Re: 1U XServe G5
Originally posted by jaedreth
But instead will be:
Will the price/performance ratio and needed features for the XServe's market be enough for it's target audience and still be able to fit it in a 1U?
price/performance typically isn't in the favor of 1U rack servers. You can always buy a desktop for less than a similar rack. The case its self costs more usually.. then there is the engineering to get everything to fit.
You don't buy 1U racks for price/performance. You buy them for computational density and for redundancy.
You can't fit 42 desktops into the area of 1 - 7ft rack, and your typical desktop machine doesn't have redundant power or hardware raid (w/ hot swap) built in. (*note.. xServe doesn't have redundant power, but a lot of rack units do)
They may have to offer a 1GHz G5 in single, dual, and cluster configurations. But then beef the architecture up. Use some kick ass blowers and heat syncs. I doubt this product will be quiet. But they will likely have lower prices, especially since the G5 chips themselves are relatively inexpensive.
Thus more people will opt for the Cluster options, and fill up a 42 U Rack, and have all the power they need. More than before, that is.
I don't think that Apple will have a lot of trouble putting the G5 in a 1U. They have the ability to push a lot more air through since rack units don't have to sit on your desktop and and be quiet.
Remember, the G5s are putting out heat in the same range as the current G4s, which is a lot less than the heat given off by Athlon, P4, or Opteron (and all those chips have tons of 2cpu 1U solutions available).
The xServe G5 will have to be significantly redesigned though. A dual G5 board in a 1U will be severely marginalized if it doesn't ship with a gaggle of DIMM slots. People are going to want to take advantage of large memory spaces in the server segment (much more than on the desktop IMHO). I think Apple's biggest design concern will be where to put it all... not how to cool it.
JMHO