RESEARCH NOTE: Are Wimpy Cores Good for Brawny Storage?

When could “wimpy” cores beat brawny ones? They have potential to do so in large-scale distributed storage deployments. This paper explores performance and resiliency tradeoffs enabled by using Calxeda’s ARM-based EnergyCore processors and their fabric-based system level architecture as the underpinning for a Ceph distributed object store implementation. Calxeda, Inktank, and Penguin announced a partnership in June, 2013 to deliver a software-defined storage appliance based on Calxeda’s EnergyCore processors and hardware architecture, Inktank’s Ceph distributed storage software architecture, all on Penguin’s UDX1 servers. Based on performance comparisons run by Calxeda, Ceph scales well using Calxeda’s processors and system architecture. Calxeda is currently working with customers and partners to create a performance measurement framework for comparison to x86 storage servers.

Executive Summary
Distributed Storage Background
Distributed Storage Systems
Ceph Background
Calxeda EnergyCore and Ceph
Ceph Performance Using Calxeda EnergyCore Processors
Call to Action
Resources
System Configuration Used for Performance Analysis
Sidebar: Penguin on Demand POD
Figure 1: Total System Throughput by Node Count
Figure 2: Total System Throughput by Drives per Node
Figure 3: System Throughput per Node
Figure 4: System Throughput per Drive

You can download the paper here.

Patrick Moorhead

+ posts

Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.