CeBIT 2007: Storage & Servers
by Johan De Gelas on March 29, 2007 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
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Chenbro launched the first 1.5U server, the RM13204. The 1.5U height was necessary to accommodate some very specialized video cards which are used by the military.
Enermax showed how much hardware its Galaxy 1000W can power. According to Enermax, the PSU delivered 933 W to 24 80GB hard disks, four Opteron 8212 CPUs, four 3Ware 9650 drive controllers, a GeForce 7600GX and 8GB of RAM (16 x 512MB).
We also talked to the people of MDT, a German memory DIMM manufacturer which claims their automated module testing machines are able to pick out the best memory chips. To prove this claim, MDT promises to replace each bad MDT DIMM with two brand new DIMMs, or a 200% guarantee. It will be interesting to see if both their gaming DIMMs and server DIMMs are able to best (or even match) the other DIMM modules out there while maintaining competitive pricing.
Conclusion
As has been the case for a few years now, CeBIT featured very few really new launches of products, but there are some clear trends. First of all, we see renewed interest from Supermicro, Tyan, AMD, Sun and Intel in HPC. As HPC software is at the moment the only software that can never have enough CPUs and memory bandwidth, it is a clear target for even faster CPUs with even more cores.
In a similar vein, the first benchmark shows that AMD's newest K10 chip makes much better use of the available DDR2 bandwidth than the previous AMD generation. It is still unclear how the chip will perform in integer intensive applications, unfortunately; AMD will only tell us that the K10 is "significantly faster" in this respect than the competition on a clock for clock basis. Whether this will be enough for the 2.3 GHz K10 to outperform a 3 GHz Xeon x5365 remains to be seen. There are good indications that the AMD K10 will be the fastest chip in HPC however.
The second interesting trend is that companies like Supermicro and Promise are ambitious enough to break open the rather "closed and proprietary" markets such as SAN and Blade Servers. This is very promising as these products have traditionally been way too expensive for the smaller enterprises. We will definitely take a look at these products and try to determine if they are an attractive alternative to the Tier One OEM products.
Chenbro launched the first 1.5U server, the RM13204. The 1.5U height was necessary to accommodate some very specialized video cards which are used by the military.
Enermax showed how much hardware its Galaxy 1000W can power. According to Enermax, the PSU delivered 933 W to 24 80GB hard disks, four Opteron 8212 CPUs, four 3Ware 9650 drive controllers, a GeForce 7600GX and 8GB of RAM (16 x 512MB).
We also talked to the people of MDT, a German memory DIMM manufacturer which claims their automated module testing machines are able to pick out the best memory chips. To prove this claim, MDT promises to replace each bad MDT DIMM with two brand new DIMMs, or a 200% guarantee. It will be interesting to see if both their gaming DIMMs and server DIMMs are able to best (or even match) the other DIMM modules out there while maintaining competitive pricing.
Conclusion
As has been the case for a few years now, CeBIT featured very few really new launches of products, but there are some clear trends. First of all, we see renewed interest from Supermicro, Tyan, AMD, Sun and Intel in HPC. As HPC software is at the moment the only software that can never have enough CPUs and memory bandwidth, it is a clear target for even faster CPUs with even more cores.
In a similar vein, the first benchmark shows that AMD's newest K10 chip makes much better use of the available DDR2 bandwidth than the previous AMD generation. It is still unclear how the chip will perform in integer intensive applications, unfortunately; AMD will only tell us that the K10 is "significantly faster" in this respect than the competition on a clock for clock basis. Whether this will be enough for the 2.3 GHz K10 to outperform a 3 GHz Xeon x5365 remains to be seen. There are good indications that the AMD K10 will be the fastest chip in HPC however.
The second interesting trend is that companies like Supermicro and Promise are ambitious enough to break open the rather "closed and proprietary" markets such as SAN and Blade Servers. This is very promising as these products have traditionally been way too expensive for the smaller enterprises. We will definitely take a look at these products and try to determine if they are an attractive alternative to the Tier One OEM products.
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BikeDude - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - link
I've tried to use SuperMicro's management software in the past and quite frankly it is pure and utter c---.Last week I tried HP's management software, and could install the entire OS from a remote location. I could map a .iso image to the blade in question and it booted right up.
OTOH, as I recall, SuperMicro's remote desktop solution is based on VNC. Where HP lets you remotely access the console from before POST is even run, SuperMicro forces you to first install the OS.
(We have lots of Tyan and SuperMicro servers, but of course we might've missed something fundamental along the way -- but... HP has a very nice package once the hardware has been hooked up to the power outlet and your network switch)
Xenoterranos - Friday, March 30, 2007 - link
"Enermax showed how much hardware its Galaxy 1000W can power. According to Enermax, the PSU delivered 933 W to 24 80GB hard disks, four Opteron 8212 CPUs, four 3Ware 9650 drive controllers, a GeForce 7600GX and 8GB of RAM (16 x 512MB)."...or 2 GeForce 8800's.
yyrkoon - Friday, March 30, 2007 - link
So now we 'need' usb ports on the front of a rack mount server ?! I'd rather have onboard SAS to be honest ;)
Interresting toys, no doubt.
JohanAnandtech - Friday, March 30, 2007 - link
Well, I find sometimes very handy for installing quickly a driver or a small testprogram etc. Or in some cases to add a USB CDROM, or to make a quick backup on a USB harddisk.Do you feel that USB has no use on the front of a server?
neogodless - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
I've heard of Home Theatre PC (HTPC) but HPC... is...?laok - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
High Performance ComputingDesslok - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
Tyan should have taken the silica bag off that system before showing it off.AnandThenMan - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
Hellz no! The silica bag and the inanimate carbon rod are the main reasons people flock to these shows.ravedave - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
So the Barcelona is no longer known as the K8L and is now again being called the K10? When is the launch for this part? Last I saw it was Q1, which is almost over...JohanAnandtech - Thursday, March 29, 2007 - link
AFAIK, the K8L name was never used by AMD: it was invented on the Internet. THe K10 will be launched mid 2007 (that is all AMD says), probably the Summer of 2007