March 30, 2010

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) has what it thinks will be a game-changing new x86 server platform and judging from the list of computer makers preparing to ship systems based around AMD's new Opteron 6100 series microprocessors, the chip maker could be onto something.

"There are too many silos in IT environments and too much complexity," said David Peterson, group marketing manager for Industry Standard Servers at Palo Alto, Calif.-basedHewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), one of several computer makers basing refreshed server product lines around AMD's new eight-core and 12-core Opteron processors.

"What we hear in the industry is that it costs too much to power these servers. That they use too much energy," said Peterson. HP is launching its new ProLiant G7 family of rack-mount servers in conjunction with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD's release of the first Opteron 6000 series platform, formerly code named Magny-Cours.

Some computer makers on board with the Magny-Cours launch, such as Fremont, Calif.-based AMAX Information Technologies, will also have products ready forIntel (NSDQ: INTC)'s Tuesday release of its eight-core Xeon 7500 series processors for multi-socket servers, also known as Nehalem EX. HP will have four-socket and above servers to showcase at Intel's Nehalem EX launch event in San Francisco Tuesday, an HP spokesperson told Channelweb.com late last week.

But HP has built its next-generation ProLiant G7 server line soley around Magny-Cours. The computing giant said the new Intel chips would eventually find their way into the G7 product family, but for now, the three initial servers in the G7 lineup sport AMD parts.

The first servers in the G7 series are the HP ProLiant DL165 G7 and HP ProLiant DL385 G7 rack-optimized servers, and the HP ProLiant SL165z G7 scale-out "skinless" server, the company said in a statement.

In rolling out the ProLiant G7 series, HP has stepped up an aggressive return-on-investment story it first made in March 2009 with the introduction of its ProLiant G6 lineup of servers equipped with Intel's Nehalem-class Xeon 5500 series chips. Back then, Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP promised a three-month ROI for customers replacing older servers with single-core processors with G6 units featuring Intel's re-architected quad-core Xeons.

On Monday, HP cut that promise by a third, asserting that its new G7 servers would deliver ROI in just two months. On the consolidation front, the computer maker also claimed that just one of its new G7 servers could replace 23 older systems and deliver equivalent performance.

The computing giant can make that claim due in part to the increased efficiencies in AMD's Magny-Cours chips, Peterson said, but also thanks to HP's development of its own proprietary Integrated Thermal Logic technologies, such as the system-level thermal detection array HP calls its "Sea of Sensors" and Dynamic Power Trapping, a method for reclaiming extra power in a data center. For a database-dependent real estate listing company like MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN), the HP value proposition is enticing, said Matt Lavallee, director of technology at the Shrewsbury, Mass.-based firm.

Source:-http://www.crn.com