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Microservers Based on Intel® Xeon® Processors

Micro server. Macro performance per watt.

Achieve New Levels of Efficiency and Density for Emerging Scale-out Workloads

The microserver represents a new server architecture characterized by many lightweight server nodes bundled together in a shared chassis infrastructure. They’re designed specifically for:

  • Density
  • Lower power per node
  • Reduced costs
  • Increased operational efficiency

Microservers are particularly well suited for lightweight scale-out of webscale applications such as:

  • Simple Front End Web Tier
  • Low End Dedicated Hosting
  • Basic Content Delivery Node

Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family-based microservers offer improved performance per watt—up to 52%1 better performance per watt and up to 24%2 lower power than the previous generation at the node level. Data center-class capabilities, such as x86 compatibility, 64-bit architecture, ECC memory, virtualization support, integrated security, and scalability, will help you maximize node density, improve I/O performance, and minimize frustrations—all reasons why a microserver based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family is a simple and affordable solution for your data center.

Server System Infrastructure (SSI) Forum is a leading server industry group that drives server form factor standards, including the Micro Module Server Specification*. The Micro Module Server Specification provides a server board form factor and system interfaces specifically designed for the microserver segment. This standard will enable innovative system architectures to reduce product costs and increase product and data center efficiencies.

Microservers provide up to 5.8x greater performance per rack

A rack populated with microservers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family delivers up to 5.8 times2 greater performance compared to a rack populated with 1U servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v2 product family1.

Baseline, Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 product family

 

Performance per rack3

MicroServers, Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v2 product family

 

*A server node includes processor, memory, and required discrete I/O controllers
Performance per rack3

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Product and Performance Information

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1. Baseline configuration: Fujitsu* TX140 S1p with one Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1265L v2 (8M Cache, 2.50 GHz), 16GB (2x8GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600E-11, ECC), 1 x 500 GB SATA, 7200 RPM, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology-enabled, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology-enabled, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux Server Release 6.2, Kernel 2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64, compiler version 12.1.0.293 of Intel® C++ Compiler XE. Represents the best published results as of April 2013. Score: SPECint*_rate_base2006=169.  http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2012q2/cpu2006-20120522-22364.html. Processor TDP = 45W, Perf/W=3.76 New configuration: Intel® C226 chipset-based Intel® Xeon® server platform with one Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1230L v3 (8M Cache, 1.8 GHz), 16GB (2x8GB dual-rank DDR3-1600 ECC UDIMM), 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s HDD, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology-enabled, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology-enabled, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux Server 6.3 for x86_64, compiler version 13.0.0.133 of Intel® C++ Studio XE, and Intel® Fortran. Source: Intel internal estimated measurements, April 2013. Score: SPECint*_rate_base2006=143. Processor TDP = 25W, Perf/W=5.72


2. Power reduction from Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1220L v2 with 17W TDP to Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1220L v3 with 13W TDP.


3. Baseline rack configuration: Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1220L v2 Maximum number of nodes, 42U rack: 41 1U server + 1x 1U 48 port GbE Ethernet switch. Performance per node/rack: Best published SPECint*_rate_base2006 score of 87.3 as of April 15, 2013. http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2012q2/cpu2006-20120522-22320.html. Total performance 41 servers = 3579.3 Power per node:  Max power consumption of one Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1220L v2 on an Intel® C206 chipset-based platform using SPECpower_ssj2008, EIST enabled, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology enabled, 8GB memory (2x 4GB DDR3-1600 UDIMM), 64G 3Gb/s SATA SSD, Windows 2008* R2 SP1. Java SE Runtime Environment* (build 1.6.0_30-b12), Java HotSpot* 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.5-b03, mixed mode). Source: TR1276, Intel internal testing as of March 2012. Score: ssj_ops@100%: 195,006, power@100%: 51.3W, active idle power: 26.4 Power per rack: 2.3kW total. 1U switch = 240W, 41 1U server nodes = 2103W   New microserver configuration: Intel® Xeon®  processor E3-1230L v3 Maximum number of nodes: SSI rack = 12 3U chassis with 144 nodes + 3x 1U 48 port GbE switches. Performance per node/rack: Intel® C226 chipset-based platform with one Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1230L v3 (8M Cache, 1.8 GHz, C0 stepping), EIST enabled, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology enabled, Intel® Hyper-Threading enabled, 16GB memory (2x 8GB DDR3-1600 ECC UDIMM), 160GB SATA 7200RPM HDD, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux Server 6.3. Compiler version: 13.0 of Intel® C++ Studio XE and Intel® Fortran. Source: Intel internal testing as of April 2013. Score: SPECint_rate_base2006 of 143, 144 nodes = 20592 Power per node: Based on Intel estimates of 39.3W per node with one Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1220L v3 node, EIST Enabled, Intel Turbo Boost enabled, 8GB memory (2x 4GB DDR3-1600 UDIMM), 1x SSD, assuming shared cooling resources and shared power supplies. Power per rack: 6.4kW total. 3x 1U switches at 240W per switch = 720W, 144 nodes at 39.3W per node = 6372W