HP ARM-Based Server Prototype

[Red Falcon]

HP is working with Calxeda to make Moonshot ARM-based servers, very exciting for the industry and server technology in general!

Hopefully this will mean we will start seeing some ARM-based desktops and other rackmount systems.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/02/hp-and-calxedas-moonshot-arm-servers-will-bring-all-the-boys-to/

 

[heatlesssun]

With ARM all the rage because of power efficiency I do wonder where they fit in servers. Massively parallel stuff makes sense.

 

[Red Falcon]

With ARM all the rage because of power efficiency I do wonder where they fit in servers. Massively parallel stuff makes sense.

HP said that rather than having them focus on larger tasks and HPC, which Xeon, Itanium, and Opteron based systems work on, these ARM based systems would focus on smaller tasks with many processes.

 

[Red Falcon]

Apparently HP is using these systems to do Folding@Home computations for system testing: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1659921

 

[buttons]

Ive read they make good web servers too.

 

[Poplap]

Apparently HP is using these systems to do Folding@Home computations for system testing: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1659921

i thought there was no arm version of F@H... hmm strange but cool.

Wouldn't mind having one of these things just to mess around with it, you know when it wont be a good $10,000 or so.

 

[Red Falcon]

They might be running x86 emulation of some kind, which I personally doubt, or they are using a different cluster of x86-based systems instead.

These systems are very impressive though.

 

[Cerulean]

I wonder how well these things would be at emulation of some of the latest consoles out there (PS2/PS3/XBox 360/etc)

 

[Red Falcon]

Honestly, there would be a ton of overhead considering the emulation layer between ARM and x86 code, let alone another variant of RISC processors like the POWER architecture used in modern consoles.

Unless the emulation coding was highly symmetric, I doubt performance would be that hot.
But only time will tell.