Dual core 64-bit Intel Atom chip slots into a low power server

SERVER BUILDER Seamicro has become the first company to bung Intel's dual core Atom N570 processor into a 256-processor server.

Intel's dual core Atom N570 chip might run at a relatively pedestrian 1.66GHz but for server maker Seamicro the fact that it is a 64-bit chip makes the processor particularly handy for use in servers. The firm has managed to pack 256 dual core 64-bit Atom processors into a 10U rackmount case, claiming that it has cut power and reduced space requirements by 75 per cent.

Seamicro is pitching the SM10000-64 server as a low power alternative to servers based on more traditional chips such as Intel's Xeon or AMD's Opteron. It claims that in the Hadoop Minutesort benchmark, 29 SM10000-64s were able to match 1,406 dual socket quad core Xeon servers. The clincher is that the Atom-based servers used only 25 per cent of the power compared to the bigger boxes.

Sticking Atom processors into servers has been mooted for some time now. SGI told The INQUIRER last year that it was seeing customers asking for Atom based servers. Now with the ability to address more RAM thanks to 64-bit support, there's a chance that Intel might find that its Xeon range of processors faces competition from within its own product line.

The ability to fill a rack with efficent computing power is becoming increasingly important as datacentre costs balloon due to electricity costs. That makes vendors look for lower power servers to not only reduce the power draw but also decrease cooling costs.

However just because Seamicro has used a chip that is most commonly found in £200 netbooks, don't expect the SM10000-64 line of servers to be cheap. The company says that prices start at a shade under $150,000. µ