What's the ICOD right to access processor for a million bucks? Might that be a fine print part of CPU cost? So, 64 PA-8600 552MHz Processors for $183,960 and a total system cost of 7 million? No wonder HP can't sell any of those machines.
Oh, the disk system SC10, the dual controllers and the 1,260 18 GB drives, all for a cool 3 million plus, won't fit into the server. They're separate cabinets and considered storage, mass storage. Mass storage is not considered part of a server, like line printers and tape drives aren't.
Call Carly Fiorina, tell her you have seven million bucks to spend on HP9000 Superdomes, and ask her how many you can get for that amount of money. The ones in the picture, not including all the clients and disk arrays. I'd bet she'd say at least five, each with a reasonable amount of CPUs and memory, not the 2.5 million for 256 GB in that config.
Those configs built for the big TPC counts throw in everything but the kitchen sink as server cost. They rarely sell any of those; they're just for bragging rights. More normally, customers buy servers, maybe from one vendor, like HP, and storage, maybe from EMC, and the two kinds of items are absolutely on different purchase orders. |
