Ubuntu runs on POWER8. That's likely not news to many of you. But what hopefully is news, is that you're not allowed to say "So what?" any more. (Call it "Randall's Rule of POWER"). By doing so, you discount that which can power the future.
Remember the future?
I recently stumbled on a fresh analysis of IBM POWER8 vs "something else". Here's what stood out, and what one author has called a "thrashing":
POWER8 offers:
- 8 threads per core (compared to 2)
- twice the amount of L2 Cache memory per core
- almost twice as much L3 Cache
- a L4 Cache using buffer chips (compared to no L4 cache)
- much higher clock speeds
- 12 sockets for Coherent SMP (compared to 2)
- 8 core systems at less than 50% the cost of "something else" having 12 cores.
- 12 core systems at around 70% of the cost "something else" having 18 cores
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
You can read the whole article here, for free: https://www.business-cloud.com/articles/news/ibm-power8-thrashes-intel-xeon
If you're a developer, you might be excited by these specs. Get your code executing as fast as possible (but no faster.)
And if you're not a developer then maybe you'd be excited to run your business (or your institution, or your organization) on hardware that's cheaper, faster, and more future-oriented.
Future is now! Check out and join OpenPOWER to get involved. http://openpowerfoundation.org/2015-summit/
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Image CC BY-SA 2.0 by Torley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/torley
