Apple Xserve

[Josip Loncaric]

FYI: Apple has a nice ad in the Oct. 2002 IEEE Spectrum for its "Xserve" 1U
server, which they claim is also "perfect for computational clustering".  The
machine runs Mac OS X, has single or dual G4 processors (1GHz each with 2MB of
L3 cache), up to 2GB of SDRAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet, up to 4 hot-plug ATA/100
drives, "three PCI slots (two of which are 64-bit, 66MHz)", etc.  The extent
to which a rack of these servers would support computational clustering is not
yet clear to me, but its picture is very nice :-).

See: http://www.apple.com/xserve/

Sincerely,
Josip

P.S.  G4 processors run cooler than Pentiums or Athlons, but Apple's packaging
has only a few front or back airflow outlets.  Given the probable amount of
heat generated internally, this is a bit puzzling.  Perhaps they draw air
vertically or sideways as well?  Hmmm...

-- 
Dr. Josip Loncaric, Research Fellow               mailto:josip at icase.edu
ICASE, Mail Stop 132C           PGP key at http://www.icase.edu./~josip/
NASA Langley Research Center             mailto:j.loncaric at larc.nasa.gov
Hampton, VA 23681-2199, USA    Tel. +1 757 864-2192  Fax +1 757 864-6134