Quad core for trading?

stock777 · Oct 21, 2009

Quote from nitro:

It's gotten to the point where cores in traditional CPUs no longer help me. I need several hundred cores or even a cluster of these, and it is silly for me to buy a whole computer for this when either a GPU or an FPGA would do the trick.

This is the only technology that can appease me today:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/preconfigured_clusters.html

I don't remember the last time I was this excited waiting for a product:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/fermi_architecture.html

I know, simultaneously arbing 7000 instruments is a bitch, especially at the open.

Here he is , holding his balls.

RedSun · Oct 22, 2009

Quote from pcvix:

Hi

With Intel rolling out new i5 and i7 CPUs, would anyone care to say a few words on which retail trading programs (execution front-end, charting, backtesting, etc) can take advantage of these quad core processors?

Is it true that many (most?) trading software applications have yet to be optimized for multi-threaded operation, and this situation seems unlikely to change in the near future?

Thanks.

Things are changing. People say trading computer does not use much CPU, but that is not the case. I had a dual-core CPU and the Java-based trading station and the market data workstation use a lot of CPU power. Then I have 4 browers open for news and online TV. Add email, IM, etc. The CPU load is about 70%. When the market was busy, the market data workstation can feeze for a few minutes.

Some of the applications are optimized for multi-core CPUs.

Get the most power if you can get. Hardware is cheap now.

bluebird001 · Oct 22, 2009

Quote from nitro:

It's gotten to the point where cores in traditional CPUs no longer help me. I need several hundred cores or even a cluster of these, and it is silly for me to buy a whole computer for this when either a GPU or an FPGA would do the trick.

This is the only technology that can appease me today:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/preconfigured_clusters.html

I don't remember the last time I was this excited waiting for a product:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/fermi_architecture.html

Not sure if this will ever be completed. See post http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178747

nitro · Oct 22, 2009

Quote from bluebird001:

Not sure if this will ever be completed. See post http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178747

I don't know how this impacts NVDA. If I did, I would probably already have a position in NVDA, because flat can't be right.

The market seems to think it is bad enough to keep NVDA from cooperating on market rallies, so it must be pretty serious. Regardless, I pray it does not impact Fermi.

nitro · Oct 22, 2009

Quote from stock777:

I know, simultaneously arbing 7000 instruments is a bitch, especially at the open.

Here he is , holding his balls.

My balls hang lower than that.

stock777 · Oct 23, 2009

lol, I don't know if you missed the Tesla reference or not.

trading_time · Oct 23, 2009

Indeed you need as many cores as you can get your hands on, core i7s can be had for $199 now. We are traders, since when is $200 for a top of the line processor overkill? We multitask with our 2 to 8 monitors, just do it.

Quote from RedSun:

Things are changing. People say trading computer does not use much CPU, but that is not the case. I had a dual-core CPU and the Java-based trading station and the market data workstation use a lot of CPU power. Then I have 4 browers open for news and online TV. Add email, IM, etc. The CPU load is about 70%. When the market was busy, the market data workstation can feeze for a few minutes.

Some of the applications are optimized for multi-core CPUs.

Get the most power if you can get. Hardware is cheap now.

loufah · Oct 25, 2009

Quote from kinar:

And of course, don't forget that all the newer technology goes into the quad core processors. A 3Ghz single-core processor today will deliver FAR less performance than even a single core of a 3ghz multi-core processor.

This is true, but quad-core processors are in general running at much lower clock rates than older CPUs of the same price range. A typical system we get now has dual quad-core E5520's, 2.26GHz. These cores benchmark decidedly slower than the 3.36GHz dual-core from 3 years ago or even the 3.6GHz single-core CPUs we were buying 4.5 years ago (we still have some of those running). But since the newer system has 4 or 8 times as many cores as the older systems, the overall throughput is better.

limitdown · Oct 27, 2009

Quote from stock777:

i5 kicks ass.

thats all you have to know.

didnt know this,

thanks for the reference,

will look into this,

on laptops, they only just started releasing the i7's

would be interesting to see if the form factor will easier support the i5's,

Clevo (taiwan mfgr behind all the major brands) has full desktop motherboard in the laptops just to support the i7's,

perhaps the i5's will use the prior laptop boards and cooling and less than 17" form factors

either way, thanks for the vote of confidence in the chipset