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Project Moonshot take two: HP's low-power Gemini servers let go of ARM's Calxeda for Intel's Centerton
Last we'd heard of HP's Project Moonshot, that effort to create low-energy servers was set to ride on the back of the Calxeda SoC. But for the rollout of its production-ready "Gemini" models, the company's changed tack, replacing the previously announced ARM chips for Intel's Centerton. Why the sudden swap? Well, it seems that new Atom processor delivers the same energy-sipping promise of its predecessor, while also adding 64-bit support, a broader software ecosystem, error correcting code memory and hardware virtualization. That's all well and good, but when you boil it down to layman's terms, HP's really just angling for the ultimate in efficiency and it plans to do that by providing these compact servers in "a [smaller] footprint" than currently available setups. The system's still not quite ready for primetime consumption, given its very recent public outing, however, demo units are in the pipeline, with a planned launch for the end of 2012. If this sort of back-end geekery gets your blood flowing, feel free to hit up the official presser after the break.
HP and Calxeda's Moonshot ARM servers will bring all the boys to the yard (video)
HP and Calxeda's indiscreet partnership has been revealed to the world: Project Moonshot is a new server based around a brand new ARM-based EnergyCore system-on-chip. These new units are so efficient that a four core version, packing 4GB DRAM, consumes just five watts at full pelt -- for perspective, that's less than your average tablet. The other funky innovation is that all the server nodes now share a single power, cooling, management and storage system rather than carrying it themselves. In terms of space saving, the Redstone four unit chassis you can see in the image above can hold 288 of the little blighters. If you set your alarm clock early to learn more about efficient server architecture, head on past the break for two videos, including a tour of HP's server labs and some press release goodness.
