Posts by Fenton

AMD is now following More's Law: More chips, more money, more pressure on Intel, more competition in the x86 space

Non AMD compatible

The only piece of Enterprise software I know that does not run on AMD is SAP HANA, but this is purely an artificial limitation imposed by SAP (I have heard AMD themselves are running HANA on Epyc).

To get this market and in light of Intels delays, AMD really need to think about the 4 Socket market for very large memory foot prints e.g. larger than 8TB, where they can then also start competing with IBM and Power.

AMD have always been great innovators, first to dual core, first to SIMD instructions, first to integrated memory controller, and first to x86-64, I see the as a modern day digital/Sun. Great innovators not neseccarily good at execution/marketing but Lisa sure is turning that around.

AMD pushes 64-core 4.2GHz Ryzen Threadripper Pro workstation processors

8 Channel Memory will however give it a massive performance boost in some scenarios

We're in a timeline where Dettol maker has to beg folks not to inject cleaning fluid into their veins. Thanks, Trump

Raking

At least his idea of raking a forest was harmless.

His idea of buying Greenland was bonkers but again relatively harmless (diplomacy aside)

His idea of building a well, financially bonkers but not a killer (directly anyway)

But mentioning fish tank cleaner and bleach to cure Covid is beyond the pale especially as he knows

he has a lot of uneducated supporters (not showing your love of them here are you Trump)

Surly somebody in his family has to guts to tell him to think before he

opens his mouth.

Airbus and Rolls-Royce hit eject on hybrid-electric airliner testbed after E-Fan X project fails to get off the ground

Re: Electric planes?

Weight problem aside you can increase efficiency quite a bit by having a central engine charging a small amount of batteries which power electric motors. The problem with gas turbines is they are very efficient at constant load (e.g. cruise), but quite fuel hungry at full boost (take off/Landing) also they don't respond. that quickly to changes in speed.

Whereas an electric motor responds very quickly to speed changes and if you have enough battery power (generated during cruise or charged on the ground) for the high thrust parts of the flight envelope you can increase efficiency quite a bit.

Needs a new generation of solid state batteries to work properly in an aircraft setting mind.

NASA to launch 247 petabytes of data into AWS – but forgot about eye-watering cloudy egress costs before lift-off

Egress? Surely this is ingress!

You pay for Egress but generally not for ingress.

In deepest darkest Surrey, an on-prem SAP system running 17-year-old software is about to die....

Re: Someone tell them about AWS

Cloning is not possible if it's a RISC based system.

AppSheet. Gesundheit! Oh, we see – it's Google pulling no-code development into a cloudy embrace

Spreadsheet replacement

There has to be room for something to sit between a properly developed app and a spreadsheet.

Myself as a non-developer have created a number of "applications" in excel, only to find out that a spreadsheet is totally the wrong tool.

It needs to be duplicated again and again for each project (surely just needs a project key field), then you have endless tables for lookups (mmmm maybe a relational database is needed), very quickly the spreadsheet goes out of control taking 30mins on a fast machine, because I've updated one key field and 1000s of rows and 10s of tabs will suddenly be updated.

The closest I've found is "access" and Googles App Maker, but again if you want to do anything remotely interesting or outside of the tutorials or templates you need to be in full developer mode and any documentation for the intermediate user is non existent.

AMD rips covers off 64-core Threadripper desktop monster, plus laptop chips, leaving Intel gesturing vaguely at 2021

Re: AMD must be more broad in software support

I think that is a little unfair, we just don't hear much about the Linux/Enterprise side. Given the rise of EPYC and the use of EPYC CPUs and Navi GPUs for Google Stadia which is based on Linux.

Thats why you have EPYC which can support 4TB per Socket.

Google throws new version of Dart at the desktop, will be hoping it sticks with app devs

What about a language for mere mortals

I'm still waiting for a cross platform environment for simpletons like me.

The closest I've found has been visual basic for the desktop and appmaker.

But I often feel developers develop languages for full time developers, Rather than somebody who just wants to build a quick and dirty tool as they have exhausted what they can do in a spreadsheet.

DXC Technology warns techies that all travel MUST now be authorised

Not a new Policy

This was in place at CSC years ago.

Hard work trying to tell a customer you could not see them for two weeks when they had an urgent request for help.

Also budget was £20 a night for food. So glad I left.

Tech lobbyists turn on Trump over Mexican tariffs, then quickly try to smooth the waters

Re: Trump is right

This just makes the situation worse.

A) Any goods coming from Mexico will just be more expensive for the average US consumer causing inflation which in turn will mean higher interest rates.

B) Hardship in Mexico will be even worse driving more people towards the boarder and the so called promised land.

Trust the public cloud Big Three to make non-volatile storage volatile

Not surprising

Same will happen in any environment where Nvme drives are locally attached.

Same would happen in a VMware environment unless you Vmote the storage.

At some point remote storage in Cloud (and on Prem.) Will move to Nvme.

So personally I don't see the problem.

Apple's launch confirms one thing: It's determined to kill off the laptop for iPads

Re: Future ARM laptops

The latency will kill you when moving around a 3D wire mesh, the more complex the object the more the latency will kill you. I doubt the average browser will be able to cache the size of a typical CAD file

If you want to rent AMD Epyc bare-metal boxes in the cloud, Oracle hopes you see red

Want to run Oracle on the server? That will be 64cores if licenses please. Plus the $0.03 per core per hour.

Cisco turns to AMD Epyc for the first time in new UCS model

Re: hot chips

Cisco do a C880 (which is actually a OEM Fujitsu), HPE (who now own SGI) and also Atos Bull all do 8 Socket boxes as well as IBM Power

But if you need any sort of high availability you will always need at least two.

If your workload can be split up much better going for smaller nodes with one spare.

Industry whispers: Qualcomm mulls Arm server processor exit

Memory Costs

These days with such high core counts it's generally the memory costs that determine the server cost.

Do you run a single server with high core counts and high memory requiring 64GB or 128GB Dimms or lost of small ARM servers with 16/32GB Dimms. All of a sudden real estate becomes an issue.

Why a merged Apple OS is one mash-up too far

Nothing wrong with a merger OS

Having a common kernel is a good idea, what Apple should do is think about different personae depending on form factor which will have to be adhered to my software vendors, I.e. a cut down interface with different functionality in mobile mode and a full desktop experience when linked to a monitor and keyboard/mouse.

I actually quite like some of the touch features in windows 10 in desktop mode

NAND chips are going to stay too pricey for flash to slit disk's throat...

Cost per GB per IOP

When taking IOPS into account the price per GB goes up massively with spinning rust.

Many cabinets of spinning rust can be replaced by a few U of SSDs.

Say HCI is an enhanced server. If you don't already sell 'em, it could be game over, man

Scale-up?

Scale-up seems to have been forgotten here and what about Azure stack. Again DellEmc has an advantage here.

Three become one: Dell EMC's VxBlock range is now a seriously big iron

Re: "Hyperconverged"

Now Hyperconverged is something entirely different.

But converged/Hyperconverged also means, get all your support and lifecycle management from one place. Rather than constant finger pointing and time wasted working out which patches/firmware updates work together across different vendors.

Honda pores over in-car navigation software with Alibaba – report

Android auto or Apple Car

I've given up on the built in SatNav, even on the new car. Most car systems are now Android Auto or apple car compatible, with Waze now available as an Android Auto enabled app (Yippeeee)

Core blimey: Dell dunks hyperconverged server lines in Skylake

Re: Welcome, took you long enough

Dell servers have been skylake enabled for ages, it is just the VxRail HCI solution that has now been validated for skylake with ESXi and VSAN, hence the HCI appliance can be shipped with Skylake

Munich council finds €49.3m for Windows 10 embrace

Non paid for support

Think about all of the non paid for support in most departments.

e.g. Barry in Accounts has a small issue with windows (does not know how to do something), So shouts out, "Does anybody know how to do XYZ".

Shiela in also in accounts says yes and helps Barry.

Now most people in an office know windows/office to some degree as they have used it either at home or in another job.

Now if you have a linux desktop with Libre Office, the probability of somebody knowing how to do something goes down massivily.

Even worse is something does not work in Linux, you do a quick google and the answer is to run some horrid (to the end user) bash command to fix something.

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

Apple Pay?

So if the only biometric system on the phone does not work, you surely can't use apple pay?

Or can you use apple pay with a pin unlock?

DXC slashes meal allowances for travelling troops: Please sir, may I have some more?

Rates have gone up?

When I was there it was £20 for an evening meal. (you made sure you booked a hotel with breakfast included) and that was it.

So if you ended up working late which was not unusual and got back to the hotel at say 9/10pm the last thing you wanted to do was go in search of a cheap place to eat.

Even the cheapest burger in the hotel was often £15. Add in a couple of drinks (even non alcoholic) and a side and your £20 budget is blown

SPARC will fly: Your cheat sheet for cocktail banter at Oracle's upcoming shindig

Re: SPARC worlds fastest

The last benchmark Oracle released for SAP was 2016, An 8 Socket Machine with 256 Cores.

Giving a SAPs per core performance of 2787. A total SAPs score of 713480.

In the same year a Dell Poweredge R730 had a SAPs per core of 2677. Yes this was only a 2 Socket box with a SAPs rating of 117780.

The same server with Skylake has a per core SAPs rating of 3129.

So yes SPARC won on overall numbers. However I am yet to meet the customer who has a DB server requirement of 713480 SAPS.

Even a requirement of 117780 SAPs for a DB server is very rare. Yes the whole landscape might require lots of SAPs but a bunch of 2 Socket x86 servers will a) be cheaper, b) won't have all your eggs in one basket.

Yes there are workloads that have been tuned for SPARC, likewise for intel. At the end of the day it comes down to cost. x86 is a good enough workhorse at a far cheaper price.

DXC squeezes suppliers for extra margin, issues ultimatum

SAD

Ex CSC myself

I find it very sad what has become of the one big outsourcing companies.

Companies with hundreds of technical/functional consultants and analysts and

Programmers. They could have come up with innovative SaaS solutions new ways

of doing business, but they forgot their DNA. Instead the good left sometimes ending

up in start ups.

Alas the accountants and restructuring managers are in charge.

Oracle softly increments SPARC M7 to M8, then whispers: We'll still love you, Solaris, to 2034

Re: Come out early ?

Pity they have only 7 years left of selling to the SAP market well actually probably only another 2 to 3 years.

AWS: Don't be a SAP, get one of our massive HANA boxes

Virtustream

IBM have obviously not heard of Virtustream who can x86 up to 16TB with HANA

UK.gov unveils six areas to pilot full-fat fibre, and London ain't on the list

Very odd. I live in London and already have fibre to the home, currently the max offer is 300Mb but surely just needs a switch upgrade at the exchange.

Alas my internal home network is nowhere near that speed so anything over 200Mb would be wasted (damn victoran terrace houses with no hollow walls, so have to rely on powerline and wifi)

Oracle staff report big layoffs across Solaris, SPARC teams

Killed the customer based

With Oracle purchasing Sun, they effectivly killed off any software/hardware partnerships that where out there.

If Sun where still independent would they have maintained a good partnership with SAP such that a HANA port would have been on the cards (like it is with IBM power).

Would they have had a greater relationship with developers who would have embraced SPARC/Solaris as a development platform.

The second Oracle came on board the software providers went, urgh not a friendly competitor/partner, I'll stick to x86 with Power as our only RISC based system.

Microsoft sets the date for Fall Creators Update

Decent backup

Not particularly an Apple fan but Indo like time machine.

I'd love a backup utility that will back up a full install with apps installed and files/documents restored seperatly.

Server vendors board the Xeon SP party bus

Forgot a couple

Dell, Cisco

Vblock tags in Vxblock: Move is a 'simplification' for punters

Re: There are viable alternative

But do you get the single point of call, a patch set (RCM) that has been tested against the entire stack including the hypervisor and provisioning software be that Enterprise hybrid cloud or pivotal cloud foundry?

That is the value proposition of the VxBlock.

Intel to Qualcomm and Microsoft: Nice x86 emulation you've got there, shame if it got sued into oblivion

AMD

Interesting one for AMD though. They hold an x86 license and have an ARM chip, could they legally bake x86 emulation into ARM?

Coming Xeon 'scalable' family will run SAP HANA '1.6 times faster'

Re: And the software licenses will cost how much?

Yes they do.

Cisco/Dell/EMC/Lenovo all offer systems with 3TB of RAM

Microsoft founder Paul Allen reveals world's biggest-ever plane

Another idea

Rather than design a large aircraft to carry the payload up to a certain height. Why not design a smaller aircraft that attaches to the payload (with it's own fuel), that uses the engines on the payload.

The Payload then drops the aircraft bit, which flys itself home.

No need for large fusalages, automate the whole thing with no need for people on board.

BA CEO blames messaging and networks for grounding

Hardware vs software

Even if the hardware is locally maintained, it's the software that goes tits up when the hardware fails. And it's the software management that has been oursourced.

The software is old and does not have automated resyncing (taking referencial integrety into account),

there are likely to be hundreds of little scripts that have been created to get around functionality gaps, many of which will not have been documented or architected properly (likely to have been created to fix a P1 issue).

I've been part of many an outsourcing deal, with perspecitive from both sides.

The recipient doesn't know what they don't know, the people giving up the system don't know what they have forgotten and are generally pissed off they may be redundent soon.

The best moves have been the ones where a ground up review/re-write/rearchitect/retest have been part of the move adding new functionality, plugging gaps properly and properly re-testing.

Michael Dell? More like Michael in-Dell-nial: No public cloud, no future

Well they already have an enterprise class cloud with virtustream.

Also why build a cloud when you can hook into existing clouds, without the need to build them.

AWS can now take on VMware workloads.

DellEMC storage can use existing cloud storage providers as an additional storage tier within

and array. You can even backup to existing cloud storage providers out of the box.

My personal opinion. Why go out to the cloud, why not invite the cloud into your own data center.

I.e. offer you spare capacity out to the cloud providers who can then distribute/create HA nodes

on a smaller granular level, thus taking the risk away from large sites.

Chap 'fixes' Microsoft's Windows 7 and 8 update block on new CPUs

Does not Compute

So the hack lets you get new updates, compiled for the previous architecture. Will never have been tested on the newer chips, so may well end up with performance issues/stability problems?

Time to move on I think.

AWS v Oracle: Mark Hurd schooled on how to run a public cloud that people actually use

Virtualisation

Why the hell would you not run DBs on Virtual machines?

30% overhead? Not seen those kinds of overheads for years.

90% of DBs I see out in the marketplace, do not require anywhere near the amount of

compute capacity available on modern platforms with 18+Cores per Socket in a two Socket server.

If you have the kinds of requirements for 8+ Sockets for a DB then you probably want to run the DB on Prem anyway or at least in a private/sourcing deal as no cloud can provide the kind on SLAs needed with such a DB which is likely to be business critical. (Or the company is crap at archiving data)

'Clearance sale' shows Apple's iPad is over. It's done

Keypad and touch screen

Why do you need both? You don't but if you are typing on a keyboard it is quicker using the trackpad that is only a thumb away than the screen.

AMD does an Italian job on Intel, unveils 32-core, 64-thread 'Naples' CPU

Re: But What About Purley?

We can get a good indication of the performance differences when we look at the Ryzen benchmarks against the desktop skylake processors that include the new AVX instructions.

As an example in Cinebench

Ryzen 1800X achieves a single threaded score of 162 and a multithreaded score of 1637 (16 threads)

10:1 MT/ST ratio

Intel 6900K Also achieves 162 and a multithreaded score of 1490

9.12:1 MT/ST ratio

Intel i7-7770k (skylake) achieves 201 and 985 (with 8 threads only)

Lets assume a 16 thread skylake will run at the same 4.2-4.5Ghz and has double the multithreaded performance of the i7-7770k the multithreaded result would be 1970

9.8 MT/ST ratio

But are we likely to see a 16 thread skylake run at that frequency range?

Re: But What About Purley?

From what I have read, the are creating a common socket for E5/E7 yes they may get a different name, but the E5 equivalent will have the AVX accelerator and the E7 the XML acceerator. Personally I'd love them to merge the lines as currently the software I deal with in only certified on E7 and the associated servers carry a large price premium.

Re: But What About Purley?

I assume you mean the Skylake server release?

Not a massive jump in IPC from Broadwell to Skylake and Skylake to Kaby Lake even less so.

The E5 2699v5 is rumored to only have 28 cores (although a 32core rumor has also been spotted).

But the clock speed rumor is only 1.8GHz, So I think this will be neck and neck, Skylake with a little higher IPC but fewer cores, is may just come down to Multi-threading efficiency and frequency)

Check out the Ryzen Benchmarks

You will see that in most workloads except Gaming the Ryzen pretty much equals Intel and beats Broadwell-E.

It looks to be a very good multithreader, even with a little less IPC it appears to be far more efficient

in multi-threading workloads than intel.

Ryzen

So why do we not have any articles on Ryzen that was released last week?

Cynical Apple gouges UK with 20 per cent price hike

Which Market is Apple trying to target?

I'm really getting confused about the market Apple is trying to target these days.

Creatives? So if you do photographic/Film work you need lots of memory! But you can't go beyond 16GB.

If you want to be creative on the move and use all of that processing power, your battery won't last with such a thin device.

Any creative I know is very particular about desk appearance/tidyness, yet no Apple docking station, so you have endless adapters clogging up desk space that can easily fall out when working. And you probably have a number of external devices. Cameras/Screen Calibration devices/Tablets/Scanners, etc

Remember when Apple released the Dustbin MacPro with two Graphics cards? Where was the 5K monitor to go with it. They released the iMac with a 5K Monitor at the same time.

Business users? Well at this price point, strained corporate budgets will not stretch to these prices, and do you want to risk the chance of loosing that VGA/HDMI adapter before you turn up to a customer site?

Apple need to refresh MacOS to make it tough friendly and catch up with convertibles, consider who actually uses a MacBook Pro.

Alas they have become the B&O/Bose of the IT world when it comes to computers. Form over function!

MS have really managed to out Apple Apple with the new Surface range. (regardless what you thing of Windows 10)

AMD is a rounding error on Intel's spreadsheet and that sucks for us all

Third parties

Whilst AMD chips have not been able to compete with Intel at the high end, APUs have been great performers for the price.

However third party Laptop makers have only every paired these chips with crap hardware, preferring to put equivalent Intel chips into "Premium" laptops.

I for one am hoping the Zen performs as promised especially in the server market.