Here come 8-way systems....make that 64-way systems!
joey
techweb.com
Vendors Unleash Eight-Way
Profusion
(11/02/98 7:35 a.m. ET)
By Mitch Wagner, InternetWeek
PC servers are scaling up to support data center
applications.
In coming weeks, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard,
Hitachi PC, and IBM will roll out eight-processor
Pentium II Xeon servers that use processor
interconnects from the Corollary unit of Intel. IBM and
HP plan to demonstrate their servers at Comdex and
ship systems by June. Compaq, which also will exhibit
its server at Comdex, and Dell plan first-quarter
shipment of their new servers. Hitachi, which
announced its product offering in September, also will
demonstrate its server at Comdex.
Dell next week will announce its second-generation
four-processor Xeon system, designed like its
predecessor to fit in standard 19-inch rack enclosures
in data centers where space is tight.
The new PowerEdge 6350 system is much smaller than
the PowerEdge 6300 introduced this summer; 10 of the
6350s fit in a 19-inch rack, compared with six to the
rack for the 6300.
"I think what we have been doing is marching up the
enterprise with increasingly sophisticated solutions --
four processor, eight processor, enterprise storage,"
said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell.
The eight-processor servers are the first fruit from
Intel's purchase last year of Corollary, a manufacturer
of interconnects that link Intel processors. The
Corollary Profusion technology used in the eight-way
servers is designed to link two four-processor blocks
into a single system.
The new generation of eight-processor machines are far
from being the biggest Xeon systems, however.
Sequent Computer Systems, for example, recently
introduced a 64-processor system. Data General plans
to ship a 64-processor system next year, and Unisys
will ship a 32-processor system during the same time
frame, according to company officials.
The new eight-processor systems are the first to use a
standard architecture from Intel rather than proprietary
technology, and that's an important distinction, said
John Delta, director of interactive services for the
Nasdaq Stock Market, which currently operates a
10-processor, proprietary, Intel-based system from
Unisys. "The Unisys boxes are killers, but they're real
expensive," Delta said.
Delta said he expects the newer systems to be less
expensive than their predecessors, but none of the
server vendors disclosed pricing details this week.
Support is another reason why the shift to Intel
interconnects is important, Delta said. "It's easier to get
support for an open standard than it is for a tweaked
version of NT working on a closed box," he said.
The HP system will be an upgrade of the existing
four-processor HP NetServer LXR 8000, which offers
up to 8 GB of memory. Last year, HP introduced the
LXR Pro8, an eight-processor Pentium Pro system
using interconnect technology from Axil Computers.
Dell and IBM plan to emphasize manageability,
reliability, and serviceability of their servers, according
to company officials.
The IBM server will ship with dual memory cards,
rather than a single card, to eliminate a single point of
failure, IBM officials said. It also will have LightPath
diagnostics, an on-board panel of LEDs that point users
to failing parts. The technology also is available on
existing PC servers from IBM.
The eight-way servers are likely to be used in large
databases and demanding online transaction processing
applications, said Jerry Sheridan, an analyst at
Dataquest. Users of eight-way systems generally run
two applications on the servers for redundancy and
reliability, one on each of the four-processor sets. |
