IBM power-friendly servers to hit Australia
IBM has quietly beefed up its dual-processor server line with new low-wattage processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, part of the company's effort to capitalise on the industry's growing interest in curbing electrical power consumption.
IBM will begin shipping the Intel-based servers from 16 April, and is expected to ship AMD-based servers from 27 April, an IBM Australia spokesperson told ZDNet Australia.
Big Blue has put Intel's new 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz 50-watt quad-core Xeon 5300 "Clovertown" processor in two rack-mounted System x servers, the 3.5-inch thick x3650 and 1.75-inch thick x3550, and in the HS21 blade server.
In addition, its two-processor LS21 and four-processor LS41 blade servers now are available with new dual-core AMD Opteron chips, a 2.6GHz HE (high-efficiency) model that consumes 65 watts and a 1.8GHz EE (extreme-efficiency) model that consumes 40 watts, said Scott Tease, marketing manager for IBM's BladeCenter products.
The computing industry is struggling with booming electrical power consumption problems and resulting overheating. Consequently, computing technology companies are trying to make lemonade from lemons by revamping products to get an energy efficiency edge over competitors.
"We're really driving low-voltage through the Intel and AMD line, both with blades and rack servers," Tease said.
The systems cost more, because only the cream of the chipmakers' crop can work at full clock speeds without running too hot and consuming too much electricity, but the systems pay for themselves, he said.
For example, it costs about AU$250 extra to get a server with the low-voltage Xeon 5300 chips compared with the regular models, according to IBM Australia. But a company saves about AU$90 per year in power and cooling costs, assuming electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The new 50-watt model will cost AU$250 more than the 80-watt HS21 blade server, the IBM Australia spokesperson said.
In addition, the lower-power systems can be packed more densely, letting more servers fit into a rack that has, for example, a 10-kilowatt supply limit. A single BladeCenter chassis with 14 dual-processor machines consumes about 1 kilowatt less power with the low-wattage Intel chips, he said.
The low-voltage Xeons and the Opteron HE processors run near the same speeds as their ordinary higher-wattage brethren, which consume 80 watts and 95 watts, respectively. The Opteron EE chips, however, run at a slower clock frequency -- 1.8GHz, compared with 2.8GHz and soon 3GHz for regular Opterons.
The EE Opteron has "amazing" performance per watt, Tease said, but he's "anxious" about the chip's reception. "The EE part is still pretty new. We don't know how well-accepted it will be," he said.
AMD has an advantage over Intel right now in memory power consumption, Tease added. AMD's DDR2 memory modules consume about eight watts to 10 watts apiece and don't always need peak power, whereas Intel's FB-DIMM modules draw more than 15 watts full time, he said.
"The memory in an Intel system could be consuming 50 watts, whereas in an AMD system, it could be 20 watts," Tease said. "On the flip side, you have great performance" with Intel's FB-DIMM.
IBM Australia is in the midst of finalising full pricing for the servers.