Microprocessor server benchmarks seen as irrelevant

Microprocessor server benchmarks seen as irrelevant

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Server design--and by extension microprocessorand component considerations--are now driven by new-media companiessuch as Facebook and Google, whose system specifications rendertraditional benchmarks useless.

That was the word this week from panelists at ARMTechCon here exploring the future of big computing andits impact on semiconductor design.

"J.P. Morgan is one of the largest consumers of compute on earth,"said Andrew Feldman, CEO of AMD acquisition Seamicro and now head ofAMD's Data Center Server Solutions. "They're one of the top 10buyers of CPUs. They're a 130 year-old company."

"In Facebook's fifth year they bought the same amount of compute--intheir fifth year," he added. "It's at that type of company where thebattle is going to rage. That's where price-per-unit-compute,compute-per-watt will move to the fore. Those are the dimensions thebattle will take place on. And they'll take place...not overabstract benchmarks, but the exact work that these companies haveand need."

The panel took place against the backdropof AMD allying with ARM to drive into the server marketin the coming years, where power consumption has become an enormousissues in massive server farms that drive digital commerce. There,the question arose as to what the role of traditional benchmarks isin a world where power consumption can make or break a deal.

"Traditional benchmarks are about defining headroom and performanceper dollar," said Karl Freund, vice president of marketing withARM-based server company Calxeda. "In the new world, it's notperformance per dollar; it's supporting number of users at a givenservice level at the least capital and operationg expense. In thattype of world, there's a smaller role for benchmarks."

Manufacturing profit
"Traditional enterprise guys are not going to look at ARM first. Thepeople who will use ARM first...almost every one of them usescomputer to manufacture profit. If you use compute to manufactureprofit, you are always and every day interested in how you canimprove the efficiency of your ability to manufacture profit. Thatclass of customers will move first. Customers who use compute to doIT will move last. If you look at those two markets, those who usecompute to generate profit are growing many hundreds of times fasterthan the other segments of the market."

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