Expert View

September 17, 2004
64-bit computing processors improve performance, scalability: Sun

Geetanjali Wadhwa & Pradeep Chakraborty

NEW DELHI -- Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd., and AMD reinforced their tie-up to bring customers the enterprise-class benefits of Solaris OS, Linux and Java technology on their choice of UltraSPARC and x86 systems. By offering both Solaris and Linux, Sun's customers will have a choice of enterprise operating systems and access to thousands of applications. In addition, Sun's Java enterprise system will enable Sun's customers with AMD Opteron processor-based systems to develop and deploy applications in a simple, predictable, cost effective manner.

By supporting the 64-bit Linux and Windows platforms on the AMD Opteron processor, Sun is allowing companies to migrate their current Java applications from a 32-bit to 64-bit computing platform with little or no changes to the code, as well as enabling the development and deployment of new Java applications and Web services. Convergence plus met up with Ashutosh Kapoor, national product manager, Sun Microsystems, to learn more about the advantages of 64-bit computing and its relevance to India

CP: What are the advantages of 64-bit computing?

Ashutosh Kapoor: The primary advantages of 64-bit computing are as follows: 64-bit computing processors improve performance and scalability by processing more data per clock cycle, addressing more memory, and running faster numeric calculations. This is especially beneficial for workloads that are memory-intensive or compute-intensive, the performance and scalability benefits are often dramatic. The key benefits are as follows -- large data sets can be loaded entirely onto the memory, thereby improving disk access speeds; complex calculations that take hours to complete on 32-bit systems can be done in minutes; and workloads that once required large server farms can be deployed on a single server.

CP: Why is the initiative relevant to the Indian marketplace?

AK: 64-bit technology got a push in the Indian market with major Indian desktop PC brands backing it. While the mass adoption of 64-bit computing may take some time, we definitely expect the initial adoption to come from gaming, scientific research, animation, graphics, 3-D modeling and simulation, digital audio and video, which, as of today, are niche applications. In fact, 3D gaming applications and digital media applications will probably be the first categories to benefit from 64-bit computing on the desktop.

CP: How will this shift to 64-bit computing be a huge boon for consumers? Will it be a bumpy ride for the early adopters?

AK: It is the next MUST-have happening on the processor front. Leading chipmakers like AMD (Opteron) and Intel (Nacona) have already launched their 64-bit processors on x86 architecture. Opteron is the leader in this area and has a three-quarter lead over Intel. Obviously, having a 64-bit processor improves the performance of the systems. Traditionally, 64-bit used to be available only on RISC systems like Sun's SPARC, but the architecture was different. However, if the customer wants to retain the x86 infrastructure and grow to use 64-bit, Solaris OS and AMD Opteron can help him do that without adding any hardware cost. So, neither is it going to be ride bumpy nor is it early. Anyway, all of the leading brands like Sun, IBM, HP and Dell are launching their 64-bit systems with Intel or AMD processors.

CP: How good will be a 64-bit CPU without a 64-bit OS? A 32-bit OS will use half the processor's registers, thus limiting its computing ability.

AK: There is no use of using a 64-bit CPU on a 32-bit OS like Windows NT. One must have a 64-bit supporting OS like Solaris to be able to take advantage of a 64-bit CPU. The Solaris OS supports both 32- and 64-bit hardware. Customers with 32-bit hardware can run the Solaris OS and take the advantage of the many features in the Solaris OS that are not explicitly related to 64-bits (e.g., dynamic reconfiguration, scalability enhancements, performance improvements). Customers can run a 32-bit application on 64- or 32-bit hardware with the Solaris OS without any change to the application. The 32-bit applications will run without modification on the Solaris OS. Customers will not be forced to convert their 32-bit applications to 64-bit, but can do so when they are ready.

CP: What made Sun go with AMD's Opteron processor?

AK: By partnering with AMD to create a 64-bit J2SE software port for AMD Opteron, Sun is able to extend Java's reach to a larger market and provide a reliable and highly performance platform for Java applications and Web services deployment. The AMD Opteron processor for servers and workstations is based on AMD64, which extends the x86 instruction set architecture (ISA) to 64-bit computing for the first time. Moreover, Sun is the leader in 64-bit computing for more than two decades and when the race to extend this computing to x86 architecture began, Sun decided to join hands in co-developing and promoting the Opteron CPU.

CP: Architecture changes such as 64-bit processors generally require a completely new set of programs be written for them. Why is this time right for 64-bit computing?

AK: There will be no change to the on-disk file system format. All data accessible before the upgrade will be accessible afterwards.