.
I think SPARC based workstation still have long life, as long, as Sun is producing SPARC-based servers, which is still bread-and-butter business for them. Interesting question arises which SPARC processor will they use for the next workstation. Niagara is certainly not optimized for desktop usage, it is quite hard to keep all the 8 cores busy with desktop applications. The floating point unit is also too weak for computation-intensive tasks. This might change with Niagara II, but still it is very unlikely that Sun will produce Niagara workstations. On the other side the processors Sun will develop with Fujitsu are very expensive server processors, which will rise the prize for the workstations equipped with them. I still speculate for SPARC IV+ based workstation in the next future.
7. Opteron with Solaris 10 from Sun
One attempt of expanding into other business areas for Sun was the introduction of Opteron based workstation which support Windows, Linux and Solaris 10. x86 based Solaris version has been always a kind of training OS where the system administrators could get some skills for working with real fat iron, which was SPARC based. This changed completely with introduction of Solaris10. Now several servers and workstations with Opteron processor are offered by Sun and they cover more and more areas which were exclusively reserved for SPARCs. Here is a workstation overview:
- Sun Ultra 20
One dual core Opteron processor with up to 2.4GHz, single core versions up to 2.8 GHz and 1 MB of 2nd level cache. 4 GB of RAM is maximum memory, 3 PCI-Express and 4 PCI slots. There is a wide variety of graphic controllers to be chosen from, beginning from ATI Rage XL PCI Controller with 8 MB of memory, ending with NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450 PCI Express with 128 MB of graphics RAM and support for two displays. The pre-installed OS is Solaris 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Microsoft Windows are officially supported by Sun.
- Sun Ultra 40
Two dual or single core Opterons, up to 32 GB of RAM, 2 PCI Express x16 slots, 2 PCI Express x4 slots and 2 legacy PCI slots. This allows to use the NVIDIA SLI technology where 2 graphic cards nearly double the graphical performance of the system.
With the opening of Solaris source code, it was required that Solaris can run on common hardware, so interested developers could download and install it easily on their hardware without the need of buying an expensive SPARC box. This attempt was very successful for Sun, Solaris is one of the well recognized OSes and the download numbers are impressive. However the ISVs of the workstation relevant software are very slow in adopting a new platform, even if Sun suggests, that supporting Solaris10 x86 requires only a recompilation of SPARC Solaris based program. More than one year after appearance of x86 Solaris 10 systems there is still no commercial software for workstations. Linux is considered as good enough solution, Solaris for x86 does not provide advantages which would justify the support of an extra platform. The situation might be different for servers, but currently though lot of open source software has been ported to Solaris x86, it is not a workstation platform with the bright variety of software. It might change in the future, but I'm personally quite skeptical about it. What I don't understand is why Sun is not providing an emulation layer for SPARC software on Opteron, like SGI and Apple are doing, just that the transition might become easier, and users of performance critical software can demand the portage of it. I think this would help a lot for the acceptance of Solaris/Opteron among workstation users.
8. PowerPC/Intel with MacOSX from Apple
Last year was very surprising for users of Macs. Steve Jobs announced a change of processor architecture for all Apple computers. New Inter-based PowerMacs (some rumor sites call them Mac Pro) will be probably announced at Apple Developer Conference in August. Though there is already a number of software packages available as universal binaries (which is a package consisting of two binaries, one for PowerPC, one for Intel x86), there is no professional software ported to the new architecture (expect software, which is developed by Apple itself). Adobe, which is the most important ISV for Mac, hasn't ported its software yet, it also remains unclear if the new Creative Suite version which includes the most important programs like Photoshop will support both architectures, or only the Intel one. There is also no ISV for the technical software, who considers porting its applications to MacOSX. So it has to be seen, whether Intel-based Mac platform will become a success among the professional users. It is also interesting to see, how Apple will support remaining PowerPC users who are not able to migrate because the application they're using is not available as x86 binary and emulation is too slow. Current policy of Apple is quite radical one, when an Intel model of Mac is available, the equivalent PowerPC system gets discontinued. Maybe this is OK for home users, but certainly not for professionals, who cannot migrate overnight and still need PowerPC based systems as a replacement for broken ones. If Apple cannot provide them, I suppose this can destroy lot of trust in Apple as professional users friendly company.
9. Opteron/Athlon/Xeon64ET with Linux from various manufacturers
This combination is still the most viable in the current workstation market. In the meantime lot of software, which was available on traditional UNIX 64-bit RISC platforms is ported to 64-bit Linux. One year ago 64-bit Linux was quite experimental, this changed completely, as RedHat and Novell are supporting it with their enterprise distributions. Lot of criticism regarding fast changes of Linux kernel and incompatible distributions are resolved by certifying only these two distributions. Recently Ubuntu also tries to become a distribution which is supported by the ISVs, but I think this will take lot of time and though Ubuntu is well received among home Linux users, it does not have such reputation across professionals. One major advantage which Linux has compared to the other UNIX OSes, is it's user friendly Desktop Environment (KDE or GNOME). It is really a shame, that all traditional UNIces (with the exception of Sun) still have the completely outdated CDE as default DE. One might argue that KDE and GNOME are also available for AIX or HP-UX, but they're not supported by the vendors and a normal user cannot install them, usually only system administrator is able to do this. So a normal user still has a working environment from the beginning on the 90th, which is outdated by any definition. This user friendliness and massive cost advantage will further spread Linux and nag on the user base of other solutions.
10. Thin terminals with server with grid software
This is certainly not what one would call a workstation, but recently more and more workstation users are getting rid of their computers and get thin terminal box on their desk. This box is connected with terminal server and the user can send computing intensive jobs to compute servers. Installed grid software automatically chooses a computing server with required specifications and smallest load. What are the advantages of this solution:
- Better utilization of expensive processors and large memory sets
- Only server have to be upgraded, the user notices the increase of speed/capability without exchange of his hardware
- More place on user's desk and silent offices
- Terminal is OS-independent, that means it is possible to switch between several servers with different OSes, so no extra computer is required for Windows software and the issue of sending jobs for Linux or Solaris server is only a matter of a different parameter to the job sending command
- Terminal has no moving parts, it is quite stable and robust
- Data storage and backups can be better managed on server side
- Some terminals like Sun Ray allow the user to save his session token on a smart card, that means, that if he puts his smart card in every available terminal, the session is restored
Of course not every workstation user can use such solution. 3-D intensive tasks or multimedia programs require great graphic performance and small latency, which a server cannot provide due to limited bandwidth and latency of the network, but e.g. EDA software is perfectly suitable for such scenario.
Conclusion:
Lot of development has happened since the last article. The most noticeable point is certainly the incredible development of Linux, so that nowadays x86 64 bit workstations are probably the most common platform for technics-oriented user. The future of workstations which are using processors from server lines, which are still in production is considered to be safe, they're still needed as a development platform, but the combination of grid-software and thin terminal is very viable alternative to a desk-side system. The future of MacOSX as a system of professionals is quite uncertain, it depends on the support from Apple side during the transition period and their advertising of the advantages of MacOSX compared to Linux and Windows. This might be a hard task, since the OSes are now directly comparable with each other because they are running on the same hardware. Solaris 10 is while very technically advanced system, still the ISV's must be convinced that supporting of this platform is not a waste of resources, because Linux is already there. For me the most interesting approach is still the PRIZM platform, which is certainly usable for a small amount of workstation users, but the concept behind it is ahead of time. But as we know from the history, not always the best concept is accepted by the most buyers.
Disclaimer: All informations about the technical data of workstations have been taken from the product description pages of the manufacturers of these workstations
A Take on the Workstation Market Today
Maybe you all know the old joke about the definition of a workstation: A trainstation is where a train stops, a bus station is where a bus stops, so a workstation ... In this article I will try to define the workstation market, the current models, what they are used for and some thoughts about their future.
Definition:
First the question, who is using a workstation and what is it used for:
Main areas of usage are CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), CAE (Computer Aided Engineering), EDA (Electronical Design Automatisation). Scientists are using worksations for visualizing big data sets or running simulations. Architects are using workstions for constructing new houses, bridges, tunnels and other buildings. Medicals are using workstations for vizualising data they recieve from computer tomograph. Geologists use them for carthography and research for oil and gas deposits explorations. Workstations were the first computers which were capable of processing 3D, which was not only interesting for technical purposes, but also fascinating for artists like Timothy Leary. Financal analysts need them for going through different market scenarios. Workstations are also used for multimedia creation, they are capable of processing high quality audio and video. Software developers are using workstations, if they write software for servers they will find the same environement, so their programs are garanted to run on server, like they do on the workstation. Of course there are lots of other areas where workstations are necessary for everydays work.
What is a workstation:
Till the beginning of the 90th, it was quite an easy task to define a workstation. The cheapest and most spreaded computers were "home computers" from Acorn, Amiga and Atari. IBM-compatible PCs were running MS-DOS, Windows or OS/2 and were used in the offices for text processing or cheat calculations. Apple was used for artist works (at that time multimedia was a spread term, but hardly anyone knew what this is) and DTP. The workstation was one level above. It was a desktop computer for a single user, which had an UNIX-OS and a RISC-CPU. They were expensive beasts (not seldom several ten thousands dollars), so only companies and universities could afford them. The situation changed in the next few years, first Microsoft introduced Windows NT on the market, which was advertised as a workstation OS and second Linux arised from nothere. These both OSes were mainly running on IBM-compatible PCs, which became cheaper but more powerful every year. So at the beginning of the 21th century the border blurred, every big computer maker has offeres workstations which are mostly IBM-compatible PCs with the most recent Windows for Professionals version or RedHat for Workstations, which are better equipped then the average PC customer can buy in computer shops round the corner. They are much more affordable then the workstations a decade ago.
Nevertheless nowadays there still are criterias which separate a workstation from the rest of the computer market. For doing the jobs described above, the computers must be 64-bit capable, OpenGL-capable, the ISVs must provide software for this platform. 64-bitness is necessary because the data volumes a workstation has to handle exceed 4 GB memory space and often 64 bit accuracy is required. OpenGL is still the standart for professional graphics, since DirectX is not available for UNIX-platforms. The third point is very important as well because the software which is used on the workstation is very complex and were developed by the companies for several years so it is not easy to port or rewrite such software for a new platform). The licenses for that kind of software costs usually several thousands dollars ANNUALLY because of quite narrow circle of users (compared to MS Office for example), required support because of its complexity, and demands on this software from the point of its stability (as few crashes as possible even during processing a large amount of data) and accuracy. If we look at the available computers regarding these points, only few platforms are still left:
1. POWER 4+ with AIX5L from IBM:
AIX5L is one of the traditional UNIX-OSes it was certified as UNIX-2003 compliant by the Open Group (in fact it is the only OS which received this brand yet). IBM promotes this platform for CAD, especially because of the Catia software but it is also used for EDA (Cadence or IBM-owned software). POWER is a RISC processor developed by IBM and used in p- and iSeries of their server lines. Currently there are two workstations available:
- IntelliStation POWER 275 This workstation is equipped with single 1.0-1.45 GHz POWER4+ processor, Since this processor is 2-way, the entry edition of this model has one core disabled, which is not always a disadvantage, because the remaining core has access to the whole 8MB 3rd level cache. This model has up to 12 GB of memory and two SCSI harddisks, the graphics adapter has up to 128 MB video RAM.
- p630 Model 6E4: This is mainly a server, which has a better graphics card plugged in, so it became a workstation. Different to the same server it is not certified for Linux usage because of the proprietary graphic card.
The future for this platform is not easy to foresee. On one side IBM is very active Linux supporter, but IBM also is known for supporting old platforms as long as the customer pay for them (like mainframes), so I think AIX will have a long life. More likely the entry server will spend a better graphic card (not necessary from IBM, but from NVidia or ATI or 3D Labs), so it will become Linux-compliant and maybe ISVs will be convinced to port their software to Linux on POWER. AIX is able to execute Linux software, but it still has to be compiled for POWER or at least for PowerPC.
2. Alpha with Tru64 UNIX from HP
Alpha has an interesting history, first it was designed by Digital, as a replacement for PDP series. This processor was quite succesfull, since WindowsNT was ported on it and with an emulator FX!32 it was possible to run Windows x86 binaries on it. Few will remember the advertisings in computer stores, of selling a 600 MHz workstation at the time when Pentiums just reached 100MHz wall. Alpha is a very clean architecture, even too clean, the first models did not even support a byte, because it seems to be unneeded in a 64 bit world (later the support was added though). The rest is history, Digital was bought by Compaq, Compaq was bought by HP and HP declared Alpha and Tru64 Unix as dead. There are still offerings for Alpha workstations on HP page, but I don't think that someone will start his business using Alpha, so they are mainly for business, which are still using Alpha and have not converted to another platform yet. Alphas were used mainly in finacial centers, and for number cranching, simulations.
- HP AlphaStation DS15
Single 1GHz prozessor, 2MB Cache, 4GB RAM, 2GB/s Memory peak, ATI Radeon Graphic card (up to 4 in one system)
- HP AlphaStation DS25
Up to two 1GHz processors, 16GB RAM, 8GB/s Memory peak
- HP AlphaStation ES47
Up to two 1GHz EV7 processors, 8 GB RAM, 12.8GB/s I/O bandwith, 1.75 on-chip cache/processor
Linux has been ported to Alphas but since it is not commercially supported it is, there is no commercial software available. Tru64 was famous for its clustering capabilities, once HP promised to port them to HP-UX, but now sold them to Veritas, which was bought by McAfee, so no one really knows, what will happen with the rest of this software and hardware.
3. PA-RISC with HP-UX from HP
The history here is quite similiar to Alpha. HP will abandon PA-RISC in favour of Itanium. But HP has stopped its Itanium workstation line, so the valid question is, how will I be able to use HP-UX on a workstation? HP-UX was widely used in all workstation-relevant areas, beside Solaris and AIX this was the third platform which ISVs could not ignore when they claimed their software is running on UNIX. PA-RISC was the champion in integrating caches on-chip. It was the first chip which had 8 MB on-chip cache and became a 100 Mio gates monster. These workstations are still available from HP:
- HP b2600
Single 500 MHz PA-8600 processor 4GB RAM, HP fx5 pro Graphic card
- HP c3700
Single 750 MHz PA-8700 processor with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 8GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
- HP c3750
Single 875 MHz PA-8700+ processor with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 8GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
-HP j6750
Up to two 875 MHz PA-8700+ processors with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 16GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
- HP c8000
Up to two 900-1000 MHz PA-8800 dual-core processors, ATI FireGL Graphic card, 32GB RAM, 8xAGP slot
4. MIPS with Irix from SGI
SGI is famous for its graphics workstation, like O2 and Octane. For lang time they were unbeaten when it came to vizualising of large data-sets, 3D-graphics and image processing. Irix was the most comfortable UNIX-system to use, far ahead CDE which is still standart at IBM and HP. SGIs were used by medicals, by film studios, by military and geologists. In recent time SGI decided to drop MIPS and continue with Itanium. They use an emulator which allows running IRIX software on Itanium Linux. There is still two workstations with MIPS-IRIX combination available:
- Silicon Graphics Fuel
Single MIPS R16000A 700-800 MHz processor with 4MB 2nd level cache, 4 GB RAM, V12 Graphic Card with 128 Video RAM (104 MB can be texture memory)
- Silicon Graphics Terzo
Up to 4 MIPS R16000A 800 MHz processors with 4MB 2nd level cache, 16GB RAM and two V12 Graphic Boards
There are rumors about an Itanium workstation, based on their technology used for the succesful Altrix server line, but we have to wait. With the emulation technolgy, they will be able to run all the software they used on MIPS, but we have to see how fast this emulation works
5. SPARC with Solaris from Sun
I think every student of computer sciences had experiences with Sun workstations (Ultra1-10). These workstations were very popular at universities until Linux came up, which was more affordable for small budgets of todays universities. Sun workstations are still very widely used in every area, they are famous for their stability and there is a famous joke which has a lot of truth in it: Sun workstation is slow, Sun workstation with ten users on it is still slow. In recent times Sun had tough competition from x86 market, so they had to introduce workstations with Opteron processors from AMD, which execute x86 code, but they also have 64-bit extension, so they can handle more then 4GB memery/process (all solutions with 32bit processors with extended memory could not provide that) and they can compute 64bit integers in one step. Solaris 10 will also be the first non-Open Source OS which supports these extensions. One very clever step is the Janus technology which allows to run Linux binaries with Solaris 10. So ISVs will not have to provide additional binaries for Solaris 10 x86. However the question remains if the ISVs will support with combination or just certify their software with RedHat Linux and maybe Novell as they are doing today. So here we have SPARC workstations:
- Sun Blade 150
Single 550-650 MHz UltraSPARC IIi, 512 KB 2nd level cache on-chip, 2 GB RAM
- Sun Blade 1500
Single 1 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi, 1 MB 2nd level cache on-chip, 4 GB RAM
- Sun Blade 2500
Up to two 1.28 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi each with 1 MB 2nd level cache on-chip, 8 GB RAM
here are the Opteron based ones:
- Sun Java Workstation W2100z
Two 200-series 1.8-2.4 GHz AMD Opteron, 16 GB RAM with 12.8GB/s bandwith
-Sun Java Workstation W1100z
Single 100-series 1.8-2.4 GHz AMD Opteron, 16 GB RAM with 12.8GB/s bandwith
It is interesting to see what happens with SPARC based workstations in the next future. My prediction is, that they will be upgraded with 2-way SPARCIV processor, but then all the processors on Sun roadmap like Niagara are server-oriented, so noone at Sun could tell me, what happens with workstations then, but probably they don't know it themselves. First they will see how the market accepts Opteron-based workstations and Solaris 10 for x86 and then further decissions will be taken, but with probably long transition time
6. PowerPC with MacOSX from Apple
Since the introduction of very UNIX-like OSX and 64-bit G5, Apple can be counted as a workstation manufacturer. However, none of classical ISVs has ported any software for CAD, CAM, EDA ... to MacOSX. Areas where MacOSX is strong are bioinformatics and multimedia. MacOSX is also becoming popular among scientists, so lot of mathematic, numerical software has been ported. Since this is the most viable platform beside Linux and most popular UNIX-like platform on the desktop it would be really great if ISVs, which write software for traditional workstation platform would consider to port their software to MacOSX as well. PowerPC processor has been developed by the Apple, Motorola and IBM alliance, G5 is mostly a single core POWER4 processor. Here are the workstations:
- PowerMac G5 Single 1.8 GHz
Single G5 1.8 GHz, 600MHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache, 4 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz
Dual G5 1.8 GHz, 900 MHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 4 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz
Dual G5 2.0 GHz, 1 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz
Dual G5 2.0 GHz, 1 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 GHz
Dual G5 2.5 GHz, 1.25 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 XT with 128MB video memory
7. Itanium with Linux/Windows from various manufactors
Since HP was the largest producer of Itanium workstations, but stopped their further development and sales, the destiny of Itanium as a workstion processor is very uncertain. As a consequence Microsoft has stopped further development of Windows for Workstations for Itanium (Windows for Itanium servers is still available). Linux on Itanium is available from several distributors, but will be mainly used as a development workstation for HPC servers
8. Opteron/Athlon/Xeon64ET with Linux/Windows from various manufactors
This combinations is most viable in the current workstation market. But still very few ISV closed-source software is 64-bit ready for this platform. However, it will take 1-2 years till the most needed software will become available. Due to the mass production this platform is very cheap (compared with other platform with exception of MacOSX) and will have the most developers and users. All big and small computer manufactors are selling such systems. Several Linux distributions are available for these systems and Microsoft promised to release the so called x64 Windows version this year.
Conclusion:
In this article we saw a bright variety of different systems, which were used for different areas in production. Some of these systems are still alive and kicking (Solaris, AIX, MacOSX), some will become discontinued in the near future (Tru64, HP-UX, Irix), someones future is uncertain (Itanium) and some are still not ready for production (x86 with 64-bit extensions). All the remaining systems are more or less capable of executing Linux software, so I expect that Linux executables format will become standart in the future and all other OSes will become LSB compliant. However, every combination of OS and processor is a great piece of technology, so everytime it is a pity seeing a technology dissapear.
About the Author:
I work in Munich for one of three biggest EDA ISVs my hobby are different hardware systems and cutting edge IT. My favourite combination is PowerPC with MacOSX, which I use at home and Solaris with SPARC, which I use at work.
Disclaimer: All informations about the technical data of workstations have been taken from the product description pages of the manufactors of these workstations.
Definition:
First the question, who is using a workstation and what is it used for:
Main areas of usage are CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), CAE (Computer Aided Engineering), EDA (Electronical Design Automatisation). Scientists are using worksations for visualizing big data sets or running simulations. Architects are using workstions for constructing new houses, bridges, tunnels and other buildings. Medicals are using workstations for vizualising data they recieve from computer tomograph. Geologists use them for carthography and research for oil and gas deposits explorations. Workstations were the first computers which were capable of processing 3D, which was not only interesting for technical purposes, but also fascinating for artists like Timothy Leary. Financal analysts need them for going through different market scenarios. Workstations are also used for multimedia creation, they are capable of processing high quality audio and video. Software developers are using workstations, if they write software for servers they will find the same environement, so their programs are garanted to run on server, like they do on the workstation. Of course there are lots of other areas where workstations are necessary for everydays work.
What is a workstation:
Till the beginning of the 90th, it was quite an easy task to define a workstation. The cheapest and most spreaded computers were "home computers" from Acorn, Amiga and Atari. IBM-compatible PCs were running MS-DOS, Windows or OS/2 and were used in the offices for text processing or cheat calculations. Apple was used for artist works (at that time multimedia was a spread term, but hardly anyone knew what this is) and DTP. The workstation was one level above. It was a desktop computer for a single user, which had an UNIX-OS and a RISC-CPU. They were expensive beasts (not seldom several ten thousands dollars), so only companies and universities could afford them. The situation changed in the next few years, first Microsoft introduced Windows NT on the market, which was advertised as a workstation OS and second Linux arised from nothere. These both OSes were mainly running on IBM-compatible PCs, which became cheaper but more powerful every year. So at the beginning of the 21th century the border blurred, every big computer maker has offeres workstations which are mostly IBM-compatible PCs with the most recent Windows for Professionals version or RedHat for Workstations, which are better equipped then the average PC customer can buy in computer shops round the corner. They are much more affordable then the workstations a decade ago.
Nevertheless nowadays there still are criterias which separate a workstation from the rest of the computer market. For doing the jobs described above, the computers must be 64-bit capable, OpenGL-capable, the ISVs must provide software for this platform. 64-bitness is necessary because the data volumes a workstation has to handle exceed 4 GB memory space and often 64 bit accuracy is required. OpenGL is still the standart for professional graphics, since DirectX is not available for UNIX-platforms. The third point is very important as well because the software which is used on the workstation is very complex and were developed by the companies for several years so it is not easy to port or rewrite such software for a new platform). The licenses for that kind of software costs usually several thousands dollars ANNUALLY because of quite narrow circle of users (compared to MS Office for example), required support because of its complexity, and demands on this software from the point of its stability (as few crashes as possible even during processing a large amount of data) and accuracy. If we look at the available computers regarding these points, only few platforms are still left:
1. POWER 4+ with AIX5L from IBM:
AIX5L is one of the traditional UNIX-OSes it was certified as UNIX-2003 compliant by the Open Group (in fact it is the only OS which received this brand yet). IBM promotes this platform for CAD, especially because of the Catia software but it is also used for EDA (Cadence or IBM-owned software). POWER is a RISC processor developed by IBM and used in p- and iSeries of their server lines. Currently there are two workstations available:
- IntelliStation POWER 275 This workstation is equipped with single 1.0-1.45 GHz POWER4+ processor, Since this processor is 2-way, the entry edition of this model has one core disabled, which is not always a disadvantage, because the remaining core has access to the whole 8MB 3rd level cache. This model has up to 12 GB of memory and two SCSI harddisks, the graphics adapter has up to 128 MB video RAM.
- p630 Model 6E4: This is mainly a server, which has a better graphics card plugged in, so it became a workstation. Different to the same server it is not certified for Linux usage because of the proprietary graphic card.
The future for this platform is not easy to foresee. On one side IBM is very active Linux supporter, but IBM also is known for supporting old platforms as long as the customer pay for them (like mainframes), so I think AIX will have a long life. More likely the entry server will spend a better graphic card (not necessary from IBM, but from NVidia or ATI or 3D Labs), so it will become Linux-compliant and maybe ISVs will be convinced to port their software to Linux on POWER. AIX is able to execute Linux software, but it still has to be compiled for POWER or at least for PowerPC.
2. Alpha with Tru64 UNIX from HP
Alpha has an interesting history, first it was designed by Digital, as a replacement for PDP series. This processor was quite succesfull, since WindowsNT was ported on it and with an emulator FX!32 it was possible to run Windows x86 binaries on it. Few will remember the advertisings in computer stores, of selling a 600 MHz workstation at the time when Pentiums just reached 100MHz wall. Alpha is a very clean architecture, even too clean, the first models did not even support a byte, because it seems to be unneeded in a 64 bit world (later the support was added though). The rest is history, Digital was bought by Compaq, Compaq was bought by HP and HP declared Alpha and Tru64 Unix as dead. There are still offerings for Alpha workstations on HP page, but I don't think that someone will start his business using Alpha, so they are mainly for business, which are still using Alpha and have not converted to another platform yet. Alphas were used mainly in finacial centers, and for number cranching, simulations.
- HP AlphaStation DS15
Single 1GHz prozessor, 2MB Cache, 4GB RAM, 2GB/s Memory peak, ATI Radeon Graphic card (up to 4 in one system)
- HP AlphaStation DS25
Up to two 1GHz processors, 16GB RAM, 8GB/s Memory peak
- HP AlphaStation ES47
Up to two 1GHz EV7 processors, 8 GB RAM, 12.8GB/s I/O bandwith, 1.75 on-chip cache/processor
Linux has been ported to Alphas but since it is not commercially supported it is, there is no commercial software available. Tru64 was famous for its clustering capabilities, once HP promised to port them to HP-UX, but now sold them to Veritas, which was bought by McAfee, so no one really knows, what will happen with the rest of this software and hardware.
3. PA-RISC with HP-UX from HP
The history here is quite similiar to Alpha. HP will abandon PA-RISC in favour of Itanium. But HP has stopped its Itanium workstation line, so the valid question is, how will I be able to use HP-UX on a workstation? HP-UX was widely used in all workstation-relevant areas, beside Solaris and AIX this was the third platform which ISVs could not ignore when they claimed their software is running on UNIX. PA-RISC was the champion in integrating caches on-chip. It was the first chip which had 8 MB on-chip cache and became a 100 Mio gates monster. These workstations are still available from HP:
- HP b2600
Single 500 MHz PA-8600 processor 4GB RAM, HP fx5 pro Graphic card
- HP c3700
Single 750 MHz PA-8700 processor with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 8GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
- HP c3750
Single 875 MHz PA-8700+ processor with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 8GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
-HP j6750
Up to two 875 MHz PA-8700+ processors with 2.25Mb on-chip cache, 16GB RAM, HP Fire GL-UX Graphic card
- HP c8000
Up to two 900-1000 MHz PA-8800 dual-core processors, ATI FireGL Graphic card, 32GB RAM, 8xAGP slot
4. MIPS with Irix from SGI
SGI is famous for its graphics workstation, like O2 and Octane. For lang time they were unbeaten when it came to vizualising of large data-sets, 3D-graphics and image processing. Irix was the most comfortable UNIX-system to use, far ahead CDE which is still standart at IBM and HP. SGIs were used by medicals, by film studios, by military and geologists. In recent time SGI decided to drop MIPS and continue with Itanium. They use an emulator which allows running IRIX software on Itanium Linux. There is still two workstations with MIPS-IRIX combination available:
- Silicon Graphics Fuel
Single MIPS R16000A 700-800 MHz processor with 4MB 2nd level cache, 4 GB RAM, V12 Graphic Card with 128 Video RAM (104 MB can be texture memory)
- Silicon Graphics Terzo
Up to 4 MIPS R16000A 800 MHz processors with 4MB 2nd level cache, 16GB RAM and two V12 Graphic Boards
There are rumors about an Itanium workstation, based on their technology used for the succesful Altrix server line, but we have to wait. With the emulation technolgy, they will be able to run all the software they used on MIPS, but we have to see how fast this emulation works
5. SPARC with Solaris from Sun
I think every student of computer sciences had experiences with Sun workstations (Ultra1-10). These workstations were very popular at universities until Linux came up, which was more affordable for small budgets of todays universities. Sun workstations are still very widely used in every area, they are famous for their stability and there is a famous joke which has a lot of truth in it: Sun workstation is slow, Sun workstation with ten users on it is still slow. In recent times Sun had tough competition from x86 market, so they had to introduce workstations with Opteron processors from AMD, which execute x86 code, but they also have 64-bit extension, so they can handle more then 4GB memery/process (all solutions with 32bit processors with extended memory could not provide that) and they can compute 64bit integers in one step. Solaris 10 will also be the first non-Open Source OS which supports these extensions. One very clever step is the Janus technology which allows to run Linux binaries with Solaris 10. So ISVs will not have to provide additional binaries for Solaris 10 x86. However the question remains if the ISVs will support with combination or just certify their software with RedHat Linux and maybe Novell as they are doing today. So here we have SPARC workstations:
- Sun Blade 150
Single 550-650 MHz UltraSPARC IIi, 512 KB 2nd level cache on-chip, 2 GB RAM
- Sun Blade 1500
Single 1 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi, 1 MB 2nd level cache on-chip, 4 GB RAM
- Sun Blade 2500
Up to two 1.28 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi each with 1 MB 2nd level cache on-chip, 8 GB RAM
here are the Opteron based ones:
- Sun Java Workstation W2100z
Two 200-series 1.8-2.4 GHz AMD Opteron, 16 GB RAM with 12.8GB/s bandwith
-Sun Java Workstation W1100z
Single 100-series 1.8-2.4 GHz AMD Opteron, 16 GB RAM with 12.8GB/s bandwith
It is interesting to see what happens with SPARC based workstations in the next future. My prediction is, that they will be upgraded with 2-way SPARCIV processor, but then all the processors on Sun roadmap like Niagara are server-oriented, so noone at Sun could tell me, what happens with workstations then, but probably they don't know it themselves. First they will see how the market accepts Opteron-based workstations and Solaris 10 for x86 and then further decissions will be taken, but with probably long transition time
6. PowerPC with MacOSX from Apple
Since the introduction of very UNIX-like OSX and 64-bit G5, Apple can be counted as a workstation manufacturer. However, none of classical ISVs has ported any software for CAD, CAM, EDA ... to MacOSX. Areas where MacOSX is strong are bioinformatics and multimedia. MacOSX is also becoming popular among scientists, so lot of mathematic, numerical software has been ported. Since this is the most viable platform beside Linux and most popular UNIX-like platform on the desktop it would be really great if ISVs, which write software for traditional workstation platform would consider to port their software to MacOSX as well. PowerPC processor has been developed by the Apple, Motorola and IBM alliance, G5 is mostly a single core POWER4 processor. Here are the workstations:
- PowerMac G5 Single 1.8 GHz
Single G5 1.8 GHz, 600MHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache, 4 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz
Dual G5 1.8 GHz, 900 MHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 4 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz
Dual G5 2.0 GHz, 1 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz
Dual G5 2.0 GHz, 1 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB video memory
- PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 GHz
Dual G5 2.5 GHz, 1.25 GHz frontside bus, 512 KB 2nd level cache / processor, 8 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 XT with 128MB video memory
7. Itanium with Linux/Windows from various manufactors
Since HP was the largest producer of Itanium workstations, but stopped their further development and sales, the destiny of Itanium as a workstion processor is very uncertain. As a consequence Microsoft has stopped further development of Windows for Workstations for Itanium (Windows for Itanium servers is still available). Linux on Itanium is available from several distributors, but will be mainly used as a development workstation for HPC servers
8. Opteron/Athlon/Xeon64ET with Linux/Windows from various manufactors
This combinations is most viable in the current workstation market. But still very few ISV closed-source software is 64-bit ready for this platform. However, it will take 1-2 years till the most needed software will become available. Due to the mass production this platform is very cheap (compared with other platform with exception of MacOSX) and will have the most developers and users. All big and small computer manufactors are selling such systems. Several Linux distributions are available for these systems and Microsoft promised to release the so called x64 Windows version this year.
Conclusion:
In this article we saw a bright variety of different systems, which were used for different areas in production. Some of these systems are still alive and kicking (Solaris, AIX, MacOSX), some will become discontinued in the near future (Tru64, HP-UX, Irix), someones future is uncertain (Itanium) and some are still not ready for production (x86 with 64-bit extensions). All the remaining systems are more or less capable of executing Linux software, so I expect that Linux executables format will become standart in the future and all other OSes will become LSB compliant. However, every combination of OS and processor is a great piece of technology, so everytime it is a pity seeing a technology dissapear.
About the Author:
I work in Munich for one of three biggest EDA ISVs my hobby are different hardware systems and cutting edge IT. My favourite combination is PowerPC with MacOSX, which I use at home and Solaris with SPARC, which I use at work.
Disclaimer: All informations about the technical data of workstations have been taken from the product description pages of the manufactors of these workstations.
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