Penguin Launches ARM Server

Penguin Computing announced a microserver based on Calxeda's EnergyCore SoC. Ultimate Data X1 (UDX1) system is promised to run in a power envelope of just 5 watts and is targeting application areas in I/O heavy areas, including big data scenarios.

According to the manufacturer, the UDX1 can be configured with up to 48 server nodes, with up to four processor cores per node. The system uses a Ethernet-based switch fabric with a bandwidth of 10 Gb and allows up to 144 TB of HDD capacity.

"Power and cooling are the biggest facility challenges for most data centers, on the other hand typical cloud computing, web 2.0 and big data applications are based on scale out architectures," said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Penguin Computing."A new generation of power efficient high density servers is required to run these workloads efficiently."

Penguin will be offering the UDX1 as a rackmount server and as an option next to its Opteron 4200/6200-based Altus servers as well as an alternative to its Xeon E3 Relion servers. Pricing and availability were not announced.

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Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

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