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Dell reaches for the cloud with new prototype arm server by 123wert sdfsf
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Dell reaches for the cloud with new prototype arm server |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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The proof-of-concept server is code-named Copper and is the firstone from Dell that is based on the ARM processor. Dell will notsell the server, but will install prototypes at specific locationsso customers can kick the tires around ARM, whose processor designsare found in most smartphones and tablets today. Some of the world's largest Web companies, including Facebook andGoogle, buy servers in volume to boost performance while loweringpower costs. However, as companies look to cut data center costs,there also is a growing interest in low-power ARM processors forservers. Servers sold today by Dell are based on x86 processorsfrom Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, which are used in most datacenters.
ARM processors are slower than their x86 counterparts, but havepower-efficiency, density and price attributes that intriguecustomers, said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general managerof server platforms at Dell. Customers are curious about thepossibility of cutting power costs by packing together a largecongregation of ARM servers to quickly process requests related to,for example, social media or search. "We think ARM is a potentially relevant technology to several setsof core customers," Norrod said. "Our customers are echoing thesame thing and asking us to help in this evaluation." Experiments around implementing ARM in servers as an alternative tox86 for cloud and supercomputing applications are already underway.
Hewlett-Packard has announced ARM-based server designs andchip maker Nvidia has mixed its Tegra 3 chips and graphicsprocessors in a Barcelona supercomputer. Intel has upped the antewith its recent low-power Xeon E3 processors for cloud computingcustomers. ARM is good for tasks that don't require a lot of complexcalculations, but need to be processed concurrently, said JimMcGregor, president at Tirias Research. In addition to processingWeb transactions, ARM chips could power security-oriented tasks,like matching a snapshot of an individual at an airport to adatabase of hundreds of millions of people. But ARM still cannotmatch up chips from Intel and AMD for resource-heavy tasks such asdatabases.
Also, ARM into servers won't be a quick transition as companiesneed to validate the architecture, port software and match hardwareinstallations with the server upgrade cycle, which on average isabout three years, McGregor said. "It's still very much in its infancy," McGregor said. Norrod conceded that ARM is not ready for prime time on servers,and that it could be a few years until the architecture startscompeting with rival chips from Intel and AMD. The current ARMprocessors lack many of the critical features sought in datacenters today, such as 64-bit processing and memory capabilities.And while a majority of smartphones and tablet software is writtenfor ARM processors, very little server software is being writtenfor the architecture.
ARM, a U.K. company that licenses processors to chip makers, willsupport addressing only up to 40 bits with its upcoming Cortex-A15processors. ARM has said its first 64-bit processors will bereleased later this year, with the first designs targeted atservers and smartphones. ARM said that chips from licensees based on ARMv8 will be in volumeproduction in 2014. Dell is taking a pragmatic approach and setting up servers sodevelopers can write and compile software and get a feel for ARMservers, Norrod said.
Dell clients will get to understand theopportunities around ARM, and get a head start in developingsoftware and infrastructure for the servers, he added. "What's interesting about ARM is not what's available today, butwhat may be available in 18 to 24 months," Norrod said. Dell's first Copper servers will be used in the U.S. and China, andthen spread across the rest of Dell's worldwide "solution centers"where customers can build reference designs for server and softwareinstallations.
One is being installed at the Texas AdvancedComputing Center, where developers will be able to book time to usethe server. Dell officials said the clusters on the ARM server canalso be accessed remotely by customers. The 3U rackmount chassis has 48 ARM servers with a total of 192processor cores, with each ARM server drawing a maximum of 15 wattsof power. Each server uses Marvell's quad-core Armada XP 78460chip, which runs at 1.6GHz, and has error correction features andnetworking and storage components. Dell does not plan general availability of the server at this time,but the company will monitor the market and decide whether tolaunch it publicly over time, said Steve Cummings, executivedirector for marketing at Dell's Data Center Solutions division.
Dell is following the example of HP, which in November said itwould offer its first, proof-of-concept low-power ARM server soearly access customers can test and benchmark it. The server packs288 chips from ARM licensee Calxeda into a 4U rack-mount server,and is part of a new HP platform dubbed the Redstone ServerDevelopment Platform. Rolling the clock forward, Dell's Norrod said he couldn't predictthe future, but said that since Microsoft is bringing Windows 8 toARM, it is possible that other companies will start portingapplications to ARM. Norrod pointed out that software options aregrowing for ARM servers. A version of the Linux-based Ubuntu OS is available for ARM and theLAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP software) stack has also beenoptimized for ARM.
Dell also said Hadoop, Openstack and Java havealso been optimized for ARM. Dell has written Crowbar, it'sopen-source management framework, to work on ARM servers. Crowbarhelps install, deploy and monitor cloud software across clusters. Moreover, ARM's emergence on servers could keep Intel on its legs,Norrod said. Intel and AMD will not rest on their laurels, and willcontinue to innovate, which helps the server market.
"Intel sees ARM as an existential threat," Norrod said. Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductorsfor IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh . Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com. I am Laundry Products writer, reports some information about european gemological laboratory , caring for orchids.
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