* Hitachi chipset for Itanium 2 features 667-MHz front side bus
Hitachi announced a peripheral logic chipset for the Itanium 2 processor that features a 667-MHz front side bus and combines Intel’s Virtualization Technology with its own.
The front side bus, long considered a critical component of computer systems, is responsible for determining how fast a processor can transfer data to other parts of a computer system.
Hitachi introduced the BladeSymphony product at the Intel Developer Forum earlier this month in San Francisco, where Intel also unveiled its Vanderpool virtualization technology running on a Montecito (code name) processor.
The two companies will evaluate and develop these technologies together.
Hardware-assisted virtualization will bring many benefits to enterprise companies seeking to consolidate and better utilize their server resources, Intel claims.
The development of the first 667-MHz front side bus by Hitachi was based on the company’s many years of developing mainframe products.
The front side bus achieves SPECCPU2000 Benchmark improvements of 15% and STREAM Benchmark improvements of 40%, compared to a 400-MHz front side bus. Hitachi said applications that would most benefit would be those requiring large memory support, such as scientific calculations and large databases.
Hitachi’s virtualization feature was based on the company’s mainframe virtualization software, which was tested jointly with Intel. It allows the multiple partitioning of a physical server into several logical partitions, all without making any modifications to the guest operating system.
Hitachi would not say how long it would be before processors using the chipset will be available.
