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Sun launches seven Nehalem-powered blade servers
SUN SYSTEMS HAS ANNOUNCED seven integrated open network servers based on Intel's Xeon 5500 architecture.
Aimed at data centres for virtualisation, enterprise and Web applications, Sun reckons the new x64 systems are up to three times faster than those built with previous Xeon chips and can also easily be configured to carry out supercomputing tasks like weather modelling and nuclear physics.
The new blades, which Sun is calling Virtual Network Express Modules (NEM) are the first to be delivered with integrated networking, removing a full switching layer from the server infrastructure, reducing cabling by 84 per cent and rack space by 75 per cent.
Featuring integrated flash memory and SSD storage, Sun reckons its new servers offer 70 per cent better response rates, eight times better throughput and 38 per cent less power consumption than servers with spinning platter hard drives.
The seven new offerings are broken down into three categories as follows:
Virtualisation
Sun Fire X4270 server - low price server for consolidation and virtualisation in a 2U box for branch office and departmental uses as well as for horizontally scaled data center consolidation.
Sun Blade X6270 server module - with up to 2x more I/O throughput than competing blade servers, designed as an all-in-one virtualisation solution, including server and network, when combined with the Sun Virtual Network Express Module (NEM).
Enterprise and Web
Sun Fire X4170 server - claims the performance of a 4U system in a compact 1U form factor with savings of up to 75 percent in rack space, while consuming 60 percent less energy at half the price of competing 4 socket, 4 RU systems.
Sun Fire X2270 server - the most compact offering claims three times the performance at 66 percent the energy consumption of current generation systems in half the space.
Sun Fire X4275 server - Designed for streaming multimedia applications, with 12TB of storage at less than $1/GB of storage, with significant space and energy savings.
Sun Ultra 27 workstation - has Nvidia FX5800 graphics, 12GB of main memory and 4GB of graphics memory.
High Performance Computing
Sun Blade X6275 server module - supports onboard quad data rate (QDR) InfiniBand providing up to nine Teraflops in a 6048 chassis. Optional flash modules provide up to 24GB of storage per node.
You'll need very deep pockets if you want a fully-loaded system with 48 physical blades per rack - supporting 96 nodes of two-socket, quad-core processors per node, resulting in a total of 768 processor cores and nine teraflops of peak performance in a single 42U rack using the X6275 blade. µ
L'Inq
Sun
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Would it be possible to have some hard numbers?
Phrases like
"up to three times faster than those built with previous Xeon chips "
"up to 2x more I/O throughput than competing blade servers"
"the performance of a 4U system in a compact 1U form factor"
are really just marketing speak.
Would it be possible to get a comparison with actual models (possibly from Sun, but from "competing blade servers" as well)?!?
Also, how is the price/performance impacted? 3x the speed, 10x the cost? Or the way around?
Sorry, but this kind of articles don't belong to a technical site!
Igor
Page 28 of the X4x70 white paper states :
"Unlike rotational media, which spins up slowly at power-on, SSD devices require full power at system initialization. Because of this initial power-on surge, there are some limitations with the number of 32GB SSD devices initially supported in the Sun Fire X4170, X4270, and X4275 servers. The Sun Fire X4170 server can support a maximum of four SATA SSDs, while the Sun Fire X4270 and X4275 servers can support a maximum of eight SSD devices. For configurations that incorporate a SAS HBA, it is possible, however, to populate remaining empty device slots with SAS HDDs.
Taking the example of a Sun Fire X4170 with four Intel X25-E (SSDSA2SH032G1), my understanding is that the overall consumption would be 9.6W, and I wonder why there is a concern about this during power-on, in relation to the overall electrical load of processors, memory, on-board controllers, chipsets and expansion cards ; maybe a solution would be to have a separate power supply that could deliver 9.6W instantly to the SSD ?
Page 28 of the X4x70 white paper states :
Unlike rotational media, which spins up slowly at power-on, SSD devices require full power at system initialization. Because of this initial power-on surge, there are some limitations with the number of 32GB SSD devices initially supported in the Sun Fire X4170, X4270, and X4275 servers. The Sun Fire X4170 server can support a maximum of four SATA SSDs, while the Sun Fire X4270 and X4275 servers can support a maximum of eight SSD devices. For configurations that incorporate a SAS HBA, it is possible, however, to populate remaining empty device slots with SAS HDDs."
Taking the example of a Sun Fire X4170 with four Intel X25-E (SSDSA2SH032G1), my understanding is that the overall consumption would be 9.6W, and I wonder why there is a concern about this during power-on, in relation to the overall electrical load of processors, memory, on-board controllers, chipsets and expansion cards ; maybe a solution would be to have a separate power supply that could deliver 9.6W instantly to the SSD ?
congrats for launching new servers. Its really good for all who used servers for virtualization. Sun Fire X4270 server - this is very good for virtualization. These are the three time faster than previous one..
Cool info.
Keep continue with these kind of information..