Compaq 6000, Compaq PW8000, 299300-006 - Professional - 5100, Professional 5100, Professional 8000 Supplementary Manual
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November 1998
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Compaq Computer
Corporation
ISSD Technol ogy
Communications
ONTENTS
C
Introducti on
Architectur e Overvi ew
Advanced SMP
Pentium Pro Processor
Pentium II Proces sor
Dual Memor y Buses
Dual-Peer PCI Buses
Multiple Drives
Alternati ve
Architectur es
Typical NT/ X86
Architecture
Unified Memory
Architecture
Crossbar Switc h
Architecture
AGPset Architect ure
Conclusion
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ECG066/1198
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ECHNOLOGY
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Highly Parallel System Architecture for
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Compaq Professional Workstations
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5100, 6000, and 8000
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As critical applications for financial analysis, computer-aided design (CAD), computer-
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aided engineering (CAE), and digital content creation (DCC) place growing demands on
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system resources, increasing system bandwidth becomes a critical business issue. After
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evaluating available system architectures, Compaq determined that only a new, highly
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parall el s ys t em a r ch i t ecture could p r ovide the requ i r ed l evel s o f p er f o r ma n ce, processo r
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and I/O expandability, and bandwidth to satisfy the needs of workstation users. Compaq
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is therefore implementing a new architecture that delivers the greatest bandwidth
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available today for systems running such demanding applications under the Microsoft
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Windows NT operating system.
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This technology brief describes the new Highly Parallel System Architecture and
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differentiates it from other architectures used in X86 systems.
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Please direct comments regarding this communication to the ISSD Technology Communications Group at this Internet address:
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TechCom@compaq.com
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B
RIEF
ECG066/1198
ECHNOLOGY BRIEF
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OTICE
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The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided “AS IS”
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WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE
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OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ
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BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTI AL, INC I DE NT AL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE
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OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION,
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DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF
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BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN I F COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVI SE D OF T HE
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POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
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The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation
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accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or
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additional warranty.
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This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested.
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The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available
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solution. This test is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure
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compliance with any federal state or local requirements.
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Compaq, Contura, Deskpro, Fastar t , Compaq In sight Manager, LTE, PageMar q, Systempro,
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Systempro/LT, ProLiant, TwinTray, ROMPaq, LicensePaq, QVision, SLT, ProLinea, SmartStart,
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NetFlex, DirectPlus, QuickFind, RemotePaq, BackPaq, TechPaq, SpeedPaq, QuickBack, PaqFax,
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Presario, SilentCool, CompaqCare (design), Aero, SmartStation, MiniStation, and PaqRap,
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ProSignia, Concerto, Vocalyst, and MediaPilot are registered with the United States Patent and
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Tradema rk Office.
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Change is Good, Compaq Capital, Colinq, Armada, SmartQ, Counselor, CarePaq, Netelligent,
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Smart Uplink , Ext ended Repeater A rchitectu re, Scalabl e C lock Archit ecture, QuickChoi ce,
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Systempro/XL, Net1, LTE Elite, PageMate, SoftPaq, FirstPaq, SolutionPaq, EasyPoint, EZ Help,
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MaxLight, MultiLock, QuickBlank, QuickLock, UltraView, Innovate logo, and Compaq PC Card
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Solution logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer Corporation.
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Micr osoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows NT Advanced Ser ver, SQL Server for Win d ows NT
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are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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NetWare and Novell are registered tra demarks and Intran etWar e, NDS, and Novel l Dir ectory
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Services are t rademar k s of Novell, Inc.
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Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.
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Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
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respective companies.
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©1998 Compaq Computer Corporation. All ri ghts reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
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Highly Parallel System Architecture for Compaq Professional
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Workstations 5100, 6000, and 8000
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Second Edition (November 1998)
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ECG066/1198
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(cont.)
ECG066/1198
ECHNOLOGY BRIEF
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NTRODUCTION
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Achieving greater system bandwidth is a critical issue to businesses running applications for such
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demanding tasks as financial analysis, computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided
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engineering (CAE), and digital content creation (DCC). As a technology leader, Compaq
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anticipated the growing need for increased bandwidth and pursued possible solutions. As a result
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of its R&D efforts, Compaq is one of the first computer companies to implement a unique new
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architecture th a t provides the greatest bandwidth possible today for X86 systems runn i ng such
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demanding applications under the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. The high bandwidth
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results from a highly parallel system architecture design.
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The Highly Parallel System Architecture consists of parallel processors, parallel memory
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controllers, and parallel input/output (I/O). This new architecture is based on high-performance
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Intel Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors along with the memory and I/O subsystems that
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support them. It in cludes a new standards-based memory architecture tha t provides significantly
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greater bandwidth than traditional memory architectures by using dual memory controllers.
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These memory controllers independently process memory requests in parallel, thereby effectively
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doubling the memory bandwidth of traditional architectures. The new architecture also supports
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dual-peer PCI buses that double I/O bandwidth and allow for more I/O expandability. The new
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architecture is being implemented initially in two Compaq products, the Compaq Professional
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Workstation 6000 and th e Compaq Professional Workstation 8000.
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This technology brief provides an overview of the new architecture and explains how it differs
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from other architectur es used in X86 systems.
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RCHITECTURE OVERVIEW
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Unli k e any pr evi ou s architectur e u s ed in X8 6 s ystem s , th e new ar chit ectur e bei ng implem ented by
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Compaq incorporates a highly parallel system design. As the block diagram in Figure 1
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indicates, the new architecture offers parallelism in multiple ways. It supports symmetric
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multiprocessing (SMP) with up to four Pentium Pro processors or two Pentium II processors. It
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supports dual-peer PCI buses to provide an aggregate PCI bus bandwidth of up to 267 MB/s. It
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also features dual memory controllers that deliver a peak aggregate memory bandwidth of 1.07
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GB/s.
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This high degree of hardware parallelism for critical subsystems such as processor, memory, and
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I/O maximizes system bandwidth to improve performance in demanding, resource-intensive
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applications. Hardware parallelism of this architecture can be increased even more if the system
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configuration includes an optional Compaq drive array controller that can increase performance
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in d isk-bound ap p lications by accessi ng data in para llel from multiple disk drives.
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DVANCED
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It is widely recognized that SMP has been supported on both RISC/UNIX workstations an d
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server s for a n u mber of years. Most peop le do not , however, associate Microsoft Windows NT
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Workstation and the applications that run on it with SMP. Windows NT Workstation does
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support SMP; and for runni ng many demanding appl i cations in finance, computer-aided design,
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comput er-aided engineeri ng, and d igit al content creat ion, wor k s tati on users can rea p the ben efits
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of SMP. Many simulations and analyses performed on workstations in technical computing
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environm ents requi re tremen dous nu mbers of calcula tions t hat can t ake h ours or even days to
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complete. Fortunately, many of these applications are multi-threaded or otherwise lend
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themselves well to multiprocessing. Therefore, a single user of a workstation can take full
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advantage of multiple processors.
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SMP
ECG066/1198
ECHNOLOGY BRIEF
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Figure 1. Block diagram of the Highly Parallel System Architecture as implemented in the Compaq
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Professional Workstation 6000. This architecture supports up to f our pr ocessors i n the Compaq
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Professional Workstation 8000.
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The new Highly Parallel System Architecture implemented by Compaq provides excellent
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scalability for increased system performance. It supports the use of multiple Intel Pentium Pro
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processors or I ntel Penti um II p rocessors . Each of th es e p rocessors has a dvantages for s p ecific
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comput ing environments; therefore, C om p aq is u s ing each of these processors i n n ew product s
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being d evel op ed to meet t he widest possible ran ge of customer need s.
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Pentium Pro Processor
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The Pentium Pro processor family is Intel's current generation of processors for high-end
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desktops, workstations, and servers. This product family consists of processors running at clock
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speeds of 150 MHz to 200 MHz with level 2 (L2) memory cache sizes of either 256 KB or 512
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KB. The Compaq Professional Workstation 8000 will use the 200-MHz Pentium Pro processor
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with an in t egra t ed 512-KB L2 cache that run s at t he core processor speed of 200 MHz. The high-
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speed processor and cache provide top performan ce. Because the larger 512-KB L2 cache holds
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more instructions, it provides a higher cache hit ra t e th a n the 256-KB cache. The higher cache
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hit rate reduces memory bus traffic and therefore increases performance and scalability of the
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system.
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Pentium II Processor
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The Pentium II processor is the next generation P6 processor from Intel. Formerly code named
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Klamath
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versions, each with an int egra t ed 512-KB L2 cache. Compaq is implementing 266-MHz and
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300-MHz Pentium II processors in the Compaq Professional Workstation 6000.
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The Pentium II processor provides some enhancements over the Pentium Pro processor, but it also
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has some limitations. The Pentium II processor incorporates Intel’s MultiMedia Extensions
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(MMX) technology. MMX is the name for 57 multimedia instructions that Intel has added to its
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new generation of processors. This instruction set is expected to significantly improve the
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performance of processor-intensive multimedia applications that are MMX-aware. MMX is
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tailored to audio, video, and other multimedia tasks. An MMX-equipped workstation will use
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only one instruction to execute the same task that a Pentium Pro processor would perform using
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4
Memory
Controller
, the Pentium II processor will be available in 233-MHz, 266-MHz, and 300-MHz
(cont.)
CPU CPU
Processor Bus
(533 MB/s)
Memory
Controller
Memory Bus
(533 MB/s)
Graphics
Controller
PCI
Controller
Controller
PCI Bus
(133 MB/s)
PCI Slots and
other Devices
PCI Slots and
other Devices
PCI
SCSI
Controller
Disk
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