HP launches siamese-twin server blade
Because two CPUs are denser than one
Hewlett-Packard has devised a siamese-twin CPU server blade for those monstrous data centers with nowhere to spread out.
HP pitches its new ProLiant BL2x220c G5 as the first blade with two independent servers combined into a single blade enclosure. The twofer is intended for large "scale-out" operations that require massive computing power, but have limited floor space or don't want to pony up to build a new site. That covers the entire Web 2.0, cloud, and high performance computing (HPC) racket by HP's estimations.
The server blade uses two Intel Xeon 5400 series quad core chips, or two Intel Xeon 5200 series Dual cores. Each enclosure hosts 8GB memory (4GB per server) standard and a maximum of 16GB RAM. Each server node has internal drive support for a 2.5" 120GB SATA drive.
With two servers per slot, it fits up to 32 server nodes per HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure or 16 per c3000 enclosure. It scales up to 128 servers, so HP muses that means 1,024 CPU cores and two terabytes of RAM in a single 42U rack. We'll oblige the math since it is, in fact, pretty darn dense.
On the power consumption side, HP claims the blade server has 60 per cent better performance per watt than a cluster of Dell PowerEdge M600 servers.
Features include change-ready connectivity through dual Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards and HP Virtual Connect. There's also optional x8 PCI-Express mezzanine socket supporting 4x double data rate InfiniBand fabric for low latency and high bandwidth.
The HP ProLiant BL2x220c G5 is available now starting at a US price of $6,349.
So according to Mark Potter, veep of HP's BladeSystem operations, the new blade server is great for data centers with limited space. And speaking of limited space — where's HP in this whole data center in a shipping container brouhaha? We've seen Sun, Dell, IBM and Rackable in the game. Where for art thou, Aitch Pee?
"You can expect HP will have an industry leading roadmap," said Potter. "A couple of weeks ago we launched the StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage system — and this announcement is a part of that rolling thunder. Stay tuned, you'll see a lot more."
Ok, well that doesn't exactly...
"I wish I could tell you more," said Potter.
Fine. There you have it folks. ®
COMMENTS
Fuzz is right
Fuzz is right, It's 16GB per server and they're not being aimed at heavy VM usage, more for compute-heavy or forced-scale-out environments.
Also in reference to the IBM iDataplex, they're not in the same league - two racks-worth of these this HP blade model equals 2048 xeon cores and 4TB of memory and are already shipping. It's hard to find details on the IBM system but it looks like they only get either 800 or 1600 cores into the same space, plus of course you end up building your environment two-racks at a time - not always 'do-able'. Oh and they're coming in July.
Maximum memory is per node
The memory is 16GB per node not per blade so it would be 16GB for 8 cores
wouldnt true lower cost be based on how many you can amortize per rack?
wouldnt these 128 200W servers in a rack with hp water cabinet be lower cost to own than 42 230W idataplex with their water rack - neither adds heat to data center?
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