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New HP blade server to use Opteron CPUs

by Scott Bicheno on 3 September 2008, 13:17

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qao6w

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Cutting edge

Fresh from its acquisition of corporate IT company EDS, PC giant Hewlett Packard is embarking on a virtualisation fest. At the forefront is a new blade server that HP claims is the world's first to be "designed specifically to eliminate performance bottlenecks for virtual server hosting."

The HP ProLiant BL495c virtualisation blades will use AMD Opteron quad-core processors. This represents a much needed CPU win for AMD, which is unable to compete with Intel in the $200+ market and is about to come under further pressure when Intel launches Nehalem/Core i7 later this year. There are a total of 35 systems available from his launch, which are apparently already shipping.

HP and AMD's server people spoke with a common voice on the need for better virtualisation technology.  "Businesses continue to face memory and I/O constraints as they implement virtualisation solutions across more mission-critical workloads," said Patrick Patla, GM of the server and workstation business at AMD.

"Customers can lower data center costs with the BL495c by packing more virtual servers into each blade, which extends the useful life cycle of the data center by saving floor space, power and cooling," said Mark Potter, VP and GM of BladeSystem at HP. "Through its balanced architecture of memory, I/O and storage innovations, and by matching the exceptional scalability and efficiency of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, the BL495c redefines server blades for virtualisation."      



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Interested to know how much memory it can take.

The problem we have with Blades is that we have plenty of space , but quite low power density. If we went with a fully populated chassis , we'd have an empty rack each side of it.
Moby-Dick
Interested to know how much memory it can take.

The problem we have with Blades is that we have plenty of space , but quite low power density. If we went with a fully populated chassis , we'd have an empty rack each side of it.

isn't air cooling fun!

how many KW can you get out of a rack at your gaff then?
Its the measured SLA on Power Density - while we probably can exceed it , it would be wise not to - something like 3kW per square meter ( and its a 3000 sq ft suite ) For Vmware - ESX does use pretty well though as we can put a LOT of guests into a cluster of just a few 580's :)

I'd still like to know the Maximum memory ( without resorting to 8Gb DIMM's ) those blades can fit.
Moby-Dick
Its the measured SLA on Power Density - while we probably can exceed it , it would be wise not to - something like 3kW per square meter ( and its a 3000 sq ft suite ) For Vmware - ESX does use pretty well though as we can put a LOT of guests into a cluster of just a few 580's :)

I'd still like to know the Maximum memory ( without resorting to 8Gb DIMM's ) those blades can fit.

3kw per square metre is… assuming a 600x1000 rack… 1.8KW per rack? srsly? i thought life sucked for us at 12!
try your maths again :) thats an average SLA based on the fact we have a 3000 sq foot suite ( about 280 Square metres )

with 10 rows of cabinets and 7 active cabinets per row ( excluding edge cabs which just have a switch in them ) that leaves about 4 square metres of floor space per cabinet - with a 3Kw/sqm SLA we can run 12Kw through each cabinet and still be in SLA for the suite.