Learn how the new features in Intel’s next-generation microarchitecture can help with server applications and virtualization environments.

Moderator experts:

John Beckett is a server performance engineering lead, Office of the CTO, at Dell and has been a performance engineer on Dell's Server Performance Analysis team since 2006. John has worked in the industry for 13 yearsand has been an active member of multiple Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) committees, including SPECweb and SPECpower.His current focus is on the SPECpower benchmark, as well as processor, memory, and I/O subsystem characterization of prototype systems.John is a graduate of the University of Missouri, and holds multiple UNIX® OS certifications.
David J. Morse David J. Morse is a server performance benchmark lead, Office of the CTO, at Dell and has been a performance engineer on Dell’s Server Performance Analysis team for 10 years.David has participated in multiple industry standards bodies, most notably the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC), where he is currently chair of the Open Systems Steering Committee (OSSC).His current focus is on SPEC, Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC), and VMware benchmarks.David has a B.S.C.E. from the University of South Carolina Honors College and is a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).
Scott Huck Scott Huck is a competitive architect in Intel’s Server Platform Group Marketing organization (part of the Digital Enterprise Group). Scott specializes in architectural and performance comparisons between Intel’s server processors and platforms and other processor vendors’ server platforms from companies such as AMD, Sun Microsystems, and IBM. Scott also has a focus on server virtualization technologies. Scott has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University and has been at Intel since 1986. During his 23 years at Intel, Scott has held positions as a microprocessor design engineer; technical marketing engineer/manager for Intel's server boards, systems, and microprocessors; and server platform technologist.
Kuppuswamy Sivakumar (Siva) Kuppuswamy Sivakumar (Siva) is a marketing manager for Intel's Server Platforms Group in California. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Madras, India; a master's degree from the University of Kentucky, Lexington; and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Siva manages performance marketing activities for Intel® Xeon® processor server products.

Technical Community - Background Reading

Chat Transcript

cynthia What time does the 3/31/09 Intel Next Generation Microarchitecture webinar begin?
JasonPowell The first people in the chat room get a free R710 right? ;-)
VirtualTodd Free servers! woot!
DELL-ScottH Be back in a sec; grabbing some lunch
JasonPowell Scotth, thanks for the free servers!
DELL-ScottH Free servers? Who gave you free stuff?
JasonPowell I thought I read somewhere the first people in the chat got a free R710?
DELL-ScottH Hmmm, maybe I'll throw this beta system in my lab your way...or maybe not :-)
JasonPowell Lol
DELL-ScottH Hello everyone, official chat starts in 30 minutes. Jason usually just causes trouble until then
JasonPowell 11th-generation tastiness!
DELL-ScottH Hello all! We'll get started in a few minutes
erson Hi everyone, Andreas from Sweden here
Intel_Wm_Lea Hi Andreas
DELL-ScottH Hey Erson! How you been?
DELL-ScottH Get started in a few minutes...sorry I missed you last week, but Hawaii was calling you know
erson I've been great; all this Nehalem stuff has been really exciting to read about over the last couple of months, and now it's finally here. Time to start worrying about Westmere I guess :)
DELL-ScottH We'll kick it off in a few mintues. Some great Nehalem discussion, and we've got excellent Intel and Dell resources that can answer all your geeky questions :-)
DELL-ScottH Couple of things before we get started...
erson Ah, Intel has updated its Web site with Xeon 5500 Series stuff...nice to not have to manipulate the URLs to get the pdfs ::wink
DELL-ScottH Right-click on the Web links, or you may be exited from the chat. If you have to rejoin the chat, you can use Action, Recent Room History to catch up. Also, this chat is recorded and a transcript is available tomorrow on the same link that got you to this page. If we don't answer your question today, simply ask it on the page and we'll answer it. Alright, let's kick this thing off!
DELL-ScottH Welcome to our chat today on Intel and Dell performance results on the new Nehalem processor! Everybody say Yeah!
erson Can the Xeon 5500 Series handle 18x 16 GB modules?
DELL-ScottH We have experts from our Dell System Performance and Analysis (SPA) lab and the Intel performance team. David Morse and John Beckett are with Dell SPA, and Scott Huck and Ronak are with Intel. Say hello guys
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Hi everyone! I'm a competitive architect at Intel.
DELL-ScottH For all late joiners, use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
erson Hi Scotth of the Intel-kind :)
DELL-ScottH Great Vmmark and Spec numbers. David, John can you give an overview of the results?
Gabrie I see I missed the free server part :-)
DELL-ScottH I'll post the links
ronsteenbergen I understand that only Windows 2008 will be factory pre-installed, but will Dell ship the Windows 2003 drivers with each new server, or do we need to download them from the Web site?
intel-ronak Hi, I'm one of the Nehalem architects and can help with any of the technical architecture questions.
Intel_-_Scott_Huck The Xeon 5500 currently only supports up to 8 GB DIMMs. Ronak will follow up with more details.
intel-ronak Erson, on the memory configuration, see this link on the various memory configurations that are supported: www.intel.com/technology/memory/ddr/valid/ddr3_udimm_rdimm_results.htm
DELL-ScottH Hello newcomers! Use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
erson Ronak, yes, have been looking at that site. I would like to know if it's possible to use 16 GB modules when they are available?
DELL-ScottH Here's the VMmark score. David will elaborate: www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/vmmark_r710_disclosure.pdf
DELL-ScottH Reminder: right-click links, or you get exited from the chat :-)
DELL-DavidJMorse Scott, thanks. The VMmark score we have shows very good scaling between our 10th-generation server (PowerEdge 2950 III) and 11th-generation server (PowerEdge 710)—168 percent performance improvement!
Intel_-_Scott_Huck I'll add the Dell score is the top score currently published for a Xeon 5570 server
DELL-DavidJMorse A variety of performance optimizations are the reasons for this. The Nehalem architecture has Intel's Extended Page Tables (EPT) and hyperthreading, both of which contribute greatly to the VMmark score using VMware ESX
Intel_-_Scott_Huck The Xeon 5500 will technically be able to support 16 GB DIMMs when available, but will need to go through the various validation processes first. The Web site will be updated when the qualification has been completed.
Fridge Can anyone give us an idea of when we might see some servers with 6 or 8 core processors?
Gabrie In the past it was often not clear if hyperthreading would increase or decrease performance. Only testing for your own specific workload could tell. Has that changed now?
Sudharsan_Dell_India I guess these scores will reflect very soon in the VMmark Web site right?
Fridge Gabrie, great question; that was going to be the next thing I asked
Gabrie Thanks, fridge :D
Sudharsan_Dell_India Oh they have been updated
DELL-ScottH @sudharsan, yes, the VMware site will update with us beating HP :-)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Intel-based servers with > 4 cores per processor socket will likely be available next year. Exact time has not been announced
perduedt When can I place an order for Dell T5500 workstations?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck BTW, six-core 4S Intel processors are available today and shipping by Dell in their PowerEdge R905.
erson Fridge, Gabrie: Nehalem-ex with 8 cores will be released late Q4 ‘09 or Q1 ’10, according to the latest rumors. Hexacore on DP systems should be Q1 ‘10
DELL-ScottH @erson, there you go rumor-mongering again :-)
DELL-DavidJMorse Gabrie, yes, all of our benchmarking has shown hyperthreading to be advantageous in the server workloads we run. This is a different story from the previous generation of hyperthreading, where it was more of a workload-dependent story
mjac28 How hot can my Xeon 5140 chips get before I get concerned?
erson Scotth, it said so on the Internet, so it must be true! ;)
erson Ronak, is there any scenario when I should not enable Turbo Boost?
Gabrie @dell-davidjmorse, okay. And what is the performance of one core plus hyperthreading against one core? 115 percent, or much more?
intel-ronak Erson, I would recommend turbo on for all cases. There is no negative performance impact from turbo boost technology
mjac28 I am using my Dell 690 as a gaming machine
Fridge What's different with the "new" hyperthreading that gives it better performance than the previous generation?
intel-ronak Gabrie, benefit of Hyperthreading will vary very much with workload. Your 15 percent number is low for many server workloads
DELL-DavidJMorse Gabrie, we don't really do one-core testing; most of our server workloads are very multithreaded
erson Ronak, yeah, that was my initial reaction as well, but thought I had to ask since the feature can be disabled
DELL-DavidJMorse That said, the gains range from single-digit gains to up to 30 percent
Gabrie Okay, thanks
Sudharsan_Dell_India So there is only one dual core series in the Nehalem series I suppose?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck That is correct...one dual core Xeon 5500
erson I recommend the Anandtech article. Not being a fancy industry benchmark, but it's a good read nonetheless. Intel sponsored it even
Sudharsan_Dell_India Do we not see any problem from ISV/database vendors who license some of their products on core-based policy?
intel-ronak Fridge, on hyperthreading in Nehalem versus prior generations, there are several microarchitectural enhancements that we have made that provide a better and more robust story. These include better support in the caches, greater memory bandwidth, and, keep in mind, this is the third generation of hyperthreading, so we have incorporated a lot of learnings into Nehalem
JasonPowell So how much performance increase over my current Xeon 5150s? ;-)
DELL-ScottH Hello Roy, Use Action, Recent Room History to catch up
mjac28 How hot can my chip Xeon 5140 get?
Roy Two-chip problem when gaming
Intel_-_Scott_Huck To Jason versus 5100 series, expect ~4x with Xeon 5500
JasonPowell Nice!
DELL-DavidJMorse Sudharsan, Dell server BIOS allows you to change how many cores per processor are exposed to the OS; this should address licensing concerns
erson This is the first hyperthreading in the core architecture, which is an entirely different thing compared to Netburst. So the SMT implementation is substantially different
mjac28 Can that chip fit inside my Dell 690?
perduedt When will the Dell T5500 workstations be orderable?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck How hot? The part will shut off if it gets too hot to prevent it from damage
DELL-ScottH @perduedt, checking on that now; Bruce is looking into it
erson Mjac28, socket 1366 is needed
perduedt Thanks
mjac28 I am running 40 degrees full load—is that okay?
DELL-DavidJMorse We have started submitting SPEC benchmarks on the Nehalem-based Precision workstations—expect to see those soon
mjac28 I am trying to use my 690 as a gaming machine
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Forty degrees? Is that ambient?
mjac28 Seems to run slow; no 23 to 30 ambient
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Depends on the actual system; which system are you using?
mjac28 Vista 64 bit; I have two 5140s
erson Mjac28, Xeon 5500 series can't be used with Dell 690. Dell 690 has socket 771, Xeon 5500 is socket 1366 and uses DDR3 instead of FB-DIMM that was used with socket 771 Xeons
Fridge Do the PowerEdge R710s support mirrored or RAID configurationss for memory?
ronsteenbergen I understand that only Windows 2008 will be factory pre-installed, but will Dell ship the Windows 2003 drivers with each New server or do we need to download them from the Web site?
erson Frdige: yes, mirror is available
mjac28 Thanks
DELL-ScottH Welcome newcomers. We're discussing the latest server benchmarks on the Intel Nehalem architecture. We've talked a little about the VMmark score, and we've also posted some great results on the SPEC site
perduedt Do you expect to see as much of a performance hit for core access to the memory over the QPI hosted by another CPU?
DELL-ScottH Here's the T610 TPC-E result: www.tpc.org/tpce/results/tpce_price_perf_results.asp. You'll see it at the top :-)
UOEAP What would be a performance difference between E7440 Xeon and Xeon 5500?
mjac28 Xan i overclock my 5140s?
erson Ronak, Scott Huck, Wm_lea: Does everyone’s CPU in the 5500 series support the Intel VT and Flexmigration feature to support seamless migration of running VMs between different generations of Intel CPUs?
DELL-ScottH And the results for the Spec_jbb2005: http://tinyurl.com/c79xfj. You'll see those at the top too :-)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Uoeap, performance will depend on the workload, but expect most to be fairly similar
DELL-DavidJMorse Fridge, we do support memory mirroring on the PowerEdge R710 for certain configurations
intel-ronak Perduedt, there is a memory latency penalty to access memory on another CPU (remote memory); however, keep in mind that most operating systems/applications today are already Numa-optimized so that the number of remote memory accesses tends not to dominate performance. Also, even in the case where the remote memory traffic is common, we have stellar latency to both local and remote memory
Sudharsan_Dell_India This is truly a great story for virtualization; not only have we improved performance at the CPU level, but also addressed memory scalability on the mid-platform servers, allowing you to do an aggressive server consolidation
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Erson, yes, all 5500 processors support Intel VT and support Flexmigration (between different generations)
DELL-ScottH Also, we've got all the Dell benchmarks on this site: DELL.COM/Benchmarks
DELL-DavidJMorse Mjac28, Dell does not support overclocking processors on the 690
erson Scotth, great URL
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Regarding Xeon 7440 versus 5500 comparisons, the 7400-based systems, like the PowerEdge R900, have more RAS features and more slots. So looking purely on performance is not always the most important criteria
erson Even though everything isn't about performance, I get a feeling that 5500 will hurt Xeon MP sales quite a bit
DELL-ScottH @sudharsan, agreed! Great platform for virtualization and amazing how far we've come in such a short time. I can't even imagine 20 years from now
perduedt Will there be an upgrade path to 8 cores/CPU, without system replacement, for the newly announced X5500 series Dell systems?
JasonPowell I've not looked. I assume 10 GB onboard NIC is an option?
erson Sudharsan, not forgetting the four NICs, which is a great addition
Gabrie Got a good URL to where Flexmigration is explained? I do understand VMotion, CPU mask, and EVC. But not exactly how Flexmigration works together with this
erson Jasonpowell doesn't seem like it
erson Gabrie, Flexmigration seems to put an end to any cross-CPU generation migration issues on virtualization platforms
DELL-DavidJMorse Perdue, we certainly designed our 11th-generation PowerEdge servers to be upgradable to newer Intel Xeon chips, but any statements at this point would be speculative </lawyerspeak>
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Flexmigration is the feature in Intel CPUs that allows VMotion to work between CPU generations
erson Jasonpowell, but I'm sure some vendors might bolt on a 10 GbE LOM on their servers like they did with the last generation
bruceericatdell Perduedt, stay tuned for availability of Nehalem-based workstations—"imminent" is the word I'm getting :)
Gabrie @erson, yeah but how! Is it like EVC that the weakest host of your cluster determines the features for the whole cluster? Or is Flexmigration smarter than this?
erson Scott_huck, only for VMware or also beneficial for Hyper-V and other platforms?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck You can VMotion between Intel 5100, 5300, 5500 and their four-socket brothers
Gabrie Okay, but what is the boundary? Let’s say I have one 5100 and four 5500 CPUs in my cluster. Is the whole cluster now automatically down to 5100 features?
Depping So you don't need to use EVC within VMware to do the VMotion between these families?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck All VMotion clusters must run at the lowest common denominator instruction set
Gabrie So, it’s just like EVC? Nothing smarter then EVC? Bummer
erson I get the feeling that Flexmigration is a new feature that will mostly help with transition to upcoming generations?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck VMotion. The only thing being reduced in a 5100 to 5500 cluster is the instruction set. The performance benefits of all the 5500 features are still there
Gabrie I was hoping the Flexmigration would enhance EVC to make more possible and give less restrictions. Well, I don't know the 5100/5500 features. Trying to make a school example :-)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck www.intel.com/itopia has information about Flexmigration, virtualization, etc.
DELL-ScottH Gab, try this site for some Flexmigration demos: www.intel.com/business/xeon/virtualization.htm?iid=itcenter:splash:marquee:virtualization
Gabrie Okay, thanks. So, if one host doesn’t support SSSE 4.1, the whole cluster cannot support SSSE 4.1 just like with EVC?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Bottom line...you should get 99 percent of the performance of a 5500 in a cluster with 5100
Intel_-_Scott_Huck The only exception is if your application uses the SSE 4.1 or 4.2 instructions, which are unlikely in a server environment
erson Gabrie, here’s a white paper on Flexmigration: http://communities.intel.com/openport/docs/doc-2538
perduedt Bruceericatdell, hopefully “imminent” is within the next week, as I have to buy a workstation right now or lose my funding for them
Sudharsan_Dell_India And we now have a PCI-E X 16 slot on these servers that surely would address some of the customers who wanted to have a graphic card on the servers
Gabrie @erson, thanks
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Gabrie, yes, if one host doesn't support SSE 4.1 all must not support SSE 4.1
DELL-ScottH @perduedt, yeah just sleep on that decision :-)
perduedt :)
Novell2NT What is the difference between the 5500 and the i7? Why don’t they use the i7 name?
erson Intel guys, is there any difference between 5500 and 5520 chipset despite the difference in PCIE lanes?
erson Novell2nt, i7 is a consumer desktop name; 5500 is the Xeon (server) series number
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Novell2nt, essentially these are the same parts, but with differences to support two-socket operations. Core i7 is our "client" brand. Xeon is our server brand
Novell2NT Dual core and Core 2 are used on both
Depping So the i7 also supports EPT/VT?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Erson, no real differences; just the number of PCIE lanes
erson Usually there are some optimizations in the Xeon for server workloads and improved validation
intel-ronak Also keep in mind that the 5500 has two QPI links, while i7 only has one QPI link
Novell2NT And added heat resistance
Sudharsan_Dell_India Can someone describe the Intel intelligent power node manager. Is this dynamically adjusted or can a user set a threshold?
erson Novell2nt, Dual core just is about the number of cores
Novell2NT Should I be concerned with the power-saving features?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck @depping, yes, the Core i7 does support EPT and VT
JasonPowell Is the PowerEdge R710 only 208/220v, or can it take 110/120v?
DELL-DavidJMorse Jason, both
Depping Core i7 would make a nice workstation with 8 GB or more memory :D
erson Regarding Intel VT: it should be the same to assume that every server CPU will have this feature, since they have all had it since at least the last two generations
Intel_-_Scott_Huck @novel2nt, if you want to lower power bills, and have virtually no impact to performance, then yes you should pay attention to the power features
Novell2NT I agree. I just purchased the T7400 with Xeon 5482s and now have been way outclassed
erson Depping, 8 GB isn't very likely. Three channels should mean that common configurations are a multiple of 3 GB
JasonPowell Are there any documents that show approximate power difference between running 208 versus 110 volts? I know it should be more efficient at high voltage but a document would be sweet to show to bosses
erson Depping, up to the maxium 24 GB (some X58 boards only support 12 GB)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Sudharsan, node manager is a feature that allows the data center manager to set thresholds in their data center and essentially "throttles" systems, as needed, to stay within those limits (which could be power, or temperature, or ???)
Depping Well, we will make it more; 12 GB would be sufficient :)
erson Depping, memory kits with 3x 4 GB are available
Novell2NT I do not care too much about the power bill; I am more concerned with performance
Depping Hey Dell0-scott, how about a nice Dell banner on my Web site...I've got a great deal in mind, ha ha ha
Gabrie Question, which might not be the place for here, but just say so then. Now hosts are getting more powerful, loading more and more VMs. What do you do for redundancy? We have multiple fans, mirrored memory, protection for CPU/mainboard failures?
erson Gabrie, failover on other physical hosts seems to be the solution
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Novel2nt, if you want 100 percent performance, then you can turn off the power features. But you are likely to lose only a few percent of performance (of that) by turning on the power features, and can potentially save power and cooling costs
Gabrie @erson, but VMwares FT is not production ready yet. Especially for heavy workloads
DELL-ScottH @depping, I'm sure you do :-) We can trade some software for hardware I presume
Depping I like these new power features, especially for large data centers
erson Gabrie, you are correct, but a cluster should help when available
DELL-DavidJMorse Gabrie, yes, 11th-generation PowerEdge servers have support for memory mirroring, redundant cooling, all the RAS features you've come to expect
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Novell2nt, if you want even better performance, turn on "turbo," which allows the cores to go above their marked frequency if power/cooling limits allow
Gabrie @erson, not gonna run 100 clustered VMs on one host. I mean 100 VMs node1 on one host and the other node on host2
Gabrie In the Vmark score, 17 tiles...each tile is six VMs?
JasonPowell Scott_huck, so, like, overclocking is built in? :-)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck @ Gabrie, yes. Sox VMs per tile (but one is ideal)
erson Gabrie, it's a benchmark
DELL-DavidJMorse Gabrie, DELL.COM/Switch is a great jump point to learn more about the features of our new servers
Novell2NT You know how it is, if a user clicks on something and it takes a full second to respond...
Gabrie Okay
erson Novell2nt, then he has a bad SSD :)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck @ Jasonpowell, essentially yes
JasonPowell Sweetness
DELL-ScottH We're getting close to the hour, and some people will have to drop, so just want to make sure I say thanks to everyone for joining and remind you that the transcript will be available tomorrow. You can follow all these links: www.delltechcenter.com/page/chat+topics+and+transcripts
Intel_-_Scott_Huck @ Jason, with Turbo, a 2.93 GHz processor could run at up to 3.33 GHz if the thermals allow it
Novell2NT I did not see options for SSD on new dell T610s
DELL-ScottH If you have more questions, you can ask them directly on the transcript page. Also, Intel has a great resource in the Intel Server Room: http://communities.intel.com/openport/community/server. Be sure to check it out, and make sure to see all our new benchmark results here: DELL.COM/Benchmarks
Novell2NT Thanks guys
erson Jasonpowell, any 95W TDP Xeon can turbo boost up to 2x 133 MHz above the normal frequency. The lower TDP-version can "only" turbo boost 133 MHz
Depping Thanks for the useful info!
DELL-DavidJMorse Novell, not sure where you looked, but the T610 spec sheet does listed SSDs under hard drives: www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-t610-specs-en.pdf
erson In my view the E5520 and X5550 looks like the best options
JasonPowell I've not done any overclocking since the old 333 MHz Celeron days
DELL-ScottH @jason, Lol—with a 1200 baud modem too!
erson Jasonpowell, and this time you don't have to do anything other than to flip a switch in the BIOS
JasonPowell Lol
DELL-DavidJMorse Jason, FYI: Intel Turbo Mode is enabled by default (and is a supported option of course); whereas overclocking in servers typically isn't :)
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Erson, the number of turbo bins does vary by processor and the number of cores active. A 95W part can boost up to 3x 133 MHz.
erson Dell, will turbo boost be enabled per default in both the power saving and the performance BIOS?
Novell2NT The actual customize page www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/server-poweredge-t610?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
erson Scott Huck, but only 3x 133 MHz if you’re using fewer than four cores, right?
DELL-DavidJMorse Novell, will you have someone check into this
DELL-ScottH I would like to thank everyone again for joining
Novell2NT I can always ask my sales rep
Fridge Thanks guys for the great information
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Erson, correct. Three of 4 cores active, 2x 133. One or two cores active 3x 133 MHz
Novell2NT If he could ever get my orders right in the first place... :o)
Gabrie Cool! Sounds! He he he he
DELL-ScottH @novell, would be best to ask your rep
JasonPowell /me mutes
DELL-ScottH We get everything for free in the lab :-)
wantmoore I'm here; you can start now :)
erson Scott Huck, and that’s for the 95W TDP and for the other 55x0 versions; it's 1x 133 and 2x 133?
Novell2NT Cool, how do I join...
erson The slowest parts don't seem to support turbo boost at all? The 550x parts that is
JasonPowell Are the PowerEdge 710s ready to ship?
DELL-DavidJMorse Jason, yep
wantmoore W00t
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Erson, my comments apply to the top three bins. Your comments apply to the mid-tier 3 bins (2.26 to 2.53 GHz.
JasonPowell Cool, I've got a client wanting two, and we're looking at two for our organization too
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Top tier bins are 2.93, 2.8, 2.66 GHz
DELL-ScottH Thanks again for everyone joining; that concludes this chat session—let the craziness begin!
Novell2NT I have waited over three months for these new servers to come out; they better be worth the wait
DELL-ScottH Join us next week at the regular 3 PM time for a chat with Double-Take Software
erson Scott Huck, yes, 95W TDP and 80W TDP. The 550x versions don't support turbo boost at all
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Correct
DELL-ScottH To quote Tom Petty, "The waiting is the hardest part"
Novell2NT Right!
JasonPowell Thanks, Intel dudes for coming today
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Glad to help. Its been fun! :)
DELL-ScottH Yes, thanks very much to the Intel dudes! And thanks to all you customers!
erson Congratulatons to Intel for the brand new server CPU generation!
DELL-ScottH W00t!
wantmoore Come on speeeeeed
UOEAP How big is the performance difference between 800 MHz 1066 and 1333 RDIMMs?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck :)
erson It must be a record in performance improvement
Novell2NT Go Dell! Always there when you need them!
DELL-ScottH Was amazing to look at the internal graphs and see how big the bars were compared to the other bars :-)
JasonPowell Is there a timeline for the PowerEdge 710? 18 months?
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Uoeap, if memory bandwidth intensive, can be more; if not, not much difference
DELL-ScottH You mean, end?
JasonPowell Right
erson Jasonpowell, you can expect hexacore Xeons next spring for DP systems
Intel_-_Scott_Huck Uoeap, depends on the application
DELL-ScottH Geeze, you crazy? I'm supposed to answer that in public
JasonPowell I need to get my rep to shoot me road maps
JasonPowell Lol
wantmoore Does your rep still talk to you? :)
DELL-ScottH Yes, that would be the correct answer...ding ding ding
DELL-DavidJMorse Jason, about as long as the PowerEdge 2950 was around (guessing), but we expect them to have longevity
erson Seems to be me who tells my sales rep about all the new Dell stuff. :) Shouldn't it be the other way around? ;)
Novell2NT I agree with that
DELL-ScottH How about you all come down and have a briefing, and then we can hang out in the TechCenter lab?
Novell2NT I'm there...
JasonPowell Someday! :-)
wantmoore Send us tickets
DELL-ScottH How about I rent a big bus and we have a cross-country round trip?
wantmoore Sounds sweet
erson Dell-scotth, Sure, Dell pays for my flight over the water?
wantmoore Erson, start rowing dude
DELL-ScottH Define water: Bathtub? Kitchen sink?
erson The Atlantic
JasonPowell That'd be awesome...roving Dell TechCenter
Novell2NT Singing `kumbaya'"
DELL-ScottH Hmmm...like wantmoore said, “start rowing dude”
wantmoore Didn’t AMD do something like that when they launched Athlon 64?
erson I would expect some big Dell tour about all the latest releases
perduedt Will there be a Dell R5500 rack workstation? If so, is its availability also “imminent?”
wantmoore Yeah, Dell needs to do an 11th-generation dog and pony @ Ruth's Chris :)
DELL-ScottH Promise to keep a secret?
erson I'm off to a Dell event here in Sweden in three weeks with all the new hardware
DELL-ScottH Mike! You missed all the fun; somebody send him a time machine
erson Scotth, he he, remember what happened last time when you told people secrets ;)
Novell2NT We could all meet in Amsterdam
DELL-ScottH You can use Action, Recent Room History to catch up, or wait for the transcript tomorrow
JasonPowell Scotth, does Dell have any videos showcasing behind-the-scenes stuff like the latest HP one?
DELL-ScottH @erson, oh yeah (rubs the bruises on his back)
DELL-ScottH Link to HP?
Mike_W Thanks, I got dragged into a meeting at the last minute
JasonPowell http://h30423.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?fr_story=ea3202e8a839a8c438dc2761e7d62fabeff1a9cc&rf=bm
erson I wonder where Dell gets their SSDs from
JasonPowell Dell needs something similar/better
erson STEC perhaps, but the sizes don't seem to match their ordinary line
erson Jasonpowell, yeah, watched that HP video today at work...pretty nice
DELL-ScottH @jason, hmmm, let me watch that; maybe I can get Bruce to allow us to do something. I have a hard time watching Paul G from HP; he was here at Dell for many years
JasonPowell Fast forward to about four minutes for the good geek stuff
JasonPowell Doh
Novell2NT SSDs are not listed when customizing T610
erson But Scotth is much more sweet to the eye than Paul Gottsegen ::laugh
erson Novell2nt, listed on R710 on Dell.se at least
perduedt Scott, will there be a Dell R5500?
DELL-ScottH But you guys get access to behind-the-scenes guys through this chat; isn't that better than watching them staticly?
JasonPowell Not to pimp HP...I thought it was a good video and immediately thought, “Dang, Dell needs something like this
DELL-ScottH @perduedt, not sure. I'm more of server guy, but check in few days on the Web. If not, ping me and I'll check for you: scott_hanson@dell.com
perduedt Thanks
JasonPowell Thanks again for the chat, Scotth. You rock
UOEAP Thank you guys
DELL-ScottH Glad to be here! You guys rock too. Maybe we should have a rock band jam on the Dell bus?
JasonPowell Sure thing! I just have to remember to bring my pick. I still can't make my body adjust to not using a pick
DELL-ScottH Durkinr, just wrapping up this chat. You can read the transcript tomorrow, and ask any questions by starting a thread on the transcript page
durkinr Okay
DELL-ScottH Do they make special rock band picks?
JasonPowell I'm sure someone does. I just use my old Tortex still laying around
JasonPowell Nice
JasonPowell /me fist pump
DELL-ScottH Joraye! You are late! Fired!
erson /me wants iDRAC 6 Enterprise
joraye_knight I know! I had the old time on my outlook!
erson Haven't wrapped my head around the vFlash feature yet though
erson Scotth, is there any documentation out yet on iDRAC 6?
DELL-ScottH All yeah, probably get some stragglers
DELL-ScottH Erson, stuff will trickle up to this site
erson Scotth, great
SiriusTech Thanks for the valuable information. I was interested in the 5500 Xeon lineup since autumn 2008, and at that time I was considering a 5400 system, but seems like the waiting was worth it. Great job with implementing the QPI architecture and all the other features resulting in greater efficiency and performance; hoping for an X5550-based workstation soon
DELL-ScottH Okay, too many open windows, time to get some "real" work done
erson Siriustech, dual chipset with an insane amount of PCIE lanes wouldn't be bad...not bad at all
joraye_knight Looks like I missed any convo on our new 11th-generation systems. I got to play with them in person yesterday, and I was definitely impressed
SiriusTech @erson, indeed. From the perspective of a 3D designer, this is a great feat
erson Scotth, I'm hoping for some upcoming chats about the particular models. Is that something that we can expect?
DELL-ScottH We are defining our road map for upcoming chats, and will take that under consideration
erson Has there been a Hyper-V chat?
erson Yes, found the transcripts
DELL-ScottH Yeah, we had several of those last year; good, was about to URL-slap you :-)
erson Think Hyper-V will take off when 2008 R2 is released?
DELL-ScottH You on Twitter? Can't remember
erson Nope, haven't really understood the point yet; but I try to peek at you and Powell on Twitter
DELL-ScottH I tweet a lot of stuff, maybe just follow us tech geeks ... jason is good follow
erson What's the perk compared to IM and IRC? Other than that anyone can follow you
DELL-ScottH Hmmm, like lazy man's IM…no need to respond...and you can mark tweets as favorites and look at them later...makes it like an RSS feed, but better because you never know what interesting stuff will pop up
erson Scotth, do you know any secrets about any upcoming PowerConnect releases? I'm pondering in investing heavily in 6248 and would be sad if they were replaced shortly after purchase
DELL-ScottH Gimme a second; let me look at something
JasonPowell Why Twitter? http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/2009/03/people-still-askisnt-twitter-a-waste-of-time.html
erson We're going to choose a vendor for network equipment, and HP was on top of the list until my sales rep gave me a really good discount, so we might be going with PowerConnect instead. Would like to know what you can do with the PowerConnect switches with DMC, but haven't found much—and my god the DMC is slow :) I use it on a dedicated 2650 and it's slow as hell
DELL-ScottH Define slow; have you seen the FAQ?
joraye_knight @jasonpowell, that's a great article. I'm going to somehow re-tweet you :)
JasonPowell That's from my boss who just got her first book published
erson Yeah, read the requirements but this will do for the first test
DELL-ScottH Oh cool, didn't realize that was your boss. I just tweeted it too. Great link and read
JasonPowell @kemmeyer is her twittername
DELL-ScottH Erson: http://en.community.dell.com/groups/dell_management_console/wiki/dmc-faq.aspx, very bottom
erson Scotth, great, thanks
joraye_knight I just retweeted Scott, I love being able to point things out like that to people who are not familiar with Twitter. It's turning out to be a great tool for Dell with the social media announcements
JasonPowell Yes, I'm impressed by how social aware Dell has become
DELL-ScottH Erson
erson Yes?
DELL-ScottH Closing this window; ping me on twitter…except for you, Erson
erson Jasonpowell, read the blog post you posted, might be worth to try Twitter after all—or rather the URL to the blog post you posted in the chat
erson Okay, thanks for tonight guys. See you next time