Intel Woodcrest: An Evaluation for Scientific Computing

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2007

OSTI ID:931771

Roth, Philip C ^[1]; Vetter, Jeffrey S ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Intel recently began shipping its Xeon 5100 series processors, formerly known by their 'Woodcrest' code name. To evaluate the suitability of the Woodcrest processor for high-end scientific computing, we obtained access to a Woodcrest-based system at Intel and measured its performance first using computation and memory micro-benchmarks, followed by full applications from the areas of climate modeling and molecular dynamics. For computational benchmarks, the Woodcrest showed excellent performance compared to a test system that uses Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), though its performance advantage for full applications was less definitive. Nevertheless, our evaluation suggests the Woodcrest to be a compelling foundation for future leadership class systems for scientific computing.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Center for Computational Sciences
• Sponsoring Organization: SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 931771
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
BENCHMARKS
COMPUTERS
EVALUATION
PERFORMANCE
SIMULATION