Intel Woodcrest: An Evaluation for Scientific Computing
Philip C. Roth, Jeffrey S. Vetter · 2007
Intel recently began shipping its Xeon 5100 series processors, formerly known by their “Woodcrest ” code name. To evaluate the suitability of the Woodcrest processor for high-end scientific computing, we obtained access to a Woodcrest-based system at Intel and measured its performance first using computation and memory micro-benchmarks, followed by full applications from the areas of climate modeling and molecular dynamics. For computational benchmarks, the Woodcrest showed excellent performance compared to a test system that uses Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), though its performance advantage for full applications was less definitive. Nevertheless, our evaluation suggests the Woodcrest to be a compelling foundation for future leadership class systems for scientific computing.