It's Almost Here
One quirk in today’s announcements that made me chuckle, was the idea that the transition to Intel was “complete” before the new Xserve was announced. To his credit Phil Schiller did catch himself to say the “Mac transition” to Intel was complete with the Mac Pro and took a moment to emphasise that the server is important to Apple! (See Keynote Address approximately 17:28) Of course he went on to introduce the new Intel-based Xserve, which like the new desktop systems utilises the Quad 64-bit Xeon 5100 processors.
The jump in performance between the PowerPC Xserve and the new model is reportedly much greater than the Power Mac G5 and the Mac Pro. Apple are stating that the new Xserve is up to 5x faster than previous models. Apparently heat issues, similar to those that thwarted attempts to put the G5 in a portable computer, prevented Apple from introducing Quad-core 1U servers.
The specifications for the Intel-based Xserve parallel the Mac Pro at specific points. For example, the processor configurations are also 2GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3GHz, the Frontside bus is 1.33GHz per processor, and there’s 4GB of shared L2 cache per processor. However, whereas the Mac Pro systems support up to 16GB of RAM, with the Xserve you can install up to 32GB using 4GB 667MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM modules!
Other standard features include “easier” rack installation and new “lights out management” for remote access, as well as improved internal graphics as a build to order option.
Unlike the Mac Pro, those of you eager to set up a new Xserve cluster will have to cool your heels until October, which the currently announced shipping date. Pricing on different system configurations is not currently available, though Apple have posted specs and price for a base model:
- Two 64-bit 2.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
- 1.33GHz frontside bus and 4MB shared L2 cache per processor
- 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM)
- 80GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive1
- Built-in ATI Radeon X1300 graphics with 64MB RAM
- Mac OS X Server 10.4 Unlimited-Client Edition
As I plan to spend more time with Xsan—and to be frank, my current experience working in a SAN environment has me completely sold—I’m very pleased to see Apple continuing to pursue the server market. Just so they know, the Xserve is very important to me too!
Post a comment