Performance analysis of AlphaServer GS1280

This paper evaluates performance characteristics of the HP AlphaServer GS1280 shared-memory multiprocessor system. The GS1280 system contains up to 64 Alpha 21364 (EV7) CPUs connected together via a torus-based interconnect. We describe architectural features of the GS1280 system. We compare and contrast the GS1280 to the previous-generation Alpha systems (AlphaServer GS320 and ES45/SC45), as well as other-vendor systems (IBM, SUN, SGI). We characterize GS1280 performance using synthetic workloads that stress various system components (processor, memory, Interprocessor (IP) links, and I/O. We then expand the analysis to the real workloads, including standard benchmarks, ISV/HPTC and commercial applications, and customer benchmarks. We characterize these applications using built-in performance counter tools (Xmesh). Based on the data, we provide guidelines (software and hardware/configuration) for improving GS1280 performance.