Dell develops Via-based Web servers
With a couple of abrupt left turns, Dell has changed from a conservative company with zero tendency to experiment with non-Intel CPUs to a progressive company using Via chips in servers.
Dell was one of the last large systems manufacturers to finally add a few AMD chipsets to its all-Intel lineup of PCs. That earned them a well deserved reputation as a die-hard loyalist Intel shop. How things have changed! Although it is being made for a specialty sales division, Dell has put together a very interesting blade-style box populated with very small Via-chip-powered web servers.
The Via chipset is fairly popular among builders of small laptops for its very low power consumption characteristics and low profile. Those characteristics carry over to the Dell Web server product in spades. Dell has managed to fit 12 of the via blades into a 3.5 inch box, which is three times the usual number for a compact dell server, according to a New York Times story. Probably more importantly, each of those servers consumes only 15 to 30 watts of power, about 10 percent of a normal server.
Code-named Fortuna, the server will be released as the XS11-VX8. It was developed to fit into a very special niche and will be sold only into that marketplace. The target of the XS11-VX8 is the Web server market, specifically those Web servers used by large hosts, and will be sold by the same Dell group that markets custom solutions for large companies.
Web servers of this type are generally not running high-powered tasks which put a lot of strain on a processor. Instead, they are running small Web sites and simple Web applications for small business users or individuals. Since those sites are hosted in very large numbers, and since the competition for them is fierce, it helps to keep costs down. Low power consumption and tiny space requirements are considered big plusses in this arena, and the light demands on the CPU in such servers mean that the 1.3 to 1.6 GhZ speed of the Via processors, the trade-off for low power consumption, is not a hindrance either.
With prices low, at about $400 each, and the cost of ownership lowered by miserly power consumption and space requirements, this could be a device whose time has come. Intel and AMD have had no real competition in the server marketplace for many years. These Via-powered blades from Dell might finally give those mainstream makers a run for their money.
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