Thread-Level Parallelism - Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach - page 401

Figure 5.27 shows the key characteristics of four multicore processors designed for server
applications. The Intel Xeon is based on the same design as the i7, but it has more cores, a
slightly slower clock rate (power is the limitation), and a larger L3 cache. The AMD Opteron
and desktop Phenom share the same basic core, while the SUN T2 is related to the SUN T1
T1we encountered in Chapter 3 . The Power7 is an extension of the Power5 with more cores and
bigger caches.
FIGURE 5.27 Summary of the characteristics of four recent high-end multicore pro-
cessors (2010 releases) designed for servers . The table includes the highest core count
versions of these processors; there are versions with lower core counts and higher clock rates
for several of these processors. The L3 in the IBM Power7 can be all shared or partitioned in-
to faster private regions dedicated to individual cores. We include only single-chip implement-
ations of multicores.
First, we compare the performance and performance scalability of three of these multicore
processors (omiting the AMD Opteron where insuicient data are available) when conigured
as multichip multiprocessors.
In addition to how these three microprocessors differ in their emphasis on ILP versus TLP,
there are significant differences in their target markets. Thus, our focus will be less on compar-