Introduction to Throughput Computing

P8 Throughput Computing Benefits © 2003 Sun Microsystems
IT budgets to sustaining existing operations. Clearly, Sun’s CMT processors will take computing to
a new level.
Design Benefits
Sun’s innovative CMT processors are designed to enable Sun to claim the price/performance
advantage by significantly increasing throughput performance without increasing chip costs.
Sun is able to focus on optimizing overall system throughput like no one else in industry which
enables a number of design benefits including:
• Simpler, modular components will help speed processor design by reducing complexity,
decreasing the number of uniquely designed transistors, and supporting replication.
• Shared chip resources such as large amounts of cache are designed to speed communications
between cores to streamline parallel processing of threads.
• Running cores at lower frequencies will help minimize power and cooling requirements while
maintaining high performance through multithreading.
• Simplified designs will enable speedier testing and debugging procedures.
These design benefits will support the fast development of CMT chips while requiring fewer
resources, enabling Sun to remain a step ahead of the competition.