When it comes to server efficiency, there are companies like Calxeda and SeaMicro — which was just acquired by AMD — that pack hundreds of low-power CPUs into servers that can handle massive workloads under relatively meager power requirements. But what about the standard, run of the mill box? It looks like Intel’s newest Xeons, [...]
Servers
Can news be both surprising and unsurprising? Let’s start with the unsurprising part of the announcement that AMD is acquiring SeaMicro, which is that the startup has been taken off the market for a cool $334 million. Since it unstealthed in June 2010, the company has attracted customers like Google and Mozilla with a dense, [...]
Read more AMD snaps up SeaMicro
This is an interesting turn of events. Lately, startups like Calxeda and SeaMicro have been making waves by enticing data center operators with the promise of potent yet power-sipping servers using low-watt processors that are decidedly non-standard on servers. Namely, ARM- and Intel Atom-based chips, respectively. Now it turns out that SeaMicro sees some value, or at least [...]
HP got the industry buzzing this week when it announced plans to build server hardware based on low-power ARM processors. And while it will be a while before Project Moonshot’s tech hits data centers, that’s not stopping folks from dreaming up some big data implications. Better yet, some enterprising souls are already demonstrating what its [...]
Read more Google App Engine on ARM servers
Remember that report about Calxeda and HP teaming up for low-power ARM servers? Well, now it’s official and it even has a name: Project Moonshot. To get the industry used to the idea of computing on servers built around ARM processors, HP is laying the groundwork with a couple of initiatives. First is Project Pathfinder, which [...]
Read more HP’s ARM server ‘Moonshot’
Things are getting exciting on the computer server front. For a couple of years, an Austin, Texas-based startup called Calxeda (formerly Smooth-Stone) has been making the case for energy efficient servers using ARM processors — that currently dominate the smartphone and tablet markets — as it prepared to commercialize its tech. Now it looks like [...]
Read more Calxeda to mainstream ARM servers with HP partnership
Over the past couple of years, some startups have been using mobile chips as a way to bring high performance computing to the data center in the form of low-power, space-saving servers. On Friday, August 19, one of those startups, SeaMicro, will be discussing the tech behind its Intel Atom-powered SM10000-64HD server (pictured above) during [...]
Read more SeaMicro to show cool Atom-powered server tech at Hot Chips
Literally, in fact. Today, Facebook took a dramatically different course than its peers and let the world look behind the curtain. Whereas other big Internet firms consider the “nuts and bolts” details of their IT infrastructure a competitive advantage, Facebook open sourced its custom, energy efficient server and data center tech under the Open Compute [...]
Some interesting insights from Facebook this week as the company broadcasts some of the thinking behind its IT strategy. And instead of submitting to the virtualization craze that’s spreading through corporate data centers, the social networking giant is throwing its weight behind microservers. This comes as Intel announces plans for Xeon- and Atom-based processors for [...]
How many of your servers have been around for a decade? Not many, it’s safe to assume. (None ideally.) Chances are that the servers you deployed in 2001 were replaced 3-5 years later. And if there are a couple stragglers still around, they’re costing you a bundle in electricity and rack space. Fortunately, longevity is [...]
Read more The 10-year server?


