Selecting Server Processors to Reduce Total Cost - Bitpipe

Selecting Server Processors to Reduce Total Cost

IT@Intel Brief Intel Information Technology Computer Manufacturing Server TCO

Intel IT is standardizing on Intel® Xeon® processor X5570

March 2009

(2.93 GHz) for two-socket servers for design computing and enterprise server virtualization. Our testing and

• High-end processors reduce server TCO by 42 percent compared to low-end processors

analysis demonstrates that the newest high-end Intel® Xeon® processors based on Next-Generation Intel®

With the introduction of the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based platforms, the benefits we are seeing from our IT strategy to standardize on higher-end processors for our servers purchases is even more compelling and results in a significantly lower TCO. — Diane Bryant Chief Information Officer Intel Corporation

Profile: Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series

Microarchitecture (Nehalem) can significantly enhance server performance, providing an opportunity for Intel IT to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by 42 percent.

• High-end processors deliver up to 87 percent faster performance

We compared the high-end Intel Xeon processor X5570 (2.93 GHz) with the low-end Intel® Xeon® processor E5504 (2.0 GHz) for two Intel IT computing environments: design and enterprise. In real-world application testing with Intel’s electronic design automation (EDA) workloads, two-socket servers based on the 2.93GHz processor delivered the same performance for an estimated 42 percent lower TCO over four years, as shown in Figure 1. For enterprise computing, analysis confirmed a similar relationship: A two-socket server based on the 2.93-GHz processor delivered 87 percent better performance for an estimated 8 percent increase in TCO. Our analysis demonstrated to Intel IT management and purchasing groups that software acquisition and licensing costs—which represent 3x to 6x the cost of the hardware platform—are the largest components of overall TCO for servers deployed at Intel. Because of this, standardizing on high-end processors is a costeffective way for Intel IT to maximize server return on investment (ROI).

13 Servers

7 Servers

10:45 10:41

104

3,367

1.00x

1.00x

2,562

56

1% Decrease in Runtime

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 (2.0 GHz)

Intel® Xeon® Processor X5570 (2.93 GHz)

Runtime (MM:SS)

0.54x

0.58x

46% Fewer Application Licenses

24% Reduction in Power Consumption

46% Lower Data Center Costs

42% Lower TCO

EDA Application Licenses (Number of Licenses)

Power Consumption (Watts)

Data Center Space and Network Connectivity

Total Cost of Ownership

Figure 1. Electronic design automation (EDA) throughput and total cost of ownership (TCO). In tests with real Intel EDA workloads, we required fewer servers based on high-end processors to achieve the same performance. This resulted fewer EDA application licenses; reduced data center power, space, and connectivity requirements; and substantially lower estimated TCO. Intel internal measurements, February 2009.

Table 1. Mainstream Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series Segments Basic

Standard

Advanced

Intel’s worldwide computing environment includes more than 90,000

CPU Frequency

2.0 GHz to 2.13 GHz 2.26 GHz to 2.53 GHz 2.66 GHz to 2.93 GHz

CPU Power

80 W

80 W

95 W

QPI

4.8 GT/S

5.86 GT/S

6.4 GT/S

70 percent of these servers are used for designing Intel® products, with

CPU Cache Size

4 MB

8 MB

8 MB

the remaining 30 percent used for enterprise computing.

Memory Speed

800 MHz

800/1066 MHz

800/1066/1333 MHz

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

No

Yes

Yes

Intel® HT Technology

No

Yes

Yes

194

187

201

237

231

software including OS, applications, and middleware; and data center costs including power and cooling—over the expected life of the servers.

We performed an evaluation focused exclusively on processor selection within the new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series to determine which offers the greatest opportunity to reduce TCO: high-end or low-end processors.

150 100

we analyze both performance and TCO—taking into account platform cost;

Assessing Processors for TCO Impacts

250 200

We refresh thousands of servers each year based on a four-year refresh technology investment. To determine the optimum servers for our needs,

Enterprise Computing Performance 224

servers and supports more than 80,000 employees worldwide. About

cycle, with a focus on maximizing ROI and business value from each

GT/S – Gigatransfers/Second; Intel® HT – Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology; QPI – Intel® QuickPath Interconnect

SPECint_rate2006* Performance Score

Intel Computing Environment Overview

133

127

87% Performance Improvement from Low- to High-End Processors

We compared performance and TCO of two-socket servers based on mainstream 80-watt and 95-watt Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.

50

Within this series, there are three segments—basic, standard, and advanced—with different levels of features that increase performance,

0 E5504

E5506

E5520

E5530

Basic

E5540

X5550

Standard

X5560

X5570

Advanced

as shown in Table 1. We evaluated processors ranging from Intel Xeon processor E5504 (basic, 2 GHz) at the low end to Intel Xeon processor

Figure 2. In our enterprise computing analysis, there was an 87 percent performance difference between the server based on low-end Intel® Xeon® processor E5504 (2 GHz) and the server based on high-end Intel® Xeon® processor X5570 (2.93 GHz). Intel internal measurements, February 2009. Four-Year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Estimates

X5570 (advanced, 2.93 GHz) at the high end. We performed separate comparisons for design and for enterprise computing. Both included four-year TCO elements: • Hardware platforms. We based our analysis on mainstream two-socket rack-mounted servers from major manufacturers. • Software. We included license and maintenance cost of software including OS, applications, middleware, security products, backup and restore, storage area network (SAN) connectivity, and manageability (monitoring, alerting, compliance, patching, and provisioning).

8% Increase in TCO

• Data center. We included data center power, cooling, and network connectivity costs.

Enterprise Computing E5504

E5506

E5520

Basic

E5530

E5540

Standard

X5550

X5560

X5570

Advanced

Data Center Server Hardware Software License - Maintenance (OS, Applications, Management, Security, SAN, etc.)

CPU 2.00 GHz 2.13 GHz 2.26 GHz 2.40 GHz 2.53 GHz 2.66 GHz 2.80 GHz 2.93 GHz

GT/s – Gigatransfers/Second; QPI – Intel® QuickPath Interconnect

Memory Speed 800 MHz 800 MHz 1060 MHz 1060 MHz 1060 MHz 1333 MHz 1333 MHz 1333 MHz

QPI 4.8 GT/s 4.8 GT/s 5.86 GT/s 5.86 GT/s 5.86 GT/s 6.40 GT/s 6.40 GT/s 6.40 GT/s

pricing, estimates of system pricing, and publicly available industrystandard performance benchmark tests.

Figure 3. In our enterprise computing analysis, selecting a high-end processor increased estimated server total cost of ownership (TCO) by only eight percent. Software typically averages 3x to 6x the cost of the server hardware. Intel internal measurements, February 2009. Processor Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Intel® Xeon® Processor E5506 Intel® Xeon® Processor E5520 Intel® Xeon® Processor E5530 Intel® Xeon® Processor E5540 Intel® Xeon® Processor X5550 Intel® Xeon® Processor X5560 Intel® Xeon® Processor X5570

For our enterprise computing analysis, we used published Intel CPU

Cache 4 MB 4 MB 8 MB 8 MB 8 MB 8 MB 8 MB 8 MB

Intel IT uses a diverse set of enterprise applications for enterprise resource planning (ERP), finance, collaboration, productivity, and more. Rather than test the performance of each application, we selected published results of SPECint_rate2006* benchmark tests conducted by Intel as a reasonable proxy. Performance varied substantially over the range of processors we examined, as shown in Figure 2. There was a significant step in performance at the transition from basic to standard segments, and another significant step at the transition from standard to advanced.

Enterprise computing TCO analysis We reviewed Intel IT software license and maintenance costs for our

Number of Servers

main enterprise applications and infrastructure services. We determined

15

that, overall, Intel IT spends 3x to 6x more on software than on server

12

hardware. To simplify our analysis, we conservatively assumed an average of 3x the cost of a fully configured server based on mid-range

Lower is Better

13

9

9

Intel® Xeon® processor E5530 (2.4 GHz).

8

6

In our TCO analysis, we used estimates of system pricing based on Intel published CPU prices, prior server list prices, and anticipated trends for

7

3

illustration purposes. We estimated software cost using our 3x ratio. We

0

included estimates of typical data center costs based on our experience.

Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor E5520 Processor X5550 Processor X5570

Our estimates included data center depreciation, power and cooling, and LAN and SAN port costs over four years. Our analysis showed that

Number of Application Licenses

estimated four-year server TCO varies relatively little with processor

125

Lower is Better

selection, as shown in Figure 3. 100

Design Computing

104

75

To validate our analysis, we conducted performance testing using real

72

Intel silicon design workloads.

64

50

In our tests, we ran a distributed EDA application on a server cluster.

56

25

The application operated on an Intel silicon design dataset. We compared performance of clusters based on four different processors in the Intel

0 Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor E5520 Processor X5550 Processor X5570

Xeon processor 5500 series: • Low-end Intel Xeon processor E5504 (2 GHz)

Total Power Consumed

• Intel® Xeon® processor E5520 (2.26 GHz)

3,500

• Intel® Xeon® processor X5550 (2.66 GHz)

We measured runtime for each cluster and compared relative job

2,100

Watts

2,800

throughput. In our tests, we normalized throughput. When testing each cluster, we used as many servers as we needed to complete our workload in

Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor E5520 Processor X5550 Processor X5570

Runtime

Design computing TCO analysis

12:00

Our analysis of four-year TCO compared Intel IT hardware, software,

10:00

of all software, including maintenance, averaged approximately 3.8x

08:00 MM:SS

and data center cost ratios. For the high-end platform, the total cost

10:48

10:56

10:41

04:00 02:00

high-end Intel Xeon processor X5570 to obtain the same throughput,

00:00

46 percent decrease in data center space and network connectivity

10:45

06:00

processor E5504, we needed 46 percent fewer servers based on the with a 46 percent decrease in the number of software licenses, a

2,562

1,400

the clusters using higher-end processors.

Results are shown in Figure 4. Compared with the low-end Intel Xeon

2,728

0

more servers in the cluster based on low-end processors compared with

connectivity and power and cooling for four years.

2,808

700

approximately the same specified runtime. This meant that we included

the hardware platform cost. Our data center costs included network

Lower is Better

3,367

• High-end Intel Xeon processor X5570 (2.93 GHz)

Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor E5520 Processor X5550 Processor X5570

requirements, and a 24 percent decrease in power consumption. Figure 4. Results of electronic design automation (EDA) normalized throughput tests. Intel internal measurements, February 2009.

Conclusion

8% Data Center

Selecting higher-end processors delivers the maximum value to Intel IT. Our analysis showed that four-year server TCO is dominated by software costs, which typically range from 3x to 6x the cost of the hardware

19% Server Platform

platform. Data center connectivity and power and cooling costs also are a significant factor. The server, and hence the CPU, accounts for only a

73% OS, Middleware, Applications

small percentage of overall cost, as shown in Figure 5. As a result, the cost difference between platforms with low-end and high-end CPUs has little impact on overall server TCO. Because high-end processors substantially increase performance, they deliver better value. Further analysis of our enterprise computing data confirmed that highend processors can deliver 73 percent faster performance than low-end processors for the same estimated TCO, or the same performance for an estimated 42 percent lower TCO, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 5. The hardware platform accounts for a small proportion of server total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO calculations based on Intel® Xeon® processor X5570 (2.93 GHz).

Based on our analysis, using higher-end processors results in one of the Relative Performance/TCO

following benefits: • Lower TCO to achieve the same performance or throughput • Higher performance for a given TCO • Substantial performance increase for a modest increase in TCO

Relative TCO/Performance

(Higher is Better)

2.0

(Lower is Better)

2.0

1.73

1.5

1.5

Based on these performance and TCO advantages, for two-socket servers, Intel IT is standardizing on Intel Xeon processor X5570

1.0

(2.93 GHz) for design computing and enterprise server virtualization.

1.0

1.00

0.5

0.5

0.0

Sudip Chahal is a principal engineer with Intel IT. Shesha Krishnapura is a senior principal engineer with Intel IT.

Learn more about Intel IT’s best practices at www.intel.com/IT

This paper is for informational purposes only. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY WARRANTY OTHERWISE

ARISING OUT OF ANY PROPOSAL, SPECIFICATION OR SAMPLE. Intel disclaims all liability, including liability for infringement of any proprietary rights, relating to use of information in this specification. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted herein. Intel, the Intel logo, and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Copyright © 2009 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in USA 0309/KAR/KC/PDF

Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor X5570 (2 GHz) (2.93 GHz)

Figure 6. Higher-end processors deliver higher performance for the same total cost of ownership (TCO), on the left, or the same performance for lower TCO, on the right. Intel internal measurements, February 2009.

For more information on Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, go to: www.intel.com/products/processor/xeon5000/index.htm

Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing. For more information on performance tests and on the performance of Intel products, reference www.intel.com/ performance/resources/benchmark_limitations.htm or call (U.S.) 1-800-628-8686 or 1-916-356-3104.

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0.0 Intel® Xeon® Intel® Xeon® Processor E5504 Processor X5570 (2 GHz) (2.93 GHz)

Authors

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