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Understanding IBM Pseries Performance and Sizing Understanding IBM pSeries Performance and Sizing Comprehend IBM RS/6000 and IBM ^ pSeries hardware architectures Get an overview of current industry benchmarks Understand how to size your system Nigel Trickett Tatsuhiko Nakagawa Ravi Mani Diana Gfroerer ibm.com/redbooks SG24-4810-01 International Technical Support Organization Understanding IBM ^ pSeries Performance and Sizing February 2001 Take Note! Before using this information and the product it supports, be sure to read the general information in Appendix A, “Special notices” on page 377. Second Edition (February 2001) This edition applies to IBM RS/6000 and IBM ^ pSeries as of December 2000, and Version 4.3.3 of the AIX operating system. This document was updated on January 24, 2003. Comments may be addressed to: IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization Dept. JN9B Building 003 Internal Zip 2834 11400 Burnet Road Austin, Texas 78758-3493 When you send information to IBM, you grant IBM a non-exclusive right to use or distribute the information in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1997, 2001. All rights reserved. Note to U.S Government Users – Documentation related to restricted rights – Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Preface. 9 The team that wrote this redbook. 9 Comments welcome. 11 Chapter 1. Introduction . 1 Chapter 2. Background . 5 2.1 Performance of processors . 5 2.2 Hardware architectures . 6 2.2.1 RISC/CISC concepts . 6 2.2.2 Superscalar architecture: pipeline and parallelism . 7 2.2.3 Memory management . 11 2.2.4 PCI. 19 2.2.5 MP implementation specifics . 21 2.2.6 NUMA. 24 2.2.7 Logical partitioning (LPAR) . 26 2.3 AIX kernel . 28 2.3.1 Description . 28 2.3.2 Executable file formats . 29 2.3.3 Kernel and user mode . 30 2.3.4 I/O . 30 2.3.5 Context/Thread switches . 31 2.3.6 Virtual address space . 31 2.3.7 Demand paging . 32 2.3.8 Kernel scalability enhancements . 32 2.3.9 References. 32 2.4 64-bit architecture . 33 2.4.1 Concepts . 33 2.4.2 Addressability. 34 2.4.3 Advantages of 64-bit architecture . 35 2.4.4 Performance of 64-bit architecture . 36 2.4.5 Software considerations for 64-bit architecture . 37 2.4.6 64-bit operating system capabilities . 37 Chapter 3. IBM RS/6000 and IBM pSeries architectures . 39 3.1 POWER2 Super Chip . 39 3.2 POWER3 . 41 3.2.1 POWER3 execution core . 43 3.2.2 Memory access section . 44 3.2.3 POWER 3 II chip . 47 3.3 PowerPC . 50 © Copyright IBM Corp. 2001 3 3.3.1 PowerPC 604 and 604e . 50 3.3.2 Differences between 604 and 604e processors . 51 3.3.3 RS64 II processor. 52 3.3.4 RS64 III processor . 60 3.3.5 POWER4 . 72 Chapter 4. IBM RS/6000 and IBM pSeries products . 77 4.1 Symmetrical Multiprocessor (SMP). 77 4.1.1 Migrating to SMP . 77 4.1.2 Symmetrical Multiprocessor (SMP) concepts and architecture . 78 4.1.3 Software . 86 4.1.4 Scaling . 93 4.1.5 References. 98 4.2 Scalable POWERparallel (SP) . 98 4.2.1 Parallel architecture . 98 4.2.2 IBM SP (Scalable POWERparallel) system. 100 4.2.3 SP switch performance. 104 4.2.4 Shared disk components of Parallel System Support Programs 110 4.2.5 Sizing and configuring a control workstation . 113 4.2.6 Sizing and configuring an SP system . 115 4.2.7 Resources . 131 Chapter 5. Hardware. 133 5.1 Processors . 133 5.2 Memory . 134 5.2.1 Cache memory . 134 5.2.2 Addressing considerations . 135 5.2.3 Memory cycles . 140 5.2.4 Uniprocessor vs. symmetric multiprocessor memory cycles . 141 5.2.5 Miss rate penalty . 143 5.2.6 Effect of L2 cache. 144 5.2.7 Effect of processor speed . 146 5.3 Storage . 148 5.3.1 Performance view. 149 5.3.2 Levels of storage . 150 5.3.3 How an I/O request is processed . 151 5.3.4 How a disk works . 153 5.3.5 SCSI technology. 155 5.3.6 Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) . 160 5.3.7 RAID levels overview and performance considerations. 162 5.3.8 IBM Enterprise Storage Server (ESS). 167 5.3.9 Logical Volume Manager (LVM) concepts. 168 5.3.10 Raw logical volumes versus Journaled File Systems (JFS). 174 4 RS/6000 and IBM ^ pSeries Performance and Sizing 5.4 Asynchronous Communication adapters. 176 5.4.1 Terms used in serial communication. 176 5.4.2 Flow control . 178 5.4.3 Asynchronous adapter overview . 179 5.4.4 Evaluating asynchronous communications options . 179 5.4.5 Product selection considerations . 183 5.4.6 Topology considerations. 187 5.5 LAN/WAN Adapters . 187 5.5.1 Ethernet . 187 5.5.2 Token Ring. 190 5.5.3 Fibre Channel. 191 5.5.4 ATM . 192 5.5.5 General network tuning recommendations . 194 5.6 Graphics accelerators . 196 5.6.1 Currently available RS/6000 graphics accelerators. 199 5.6.2 IBM’s graphics workstations . ..
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