Apple Xserve

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, Josip Loncaric wrote:

> 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),

that's 2mb of ddr sdram running as the l3 cache not sram.

> up to 2GB of SDRAM,

pc133 64bit...

> 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 :-).

spec cpu2000 benchmarks would tend to indicate that if cpu is a priority 
you're beeter off in x86 land. This article compares the 1ghz mpc7455 and 
pIII 1ghz fairly favorably I might add but 1ghz pIII isn't exactly 
exciting these days.

http://www.heise.de/ct/english/02/05/182/


> See: http://www.apple.com/xserve/
> 
> Sincerely,
> Josip
> 
> P.S.  G4 processors run cooler than Pentiums or Athlons,

the 1 ghz unit is 30watts peak, given that in the macs (dual 867 in 
my office) the cpu's are packaged on the same board and under the same 
heatsink you have about 60 watts to deal with... The 1.8 volt switching 
power supply is under there as well. so similar power/heat issues to a 
single cpu high-end intel machine.

> 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...

apple is making some nice macs right now. If you need a mac the current
crop of dual make very good units. but cost effectivness and performance
relative to other platforms you could be using aren't really their strong
suites.
> 

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Joel Jaeggli	      Academic User Services   joelja at darkwing.uoregon.edu    
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