What's Special about Multi-core
Processors and Clusters?
QualNet and Exata support state-of-the-art multi-core
processors and clusters. In order to take advantage
of multi-processor computing environments, software
applications must execute by means of multiple threads.
Today, few software applications are multithreaded,
but QualNet and EXata are. QualNet Developer
by default supports dual-core processors; EXata by default
supports quad-core processors. On either platform, customers
can upgrade to support any multiple of 4 processors.
Multi-core: Coming Soon to a Computer Near
You
In
a recent report†, Intel revealed that 70% of the
new desktop machines it sold in 2006 had dual-core processors.
What's more, Intel predicts that 90% of the performance
desktops they sell will be multi-core in 2007. Servers
are even more multi-core enabled. 85% of the servers
Intel sold in 2006 were multi-core, and 100% are expected
to be multi-core in 2007.
† Multi-Core
Capability, Intel Software Network, July 2005.
QualNet Performance on Multi-core Processors
What do dual-core, quad-core, and multi-core processors
buy you in terms of execution speed? Check out the graph
below, which shows how QualNet 4.0 performed on three
different multi-core platforms. All dual- and multi-core
trials ran faster than real-time. 
The simulation was an 802.11b wireless scenario running
700 nodes with terrain-based propagation, random mobility
at 30m/s, and AODV routing. The simulation time was
900 s. Traffic through the network consisted of 625
CBR sessions sending 512-byte packets at 1-second intervals.
There was no parallel optimization by means of processor
partitioning, and with some optimization, additional
speedup could be realized.
Distributed Architectures
QualNet and EXata execute on shared memory architectures
like those described above, and also on distributed
architectures such as clusters. Key
Benefits
- Faster execution on larger and more complex network
models
- Support for dual-core in base QualNet Developer
; support for quad core in base EXata
- Easy upgrade to multi-core and distributed platforms
|
