Dell today unveiled its new four-way PowerEdge servers, which are powered by
the new dual-core, Intel Xeon 7000 (code-named Paxville) MP chips and (hot-off-the-coding board) SQL Server 2005 from Microsoft.
The launch came during a media call staged by longtime partners Dell , Intel
and Microsoft
to
showcase servers running the latest database software and dual-core chips from the world’s top software maker and chipmaker.
Neil Hand, vice president of enterprise worldwide marketing for Dell’s server line, said the
PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 quad-socket servers can offer up to a 51 percent performance increase in computing workloads.
Like other dual-core processors, such as AMD’s Opteron, Paxville has two
processing engines, or cores, to pack more power onto a single silicon wafer
without boosting power consumption.
Hand also said the new machines are ideal for customers concerned about
balancing performance demands with power consumption. For example, the
Paxville dual-core processors can increase the total performance per watt of
the new PowerEdge servers by up to 43 percent.
Moreover, PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 servers maintain a common system image and
are backward compatible with Dell’s previous single-core four-way systems.
This helps customers update their computers while protecting their
investment.
Hand said the machines will boast greater performance gains when the Round
Rock, Texas company adds an 800 megahertz front side bus to the mix in 2006.
Starting at $6,400, the PowerEdge 6800 and 6850 servers will begin shipping
in two weeks with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Enterprise
Linux.
Hand also embraced partner Microsoft on the call, noting that Dell will sell
SQL Server 2005, which will launch next Monday to great fanfare, to
customers through pre-packaged on Dell PowerEdge servers or via existing
licensing agreements.
“Dell, along with Microsoft and Intel have been completely collaborative on
how we integrate not just a piece of hardware or software, but a complete
solution across the portfolio,” Hand said on the call.
Dell has been Intel’s staunchest supporter for dual-core technology since
AMD beat
Intel to the market last April with dual-core Opteron silicon, supported by
IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems.
The company unveiled
the SC430 dual-core, single-socket machine in July. Dell followed that
launch up with more advanced, multi-socket systems in August
and September.
With Paxville, Intel is getting additional support from vendors like IBM,
which yesterday launched
its four-way xSeries 460 machine, starting at $20,999. It can be scaled up
to a 32-way SMP system in an eight-chassis configuration.
Big Blue also announced the new dual-core four processor xSeries 366
starting at $9,999. IBM said the new systems are designed for enterprise
level applications and server consolidation using virtualization software
such as VMware.
In related server computing news, HP reaffirmed its commitment to the
maligned Itanium architecture, introducing the HP Integrity BL60p blade
server as the first such device to support both HP’s Unix (UX) 11i operating
system and the Intel Itanium® 2 processor. The BL60p is geared for
distributed, remote sites and UNIX system consolidation.