The Windows Observer--IBM, Gateway Launch New X64 Servers

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Volume 2, Number 35 -- September 7, 2005

IBM, Gateway Launch New X64 Servers

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Chip maker Intel is trying to close the gap in technology between its own X64 chips (Pentiums and Xeons) and alternative Athlon and Opteron processors from AMD, and all the announcements at Intel Developer Forum don't amount to a hill of chips until server makers actually get X64 products out the door that compete against products that use AMD components. IBM and Gateway are the latest vendors to roll out new X64-based products.

Big Blue has recently delivered the xSeries 260, the final machine in the revamp of the xSeries line using the third-generation X3 "Hurricane" chipset. The xSeries 260 is a tower server and a replacement for the "Gallatin" Xeon MP-based xSeries 255, which according to Jay Bretzmann, director of eServer products at IBM, is one of the most popular Xeon-based machines that the company sells. It is particularly popular among small and medium businesses as standalone boxes or as departmental or remote machines for larger enterprises. In fact, IBM refers to the xSeries 255 as a "hotel and bank box" internally because it is so popular as a departmental machine. Like the xSeries 255, the xSeries 260 is a four-way Xeon MP server, although the xSeries 260 uses the X3 chipset and therefore can support the 64-bit "Cranford" single-core Xeon MP chips, which have a 667 MHz front side bus and which come in 3.16 GHz and 3.66 GHz speeds. The Cranford chips have 1 MB of on-chip L2 cache memory, and are somewhat less powerful than the "Potomac" versions of the 64-bit Xeon MPs that Intel announced in late March of this year along with the Cranfords. The Potomac Xeon MPs come in three flavors: a 2.83 GHz version with 4 MB of L3 cache, a 3 GHz version with 8 MB of L3 cache, and a 3.33 GHz version with 8 MB of L3 cache. They cost more than the Cranfords, and IBM created the X3 chipset to give Potomac-like performance for a four-way based on Cranford chips because the Cranfords cost half as much as Potomacs. The X3 chipset is used in the four-way xSeries 366 server and in the top-end xSeries 460, which can scale to 32 processors in a single system image. The xSeries 460 uses the Potomac chips, not the Cranfords, because it takes the larger 8 MB L2 caches to make the Xeon MPs scale so far. The one thing the X3 chipset does not do, by the way, is scale lower than four processors; for less scalable xSeries machines, IBM is using various 32-bit and 64-bit Xeon DP processors and Intel chipsets, just like most other server makers.

The xSeries 260 is not a small server at a 7U form factor, and it is designed explicitly for customers who want to have lots of room for storage and no worries about overheating their machine if they load it up with components. A base machine comes with a single Cranford processor, and Bretzmann says that a lot of customers buy this configuration so they have plenty of room to grow. The server supports up to 64 GB of DDR2 SDRAM (with error correction). The machine also has six PCI-X slots, an integrated SAS disk drive controller, and a dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controller. The system runs on either 110-volt or 220-volt power and has up to three 775-watt hot-swap power supplies. The xSeries 260 can house up to a dozen 3.5-inch SAS drives for a total of 3.6 TB of maximum internal storage space using 300 GB drives (73 GB and 146 GB SAS drives are also supported).

The xSeries 260 with a single 3.16 GHz processor, 1 GB of main memory, and no disk storage costs $4,599. With two 3.66 GHz Cranford processors, 4 GB of main memory, and six 146 GB disks (1.8 TB), the xSeries 260 costs $12,493. This is probably a reasonably heavy entry configuration. The xSeries 260 will be available starting September 16.

Over at Gateway, the talk is not about big single-core Xeon MP machines, but about the new "Smithfield" dual-core Pentium D and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors and the new BTX motherboard spec that Intel has been working on with the server makers to create to improve cooling and lower noise levels. The BTX motherboard and associated chassis designs--short for Balanced Technology Extended--incorporate larger fans that spin more slowly as well as dedicated channels to move air from the front of the server, over the processor, and out the back of the machine. This design reduces the energy consumed to move a given volume of air, which is good. It also lowers the noise the fan makes because it is not necessary to spin the fan blades as fast as with the current muffin fans. A BTX server runs about 10 degrees Celsius cooler (18 degrees Fahrenheit) using the same components as an existing ATX design. (ATX is the motherboard and chassis style that was introduced by Intel in 1995 to standardize motherboards and chassis for desktop PCs and servers and it has been used as the basis of most servers and all but small form factor PCs for the past eight years.) And because the components in the BTX server are better isolated from the heat of the processor, they tend to fail less and last longer.

The Gateway E-9220T server is a tower machine based on a BTX motherboard that uses Intel's E7230 chipset. That is a single-socket chipset that supports the single-core Celeron D running at 2.66 GHz (with a 533 MHz front side bus and 256 KB of L2 cache), the dual-core Pentium D chips running at 2.8 GHz or 3.2 GHz (with a shared 800 MHz front side bus and 1 MB of L2 cache per core), and the dual-core Pentium 840 Extreme Edition running at 3.2 GHz (this is the same as the Pentium D, but it has HyperThreading activated). The base E-9220T comes with the Celeron chip, and it costs $119 to bump it up to a single-core 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 with HyperThreading, $199 to bump up to the dual-core Pentium D 820 at 2.8 GHz, $549 to move up to the Pentium D 840 running at 3.2 GHz (no HT), and $1,199 to move up to the dual-core 3.2 GHz Pentium Extreme Edition (with HT). The E-9920T comes with a 400-watt power supply, but redundant 500-watt power supplies are required for the Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition chips used in the tower. By the way, if "D" was supposed to stand for dual-core, what genius at Intel decided that Celeron D was an appropriate name for a single-core Celeron based on the 64-bit "Prescott" Pentium 4 core?

The E-9220T server has four 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM main memory slots, which can support up to 8 GB of main memory using current memory technology. The tower case supports up to four disk drives, which can be 80 GB, 250 GB, or 400 GB SATA or 73 GB, 146 GB, or 300 GB SCSI disks. The motherboard comes with a SATA disk controller that supports RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 10 (striping plus mirroring) configurations. The server also supports three PCI Express and two PCI legacy expansion slots. A base machine comes with the Celeron processor, 512 MB of main memory (two 256 MM DIMMs), and an 80 GB SATA disk for $938. With the fastest dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition chip, 2 GB of main memory, and 1 TB of SATA disk capacity, it costs $3,527. Operating systems are not included in these prices, but as Tim Diefenthaler, senior director of server product marketing at Gateway, explained it, Gateway preferentially ships Windows Server 2003 because of its focus on government, education, healthcare, and small business customers, but by the fourth quarter of this year the popular Linuxes as well as NetWare will be certified to run on the E-9220T.

Diefenthaler expects the E-9220T will do pretty well against loud, hot, and expensive Xeon DP-based servers. For one thing, he says companies offering redundant power for Xeon DP boxes are not doing so for their single-socket, dual-core boxes--which is why Gateway decided to do it, in fact. And the fact that Gateway is using the BTX design and supporting the Pentium Extreme Edition chip in a server are other differentiators, he says.

As for Linux, Diefenthaler says Gateway is not in a position to make a big push in this area. "We see a little bit of an uptick in Linux-related sales," he says. "But our competency is among SMB customers who tend to prefer Windows, and based on our size, we try to stay focused on them. Still, Linux is an area where we would get some traction," he adds.

In addition to launching the BTX-based server, Gateway also delivered the new S-Series line of PCs, which also use BTX boards. The S-5000S is a small form factor, three-bay Micro BTX system that uses the Celeron D chip and the Intel 915GV chipset. It supports up to 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM and SATA disk drives. With 256 MB of memory, a 40 GB SATA disk, and an integrated Intel graphics card, the S-5000S desktop costs $449. The S-5200D is a six-bay Micro BTX system that uses the dual-core Pentium 4 521 processor (that's 2.8 GHz with HT and two cores) and uses Intel's 945G chipset. With 512 MB of DDR2 main memory, a 40 GB disk, and an integrated Intel video card, this desktop machine costs $599.