CoolThreads @ UIC

We are a team of researchers at UIC that decided to take part in the Try and Buy program offered by Sun Microsystems. They sent us a Sun Fire T2000 Server to try for a period of 60 days. We tested the performance of the machine using parallel computing applications.

The T2000 has 8 processing cores integrated on a single chip. All the cores access memory independently and can work in parallel. This technology is completely revolutionary in the market because previous designs were based on one core. Sun decided to call the new technology CoolThreads. Browse this site and see if we can answer the question that pushed us through this challenge: Is the T2000 a general purpose parallel machine on a chip?

We are testing the capabilities of the machine using scientific computing applications. Basically, all the code run is based on matrix multiplication. We did not only test the maximum performance of the machine, but also the parallel capabilities that it offers.

All the programs used belong to Sandia National Laboratories except for code that was written at UIC. Because of the large amount of data and results, we divided the documentation of the project into two main sections. In timeline, you can find the temporal evolution of the project. In the results section, you can find the explanation of the specific terms and the reports of all the tests that we run.

Processor: 8 core 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1.

Memory: DDR2 - 8GB

Internal Storage: 2 x 2.5" SAS, hot-swap - 73 GB Each.

Network (10/100/1000): 4x.

Removable Media: 1x DVD-ROM.

Serial: 1x RS-232, 4x USB.

PCI Express slots: 3x (low profile).

PCI-X slots: 2x (low profile, 1 occupied).

Redundant Power Supplies & Fans?: Yes.

Power Supply: 2x550W.

For detailed information, please refer to Sun Fire T2000 Server product page.