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This week, IBM unveiled the Power7 processor which will show up in four server models set to start shipping within the next few weeks. Mind you, the release of a faster, more powerful and energy efficient chip isn't earth-shattering news these days. What is interesting is IBM's decision to position the 45 nanometer, virtualization-friendly processor as just the technology for the smart grid.

It's a smart move, considering all the activity surrounding the smart grid these days. You see, most server vendors and chipmakers extol the number-crunching virtues of their tech, hoping to catch the attention of IT managers and execs that outfit the data centers that make Wall Street and other big businesses hum - firms that pay a premium for high-end (and high-margin) servers that can process the continual flow of data and broker millions upon millions of transactions.

You can add utilities to the list of firms that will soon require servers that can handle the torrent of data generated by smart meters. Feeble servers and batch processing just won't cut it anymore. IBM feels that Power7 fits the bill as the processor to analyze and make short work of the enormous amounts of data generated by a smart electrical infrastructure. Here's a snippet from the company's press release:

A smart electrical grid requires per-the-minute data to deliver electricity where it is needed most, in real time, while helping customers monitor their energy consumption in real time to avoid or reduce usage during the most expensive peaks each day. A major U.S. utility moving to a smart grid pilot is moving from processing less than one million meter reads per day in a traditional grid, to more than 85 million reads per day in a smart grid. The utility needs to collect, analyze, and present all that information to its nearly five million customers in real time versus the overnight batch processing of a traditional electrical grid which delivers monthly billing statements.

That's IBM's reasoning for using its upcoming Power7 systems, but moreover, it's telling of how the company is positioning itself as a tech provider for the IT-heavy aspects of the smart grid and opportunities therein (sub req'd).

Will it work? It certainly doesn't hurt. (eMeter's already smitten, FYI.) And for you tech vendors looking for a way to tap into a growing smart grid market, it's wise to get the message out about how your wares can benefit the smart grid, particularly now while it's still early.

Just don't overdo it, OK?

Image Credit: IBM

AMD and Intel are locked in a battle for datacenter and these days that means pumping out processors that make easy work of workloads in an enery efficient manner. Anandtech takes a look at how the chipmakers fare in the low-power x86 rack server space, devoid of the lofty green marketing claims that have afflicted the PR departments of tech companies (you know who you are!).

What did author Johan De Gelas find?

The usual caveats apply. Essentially, if a computer server can't handle what you're gonna throw at it, it matters not if it's outfitted with a 'green' processor. And let's not forget the price premium commanded by these chips...

Our measurements made it very clear that from a performance/watt point of view that the Xeon L5520 beats the Opteron EE. The point of the Opteron EE is of course the fact that the maximum power consumed is 16W lower. In the non-virtualized world, the Opteron EE may be an alternative to those on a quest for a very low power server who feel that Supermicro's Atom and Dell's VIA Nano based servers are too slow. It will probably also find a home in some custom made ultra dense server systems.

It's not all doom and gloom for AMD, and nor is price the only metric that went into evaluating low-power servers from ASUS, Chenbro and Supermicro, the latter of which provides four servers in a 2U form factor via its innovative Twin² server (pictured above).

A worthy read if you're amidst some server planning.

Source: Testing the latest x86 rack servers and low power server CPUs - AnandTech

Currently shipping in 2-,4- and 8-processor HP ProLiant servers, the new Istanbul chips boast an nice percent performance per watt boost over their quad-core cousins.

AMD's Andy Parma explains:

When we compare servers using the newest Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 Series HE processors to servers using existing AMD Opteron processors, we find that a server based on the AMD Opteron 2400 Series HE processor is able to achieve 18% higher performance-per-watt than a server using Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2300 Series HE processors and also consumes 18% lower platform-level power than a server using Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 Series processors.

For two-socket servers, there's the 2.0 GHz Opteron 2423 HE ($455, all prices in thousand unit quantities) and the 2.1 GHz 2425 HE ($525), both operating at 55 watts. Four- and eight-socket systems get the 2.1 GHz Opteron 8425 ($1,514), which also operates at 55 watts.

AMD also released 2.8 GHz SE variants (2439 SE, $1,019 and 8439 SE, $2,649), but at nearly twice the power consumption (105W), they're clearly meant for high-performance servers.

Dell is also planning to incorporate the processors, both HE and SE, in Dell PowerEdge blade and rack-mounted servers in the coming weeks.

There are many ways to make your servers run leaner, and now Samsung is adding another. The company's new 50nm, 32GB DDR3 module operates at 1.35 volts and claims a 20 percent typical lower power consumption advantage over traditional 1.5V DDR3 RAM.

The new memory sticks are comprised of 72, 4Gb DDR3 chips, arrayed 32 per side. No word yet on pricing (expect high) or availability (soon, hopefully). For now, ogle the pic and dream of the RAM in your gaming rig, er, server!

Yeah, server...

Data Center Virtualization Configuration: The unified virtualization platform with pre-configured architectures combines Dell PowerEdge M-series blades and EqualLogic PS6000 iSCSI storage technology, with Cisco Catalyst networking switches, VMware vSphere 4 and Platespin Migrate from Novell to achieve an intelligent, automated data center.

Small and Medium Business Virtualization Configuration: The Dell virtualization configuration combines the PowerEdge R710, Dell PowerVault MD3000i, PowerVault DL2000 powered by Symantec for backup and PowerConnect networking technology together with Microsoft's virtualization suite, including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center Essentials and System Center-Virtual Machine Manager 2008, to reduce cost and simplify management of virtualization.

Notice the platforms for each, VMware for larger enterprises and Microsoft for SMBs... Interesting, but not unexpected.

[Source]

Add this to the list: It looks like Energy Star for servers and the enterprise class systems in which virtualization really shows its worth (think multiprocessor, heaps of RAM) aren't very compatible.

SearchDataCenter.com's Mark Fontecchio explores the strange mismatch between virtualization and Energy Star servers.

Some data center managers will take a close look at Energy Star qualified servers, but only if they meet their needs. Timothy Happychuk, the IT director at the Canadian media company Quebecor, said that "smaller servers with [fewer] CPU cores and more aggressive ramp down technologies will naturally have an easier time gaining a coveted EPA sticker but would be a poor choice for high-density virtualization platforms as the technology currently stands."

The EPA is not completely oblivious to the issue fortunately. From its memo to stakeholders (PDF):

During the Tier 2 process, EPA plans to: review all specification elements and criteria for refinements; expand the scope to include, but not limited to, servers with greater than four processor sockets, Blade Systems, Fully Fault Tolerant Servers, Server Appliances, Multi-Node systems; and evaluate the potential benefits of a Net Power Loss approach. In addition, EPA is exploring an approach to efficiency that reconciles the energy consumed by the system and the work being performed.

Well, as long as they're not sitting still.

Be sure to check out Fontecchio's article as he asks other data center managers' opinion of Energy Star, including one that makes the surprising admission that's he's under no power or cooling constraints for it to affect his IT procurement decisions. Lucky him!

Today, HP announced that they have expanded the program by offering 22 efficient ProLiant G6 product lines, double of what they had before. A big chunk comes from new servers powered by AMD's Six-Core Opteron (Istanbul) processors.

But that's not the only eco-news to come out of HP today, aside from the Windows desktop widget they cooked up. They also boast a total of 26 PC lines that meet Energy Star 5.0 requirements (including thin clients) and new HP ProLiant DL1000 Multi-Node servers with a shared power design.

HP also took the opportunity to toot its own horn, and rightly so. But its this interesting item that should perk up those interested in novel ways of cooling the datacenter.

Most recently EDS [an HP company] has developed or transformed two data centers in Tulsa, Okla., and Wynyard in the United Kingdom. The center in Tulsa is an expansion project that doubles the size of EDS' Service Management Center. A new cooling system design is expected to generate several million dollars in cost savings each year, and the center's 800,000-gallon chilled-water storage tank will enable the facility to operate for up to eight hours without using a chiller/cooling plant. The data center in Wynyard, which is currently under construction, has already won an award for innovation and design excellence. EDS is leveraging the cold wind blowing off the North Sea to lower temperatures of IT equipment and plant rooms for an anticipated annual energy saving of 40 percent compared to conventional data centers. When complete, the facility will be one of the largest and most efficient in Europe.

They even managed to work in a teleconferencing mention in the form of SkyRoom collaboration software.

For example, HP SkyRoom technology, expected to be available later this year, offers professional-quality visual collaboration and conferencing that preserves the value of personal connections in human interaction while cutting customers' travel costs and reducing their carbon footprint. The cost of using HP SkyRoom is a small fraction of a single round-trip, which is estimated at $1,002 for domestic travel in North America in 2009 and $3,452 for international travel.

They sure managed to pack a lot into a press release, which you can read by clicking ever so purposefully here.

The company has outfitted its new barest of bones storage chassis with 93 percent efficient, 1200-watt redundant power supplies, qualifying it for 80 Plus Gold. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a green nod to their "100% recyclable, palletized packaging."

More details? Sure thing!

SC826A-R1200LPB: 2U, 12 hot-swap SAS/SATA drives, takes seven low-profile add-on cards

SC836A-R1200B and SC936A-R1200B: 3U, 16 hot-swap SAS/SATA drive bay, takes for seven full-size add-on cards.

SC846A-R1200B - 4U, 24 hot-swap SAS/SATA drive bays and up to two internal drives in 4U, takes seven full-size add-on cards.

SC113 - 1U, supports eight 2.5" hard drives

SC213A - 2U, supports 16 2.5" hard drives

SC216A - 2U, supports 24 2.5" hard drives

...plus redundant cooling. Have a look at Supermicro's extensive chassis portfolio for more.

If you have been eying components for a new PC or server build, or perused the spec sheets on some systems destined for your datacenter or server room, you likely came across the term 80 Plus. Essentially, power supplies (PSUs) with this rating have an 80 percent or better AC (from your plug) to DC (what your computer's components use) conversion rate when tested under load at various points.

Why is it important?

During the transmission and conversion of electricity, a certain loss of power occurs. In the case of power supplies for computers and servers (and most gear, actually), the loss translates into heat, a worrisome development that requires the consumption of more power (see where we're going?) to drive fans to push away that heat from circuitry that doesn't take kindly to temperature extremes. The knock-on effect is that datacenters need to vent this hot air and supply cool air, resulting in more energy costs. Note that processors, RAM, drives and mother/daughterboards generate heat too, so PSUs aren't the only culprit.

But the real problem is that a good chunk of the electricity that you spend money on never reaches your computer's components. So, not only are you paying to generate and expel waste heat during the AC/DC conversion process, a lot of the earth's resources are being consumed to ultimately power nothing.

Several power supply makers think they can do a lot better, and so the 80 Plus standard was born.

80 Plus Explained

You see, typical power supplies can turn up to 40 percent of the electricity they take from the wall socket into heat, which results in cooling costs and can contribute to a shorter lifespan for your computer. 80 Plus power supplies, on the other hand, deliver more electricity and generate less heat.

In an example provided by 80 Plus (PDF), a typical 200W power supply can consume 143 watts AC to generate 100 watts DC, resulting in 43 watts in wasted heat. An 200W 80 Plus power supply only consumes 125 watts to generate the same 100 watts DC. This leads to lower energy costs to provide the same power.

To qualify as an 80 Plus power supply like the Enermax above, it must maintain at least 80 percent efficiency at 20, 50 and 100 percent load. And there are sub-qualifications: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Bronze satisfies the bare minimum performance required to qualify for 80 Plus while Gold can achieve higher levels of efficiency - up to 90 percent in some cases.

Neat, right?

Of course, it comes at a price. You likely won't see 80 Plus power supplies at bargain basement prices, but they are generally competitive. Savvy online shoppers will always find a good deal, anyway. In any case, the power supply is one component that you never want to skimp on so do your research for reputable PSU makers and consult the 80 PLUS Certified Power Supplies and Manufacturers list.

OEMs roll the cost of components into the final price, obviously, but you can count on cutthroat competitiveness for a spot on your desk or server rack to keep those discounts and bargains coming.

Bottom line: check for 80 Plus and enjoy the benefit of a smaller energy bill, longer-lasting gear and good old green IT karma.

Resources:

• 80 PLUS Official Website
• 80 PLUS Wikipedia Entry
• 80 PLUS Certified Power Supplies and Manufacturers
• Build a Green PC - ExtremeTech

While you may have to make some accommodations in you datacenter to power a mainframe, the massive consolidation that's made possible will likely tip the energy efficiency scale, plus other cost factors like software licensing and management, in your favor. IBM System z general manager, Anne Altman, told eWeek in a recent interview...

There's a great deal of innovation going on in energy-efficient technologies that take up less space, keep energy costs low and require fewer IT gurus to operate. The IBM mainframe also will continue to push the boundaries of virtualization, resiliency and security capabilities.

These capabilities, together with the well-known systems management strengths of the mainframe, have made the Linux environment on System z an extremely attractive option for consolidation of distributed environments. And thanks to such innovations, in a server consolidation, today's System z10 may provide up to six times the same work in the same space and may provide up to 16 times the work for the same power consumption to simultaneously manage a variety of business operations.

Want to peruse some big iron pr0n? IBM's System z website has you covered.

Source: eWeek