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Microservers Powered by Intel® Xeon® and Intel® Atom™ Processors

The right solutions for simple, scale-out workloads

Microservers are an emerging form factor of servers designed to process workloads for hyper-scale data centers. Because of its high density and energy-efficient design, the infrastructure (such as fan and power supply) of a microserver can be shared by tens or, potentially, hundreds of physical server nodes, eliminating the space and power consumption of duplicate infrastructure components.

Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family for microservers

When you’re looking for a microserver with the best performance per watt, look no further than an efficient Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 product family-based solution1,2,3. With up to 52%4 better performance per watt and 24%5 lower power than the previous generation, the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3 product family lets you scale out your web services while scaling down your power consumption.   

Learn more about the Intel® Xeon® processor E3 >

Intel® Atom™ processor S1200 product family

Need microservers that are big on density and energy efficiency? The Intel® Atom™ processor S1200 product family allows you to maximize rack space and reduce energy costs with microservers that require less than 10 watts per server node. The Intel Atom processor supports full server class features, including a 64-bit instruction set, ECC memory, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology), Intel® Virtualization Technology, and more. With common x86 architecture, your software environment can be easily scaled across all platforms with Intel Xeon and Intel Atom processors. No software porting is required.

Learn more about the Intel® Atom™ processor S1200 product family >

Diagram comparing Xeon LV E3 and Atom S1200 web hosters

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

 

Which one is better?

You may ask, "Which is going to be better, Xeon E3 or Atom S1200?" The answer is that it depends on the application and usage. The usage model, the data center power envelope, and the system type are all key factors. 

To illustrate that, consider two types of web serving. One, there is a dedicated hoster that serves up lightweight web pages and needs as many low cost instances as possible. Two, there are web tiers that require maximum throughput but may not require as many distinct images. 

For the first case, the Intel Atom processor S1200 family represents a potential solution. A reasonably powered rack could support 560 nodes. In some instances, you can expect to see racks with as many as 1,500 nodes in it. That kind of dedicated server density has not existed before. And comparing it to the Intel Xeon processor E3 equivalent, that is up to 5x6 the server density. For the second case, the Intel Xeon processor E3 provides substantially higher performance due to more cores and higher perf/core. We see it delivering up to 2x6 the number of web transactions despite fewer servers.  

Intel® Microservers

Lightweight microservers

Microservers are a high-density yet low-power solution for workloads that need to scale as demand grows.

See how microservers work >

Microserver lab

Test your own software on microservers featuring Intel® Atom™ and Intel® Xeon® processors and analyze potential options and benefits.

Learn how >

Intel® Chip Chat: Microservers

From microservers to hyper-scaling, learn about the Intel® microserver platform and how it can be innovated upon.

Listen now >

Videos

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Product and Performance Information

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1. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations, and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.


2. Results have been estimated based on internal Intel analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.


3. Intel does not control or audit the design or implementation of third party benchmarks or web sites referenced in this document. Intel encourages all of its customers to visit the referenced web sites or others where similar performance benchmarks are reported and confirm whether the referenced benchmarks are accurate and reflect performance of systems available for purchase.


4. 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


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


6. Dell* C5220 blade with Dell PowerEdge* 5000 chassis using 112 Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1265L v2 nodes per rack (14 chassis/rack * 8 blades/chassis) with 16GB DDR3, 2x10GbE, 2x480GB SSD per node. Using a dynamic transaction web workload, web serving/node: 15,303, web serving/rack: 1,713,986, power/node: 60W (estimated based on CPU TDP, chipset, memory, network interface, HDD and amortized power for fans and PSU).   One rack of 560 Intel® Atom® processor S1260 nodes with 8GB DDR3, 2x1GbE, 2x150GB SSD per node. Using a dynamic transaction web workload, web serving/node:1,522,web serving/rack: 852,320, power/node: 20W (estimated based on CPU TDP, chipset, memory, network interface, HDD and amortized power for fans and PSU).