Gracenote (cont.)

performance for its particular systems.

In the AMD64 architecture, each AMD Opteron processor features an integrated memory controller. Additionally, a high-speed Hyper Transport™* technology link connects processors and cores. The result is high data throughput, low memory latency, and exceptional non-uniform memory access (NUMA) support, all of which contribute to fast application performance. “That’s why the AMD Opteron [processor] works so well for us,” says Leeds.

Gracenote delivers its core service from 12 Sun Fire V40z servers, each running Solaris 10 and powered by four dual-core processors with 32GB of memory. Leeds has embraced Solaris for its linear multithreading, which enhances the performance of Gracenote’s highly multithreaded applications.

of 2007, Gracenote replaced more than two dozen of its previous servers with two Sun Blade 8000 P Modular Systems, populated with 20 Sun Blade X8420 Server Modules. Each of these featured four dual-core AMD Opteron processors with either 8GB or 32GB of memory.

The performance gains were exceptional, due to the AMD Opteron processors’ fast CPU-to-memory throughput and the outstanding multithreading of Solaris 10. “With Linux, if you have too many concurrent threads, it can eventually start to slow down,” says Leeds. “With Solaris, the performance is linear.”

Accompanying Gracenote’s performance gains were a slew of other benefits inherent in Sun’s robust, data center-oriented blade systems:

114 Virtual Machines in One Box

Pack the power of eight processors into a compact 4RU system.

Reduce your costs of hardware acquisition and on-going support with server consolidation and virtualization. The Sun Fire X4600 M2 server with enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, is designed to handle up to 114 virtual servers, allowing a whole suite of distributed applications to be managed in one server, and simplifying overall datacenter management. Its world record virtualization capabilities helps your datacenter scale to several times its capacity in the same space.

And with its modular upgrade design, you boost performance when you need it –
up to 512GB of memory – further reducing costs for large memory applications.
To learn more about how you can scale your datacenter capacity in the same space
visit sun.com/114in1

Moving to Sun Blade Systems

Gracenote’s early success with Sun and AMD has led it to deepen its commitment to their technologies. Gracenote provides a service for cell phone users that allows devices to identify digital media they “hear” on, say, a car radio. The company acquired this “discovery” technology, which relies on database lookups much as Gracenote’s core service does, from another firm in 2007. Initially, the system used rack-mount servers running Linux® and non-AMD processors. Once Gracenote had the application in house, however, its engineers began investigating how to enhance its performance, reliability, scalability, and cost.

The solution for Gracenote turned out to be switching to Sun Blade systems powered by AMD Opteron processors and running Solaris 10. In the second half

* Highly reliable, redundant infrastructure
Flexible, scalable architecture
Easy serviceability
Potential space savings in the data center
Low acquisition costs
Low expenses for power and cooling

Such benefits accrue from Sun’s blade server design philosophy. “We’ve focused our blade architecture on the needs of multicore processors and demanding enterprise applications such as virtualization,” says Michael McNerney, director of the blade server product line at Sun. “This means a robust architecture with up to double the memory and I/O capacity of competing blades and rack-mounts, as well as hot swappable, redundant, and modular components to enhance reliability, availability, and serviceability.”

Call your local Sun Sales Representative, Sun Authorized Partner or (888) 516-9362. © 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners.