Intel Itanium 2

<<   Itanium 2
Itanium ‑ 2 logo
Production:	2002 to 2012
Producers: Intel HP
Processor clock:	900 MHz to 2533 MHz
L3 cache size:	1.5 MiB to 32 MiB
Manufacturing :	180 nm to 32 nm
Instruction set :	IA-64
Microarchitecture :	Itanium
Base: PAC418 "Slot M" PAC611 "Slot 3"
Names of the processor cores: McKinley , Madison , Deerfield , Hondo , Madison 9M , Fanwood , Fanwood LV Montecito , Fanwood LV , Montecito , Millington Millington LV , Montvale , Tukwila , Poulson

The Intel Itanium 2 is a 64-bit microprocessor (CPU) with EPIC instruction set (a VLIW architecture) from Intel. The VLIW instruction set makes it possible to bundle up to three machine instructions; these bundles are then executed simultaneously in one work cycle. It is the improved successor to the Intel Itanium processor, whose origins go back to a joint development by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Intel. Like the Itanium, the Itanium 2 also uses its own native IA-64 -VLIW instruction set. The older commands x86 processor architecture may also, but only at a slow Firmware - emulation mode are executed. There are also extensions to facilitate migration of the Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC processor architecture. Compared to its predecessors, the Itanium 2 comes up with numerous functions from the mainframe area . B. special skills in the areas of fault tolerance and virtualization .

development

Itanium 2 : functional block diagram

Itanium 2: Old logo

Itanium 2: Cartridge

The McKinley core, launched in July 2002, is the first Itanium 2 to address some of the major shortcomings of the old Itanium ( Merced core). So high were latency of the L1 and L2 caches lowered and on the integration of L3 cache The improved also its latency. The relatively slow front side bus was widened from 64 to 128 bits and accelerated from 266 to 400 MHz. The execution speed of the x86 emulation has also been increased. The architecture of the Itanium 2 is basically identical to that of the Itanium.

About a year later, the second revision of the Itanium-2 design was released ( Madison core). Processors with 1.5 GHz with 6 MiB cache, 1.4 GHz with 4 MiB and 1.3 GHz with 3 MiB were new to the portfolio  . The 1.5 GHz version achieved the highest SpecFP and SpecInt values ​​of a series-produced single processor.

With the Deerfield core, an energy-saving version with 1 GHz and 1.5 MiB L3 cache was brought onto the market in the third quarter of 2003. With a maximum thermal power loss (" Thermal Design Power ", TDP) of 62 W, ​​it is particularly aimed at clusters where low power consumption and good cooling are important.

Problems

The Itanium was the second most expensive computer project in history at the time, just behind the IBM 360 . Despite the amounts of money invested in the project, the future viability of the product was considered uncertain even before it was discontinued, with two main problems:

• On the one hand, the theoretical advantages of the VLIW design in terms of reduced chip complexity are not evident in the actual processor. The Itanium 2 has over 221 million transistors that together require 130 watts of power. The need for a larger L3 cache will further increase the number of transistors. Intel tried to save circuitry elsewhere. However, the IA-64 architecture has never been fixated on this advantage, since a large number of transistors is deliberately part of the concept with the aim of offering a large number of registers for each data type in order to save memory bandwidth.

• Developing a compiler that would allow the Itanium to realize its potential has proven difficult, but is essential for high performance. Although continuous improvements are being made in this direction, porting software to the Itanium architecture with a focus on speed optimization is considered particularly difficult.

With the delivery of the Itanium 2, however, the support of operating systems has improved a lot compared to before. Ported were HP-UX , Linux (already developed before the appearance of the processor for kernels from 2.3.35, distributions: Debian from version 3.0 "Woody"; Red Hat Linux from version 7.2; Red Hat Enterprise Linux from version 3, ES + AS; SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from version 8), FreeBSD , Windows XP , Windows Server 2003 , Windows Server 2008 and OpenVMS from version 8.0. The IA-64 port for NetBSD is currently being worked on. HP planned to move its Tru64 UNIX customers to switch to Itanium platforms under HP-UX, Linux or Windows ( NT line ).

In addition to the rivals IBM with the competing IBM Power architecture and Sun with the Sparc architecture, there was another competitor for Intel's Itanium architecture from AMD : the AMD64 architecture and, as a result, the Intel 64 from its own company - Architecture (also x86-64 or EM64T Netburst architecture) of the current Pentium and Xeon processors. It follows AMD and Intel's earlier approach to gradually expanding a single architecture, first from the 16-bit 8086 to the 32-bit 80386 and newer models, without sacrificing backward compatibility . AMD64 expanded the 32-bit x86 architecture with 64-bit registers and compatibility modes for legacy 32-bit and 16-bit software. The delivery of AMD64 systems began in mid-2003 and developed very successfully, so from 2004 Intel also integrated the x86-64 extensions into its own systems.

A failure of the Itanium 2 would also mean a setback for manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard . HP has discontinued its in-house PA-RISC CPU architecture in favor of the Itanium 2. In addition to Itanium, HP and SGI also deliver AMD64 systems with both Xeon and Opteron CPUs. In the supercomputing area , a great many systems are now x86 and AMD64-based.

Performance comparison with Power7 and Xeon

According to measurements ("benchmarks") from 2010 with Itanium 9350, the CPU is clearly behind the current Power7 family from IBM and also behind the current Xeon CPUs in the SPEC comparison of the CINT 2006 rate and the CFP 2006 rate from Intel (for better comparability, the Power7 test results were standardized to 8 cores).

• HP Integrity BL860c i2 (1.73 GHz / 24 MiB Quad-Core Intel Itanium 9350 ): CINT-2006 rate: 134 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 2; Date: March 2010
• HP Integrity BL860c i2 (1.73 GHz / 24 MiB Quad-Core Intel Itanium 9350 ): CFP-2006 rate: 136 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 2; Date: March 2010
• IBM BladeCenter PS702 Express ( Power7 , 3.0 GHz, 8 core estimated): CINT 2006 rate: 260 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 1; Date: April 2010
• IBM BladeCenter PS702 Express ( Power7 , 3.0 GHz, 8 core estimated): CFP-2006 rate: 215 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 1; Date: April 2010
• Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX620 S5 (Intel Xeon E5540 , 2.53 GHz): CINT-2006-Rate: 214 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 2; Date: September 2009
• Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX620 S5 (Intel Xeon E5540 , 2.53 GHz): CFP-2006-Rate: 166 ; Cores: 8; CPUs: 2; Date: September 2009

Further development

On February 10, 2010, the next Itanium milestone, codenamed Tukwila, was unveiled, on which many engineers from the aborted Alpha- EV8 project collaborated. Although the new processor is said to offer up to five times higher performance than its predecessor, the outstanding new feature is not the speed, but the suitability for mission-critical applications. HP wanted to present the first Tukwila-based servers within a period of 90 days, and the first benchmarks with the new processor were also expected for this date. Tukwila is designed as a monolithic quad-core processor that has eight logical cores thanks to Hyper-Threading . The connection to the system is no longer handled by a front side bus , but for the first time a QPI -based connection to neighboring CPUs, memory and chipset . For the memory alone, an integrated four-channel memory controller for DDR 3 memory is used, which thanks to "Double Device Data Correction" should also be tolerant of two successive errors. Each processor core has a 32 KiB L1 cache and a 768 KiB L2 cache available, plus an L3 cache with a max. 6 MiB size. Tukwila is in 65-nm pattern width made and reached 24 MiB L3 cache a The face of 699 mm² at 2.049 billion transistors. There are versions with 130 to 185 watts TDP, but compared to the predecessors with significantly higher clock rates of up to 1.86 GHz. In addition, Intel wants to rely on a so-called “common platform” starting with the Tukwila, which also includes future Xeon CPUs based on Nehalem . In the future, x86 and IA-64 processors should be able to use the same chipset.

Even though Intel had already mentioned two more Tukwila successors named Poulson (released in 2012) and Kittson (2014), the future of the Itanium series is no longer considered indefinitely secure. Since the model maintenance and improvement had been delayed again and again since 2007, several large hardware manufacturers have moved away from the Itanium. According to the Itanium Solutions Alliance, HP (with a 90% market share) and, to a lesser extent, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi and SGI are among the major manufacturers who - as of 2009 - offer Itanium-based solutions . In addition, the performance of the available Itanium CPUs is now (as of 2009) z. B. achieved or even exceeded in many points by Intel's own nehalem-based Xeon processors . The same also applies to the IBM Power 6 generation, which has been offering (available) multicore CPUs and clock frequencies of over 4 GHz since 2009 and also since 2010 with a further performance-enhanced Power 7 generation (45 nm, 8th generation) Cores, 4 GHz). It is also questionable whether the Itanium project still makes sense for Intel from a financial point of view.

Red Hat announced that version 6 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux will no longer be implemented for Itanium.

Microsoft also said goodbye to the Itanium , according to the Windows Server Division blog . Microsoft expires regular customer support for Intel's Itanium architecture on July 9, 2013 ("extended support" until July 10, 2018). Windows Server 2008 R2 , SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are said to be the last products of the software giant that were developed for Intel's high availability processor. The reason given is the performance of the current x64 ( AMD64 and Intel 64 ) platform, which meanwhile also leads the TPC-E benchmark ( OLTP ) with 3,141.76 transactions per second ("tpsE") and thus its suitability according to Microsoft for business-critical areas.

Oracle also announced on March 22, 2011 that it would end the further development of software for Itanium, which, however, led to a lawsuit from HP, from which HP ultimately emerged as the winner. HP believed that Oracle had long-term contracts to support Itanium.

On May 12, 2017, the last Itanium processors from Intel were released. The Itanium 9700 should be supported until 2025 and represent only a clock upgrade compared to the Itanium 9500.

Model data

McKinley

• L1 cache: 16 + 16  KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 KiB
• L3 cache: 1.5 and 3 MiB with processor clock
• 128 bit bus with 200 MHz DDR (FSB400)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 W
• First publication date: July 8, 2002
• Manufacturing technology: 180 nm
• The size: 421 mm² with 221 million transistors
• Clock rates:
  • 900 MHz with 1.5 MiB L3 cache
  • 1,000 MHz with 3 MiB L3 cache

Madison

• L1 cache: 16 + 16  KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 KiB
• L3 cache: 1.5, 3, 4, 6 and 9 MiB with processor clock
• 128 bit bus with 200 and 333 MHz DDR (FSB400 and FSB667)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 W
• First release date: June 30, 2003
• Manufacturing technology: 130 nm
• The size: 374 mm² with 221 million transistors
• Clock rates:
  • 1.3 GHz with 3 MiB L3 cache (June 30, 2003)
  • 1.4 GHz with 1.5 MiB L3 cache (September 8, 2003)
  • 1.4 GHz with 3 MiB L3 cache (April 13, 2004)
  • 1.4 GHz with 4 MiB L3 cache (June 30, 2003)
  • 1.5 GHz with 6 MiB L3 cache (June 30, 2003)
  • 1.6 GHz with 6 MiB L3 cache (April 13, 2004)
  • 1.6 GHz with 9 MiB L3 cache (November 8, 2004)

Deerfield

Deerfield is a low-voltage variant based on the Madison core.

• Revision B1
• L1 cache: 16 + 16  KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 KiB
• L3 cache: 1.5 MiB with processor clock
  • 128 bit bus with 200 and 333 MHz DDR (FSB400 and FSB667)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 62 W
• First release date: September 8, 2003
• Manufacturing technology: 130 nm
• The size: 374 mm² with 221 million transistors
• Clock rates:
  • 1.0 GHz and 1.5 MiB L3 cache

Hondo

Itanium 2 mx2 (top)

Itanium 2 mx2 (bottom)

The only Itanium-2 processor manufactured by HP that is based on the Madison core.

• Itanium 2 mx2
• Dual core processor
• Revision B1
• L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB per core  (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 KiB per core
• L3 cache: 4 MiB per core with processor clock
• L4 cache: together 32 MiB, connected via FSB
  • 128 bit bus with 200 MHz DDR (FSB400)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 62 W
• First publication date: 2004 (Q1)
• Manufacturing technology: 130 nm
• The size: 2 × 374 mm² with 410 million transistors each
• Clock rates:
  • 1.1 GHz and 4 MiB L3 cache

Fanwood

• L1 cache: 16 + 16  KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 KiB
• L3 cache: 3 MiB with processor clock
• 128 bit bus with 200 and 266 MHz DDR (FSB400 and FSB533)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 W
• First release date: November 8, 2004
• Manufacturing technology: 130 nm
• The size: 374 mm² with 221 million transistors
• Clock rates:
  • 1.6 GHz with 3 MiB L3 cache (November 8, 2004)
  • 1.3 GHz with 3 MiB L3 cache (November 8, 2004)

Montecito (9000 series)

Dual-core processor ( except model 9010)

• L1 cache: 16 + 16  KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 256 + 1024 KiB (data + instructions)
• L3 cache: With processor clock, see model numbers for size
• IVT (except model 9010), SoEMT
• 128 bit bus with 200 and 266 MHz DDR (FSB400 and FSB533)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ):
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 104 W
• First publication date: July 18, 2006
• Manufacturing technology: 90 nm
• The size: 596 mm² with 1,720 million transistors
• Clock rates: 1.40 to 1.60 GHz
• Model Numbers :
  • 9010: 1.60 GHz (6 MiB L3 cache and only one processor core)
  • 9015: 1.40 GHz (2 × 6 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9020: 1.42 GHz (2 × 6 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9030: 1.60 GHz (2 × 4 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9040: 1.60 GHz (2 × 9 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9050: 1.60 GHz (2 × 12 MiB L3 cache)

Montvale (9100 series)

Dual-core processor ( except model 9110N)

• L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB (data + instructions)
• L2 cache: 2.5 MiB (data + instructions)
• L3 cache: With processor clock, see model numbers for size
• IVT , SoEMT
• 128 bit bus with 200 and 266 MHz DDR (FSB400, FSB533 and FSB667)
• Operating voltage ( VCore ): ???
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 75 to 104 W.
• First publication date: November 2007
• Manufacturing technology: 90 nm
• The size: 596 mm² with 1,720 million transistors
• Clock rates: 1.42 to 1.66 GHz
• Model Numbers :
  • 9110N: 1.60 GHz (12 MiB L3 cache and only one processor core)
  • 9120N: 1.42 GHz (2 × 6 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9130M: 1.66 GHz (2 × 4 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9140N: 1.60 GHz (2 × 9 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9140M: 1.66 GHz (2 × 9 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9150N: 1.60 GHz (2 × 12 MiB L3 cache)
  • 9150M: 1.66 GHz (2 × 12 MiB L3 cache)

Tukwila (9300 series)

Official presentation on February 10, 2010

Quad-core processor ( 8 threads)

Dual-core processor ( Model 9310 only)

• L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 256 + 512 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L3 cache: up to 6 MiB per core (max. 30 MiB cache), with processor clock. See model numbers for size
• IVT , SoEMT
• QPI integrated (DDR3 memory controller, max.memory throughput (user data) per core 34 GB / s)
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 to 185 W.
• First publication date: February 10, 2010
• Manufacturing technology: 65 nm
• The size: 699 mm² with 2.046 billion transistors
• Clock rates: 1.33 to 1.73 GHz (1.86 GHz with Turbo Boost)
• Model Numbers :
  • 9310: 1.60 GHz, no Turbo Boost, dual-core (2 × 5 MiB L3 cache, 130 W TDP)
  • 9320: 1.33 GHz, 1.46 GHz with Turbo Boost, quad core (4 × 4 MiB L3 cache, 155 W TDP)
  • 9330: 1.46 GHz, 1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost, quad core (4 × 5 MiB L3 cache, 155 W TDP)
  • 9340: 1.60 GHz, 1.73 GHz with Turbo Boost, quad core (4 × 5 MiB L3 cache, 185 W TDP)
  • 9350: 1.73 GHz, 1.86 GHz with Turbo Boost, quad core (4 × 6 MiB L3 cache, 185 W TDP)

Poulson (9500 Series)

• Release DATE: November 8, 2012

Compared to the predecessor, Intel speaks of up to 2.4 times more performance with 40% more clock and 33% higher memory bandwidth.

• L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 256 + 512 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L3 cache: up to 32 MiB via ring bus for all cores, with processor clock. See model numbers for size
• IVT , SoEMT
• Integrated QPI (DDR3 memory controller, maximum memory throughput (user data) per core 45 GB / s)
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 to 170 W.
• Manufacturing technology: 32 nm
• The size: 544 mm² with 3.1 billion transistors
• Clock rates: 1.73 to 2.53 GHz
• Model Numbers :
  • 9520: 1.73 GHz, quad-core (20 MiB L3 cache, 130 W TDP)
  • 9540: 2.13 GHz, Octo-Core (24 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)
  • 9550: 2.40 GHz, quad core (32 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)
  • 9560: 2.53 GHz, Octo-Core (32 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)

Kittson (9700 Series)

• First publication date: May 11, 2017

Last generation of Itanium processors with a slightly higher clock rate.

• L1 cache: 16 + 16 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 256 + 512 KiB (data + instructions) per core
• L3 cache: up to 32 MiB via ring bus for all cores, with processor clock. See model numbers for size
• IVT , SoEMT
• Integrated QPI (DDR3 memory controller, maximum memory throughput (user data) per core 45 GB / s)
• Power consumption ( TDP ): 130 to 170 W.
• Manufacturing technology: 32 nm
• The size: 544 mm² with 3.1 billion transistors
• Clock rates: 1.73 to 2.66 GHz
• Model Numbers :
  • 9720: 1.73 GHz, quad-core (20 MiB L3 cache, 130 W TDP)
  • 9740: 2.13 GHz, Octo-Core (24 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)
  • 9750: 2.53 GHz, quad-core (32 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)
  • 9760: 2.66 GHz, Octo-Core (32 MiB L3 cache, 170 W TDP)

See also

• Itanium architecture
• List of Intel microprocessors
• Extensible firmware interface

Web links

Commons : Itanium 2  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Intel's Itanium Basics (Part I) and Intel's Itanium Basics (Part II)
• Server CPUs from 2005 to 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ [1]
3. ↑ Tukwila is Here - What's Next? , dated February 8, 2010
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Intel: Fact Sheet: Intel Itanium Update Briefing and Disclosures , June 14, 2007, accessed July 20, 2009
5. ↑ TecChannel: Intel Tukwila: Quad-Core-Itanium with QuickPath , February 7, 2008, accessed on July 20, 2009
6. ↑ TecChannel: Intel Tukwila: Quad-Core-Itanium with 130 and 170 watts ( Memento of the original from January 14th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated April 8, 2008, accessed July 20, 2009 
7. ↑ heise online: Unisys gives eulogy for Itanium , February 19, 2009, accessed on July 20, 2009
8. ↑ [2] December 18, 2009, Heise Open, Red Hat ends development for Itanium
9. ↑ Windows Server 2008 R2 to Phase Out Itanium ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from April 2, 2010 (English) Blog of the Windows Server Division 
10. ↑ Oracle announced it has decided to discontinue all software development on the Intel Itanium microprocessor on March 22, 2011 (engl.)
11. ↑ HP wins against Oracle on August 1, 2012 (de.)
12. ↑ Volker Rißka: Itanium 9700: Kittson ends Intel's Itanium series with four models . In: ComputerBase . ( computerbase.de [accessed on May 12, 2017]).
13. ^ Adrian Offerman: The Processor Portal: HP Itanium 2 mx2 processor module (Hondo). In: The Chiplist. Accessed February 12, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Intel Press Room: Itanium 2
15. ↑ Intel: Product Brief Itanium Processor 9100 Series
16. ^ Heise online: Heimlichtuer Itanium
17. ↑ Intel® Itanium® Processor 9300 series (PDF; 508 kB)
18. ↑ Intel celebrates the Itanium Tukwila
19. ↑ Jeff Burt: Intel Intros New Itanium Processor; HP Unveils New Integrity Servers. In: eWeek. November 8, 2012, accessed December 23, 2017 . 
20. ↑ Marc Sauter: Intel's last Itanium generation is here. In: Golem. May 11, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2017 .