Dual-core dominates Dell servers

Dell will from next month introduce dual-core processors throughout its server lines, but complexity of software licensing, validation requirements and pricing should ensure single-core products survive for another year.

Supplementing today’s one-socket products, Dell will on 10 October release dual-core two-socket PowerEdge systems. These will use Intel’s Paxville DP architecture with dual-core 2.8GHz Xeon chips, each boasting a 2MB cache. In November, it will follow up with Paxville MP products that support four sockets and a total of eight processing cores.

On two-socket systems, the dual-core Xeons will offer up to 53 percent better integer performance and speed up Java by 43 percent, database by 26 percent, and floating-point by 23 percent performance, according to figures cited by Dell.

“The general performance gain on dual-core is the greatest step-change in a processor line we have seen and our plan is to move these products quickly across server lines,” said Dell’s Hugh Jenkins. “We’ll still support single-core Pentium 4 and Xeon well into next year but the vast majority of sales will be dual-core as we exit next year.”

However, some enterprise software licence terms – such as those from Oracle and BEA – will mean buyers incur extra costs by moving to dual-core products, Jenkins conceded. Dual-core chips will also command a five to 10 percent premium over single-core equivalents.

The moves confirm Dell’s focus on scale-out computing, reinforced by the decision earlier this month to phase out systems based on Intel’s 64bit Itanium processor. But unlike some server rivals such as HP, IBM and Sun, Dell still has no space for AMD’s Opteron chip that competes with, and frequently outperforms, Intel’s 64bit-extended Xeon parts.

Separately, Dell said it will next month launch its Datacentre Environmental Assessment Service that audits power and cooling and maps thermals in server rooms.

High-density equipment and blade servers are forcing many firms to re-examine datacentre designs to protect against overheating. Dell will work with partners including APC and Nova and charge about £3,500 for an audit of a 1,500 square feet space with 50 racks.

The firm will also offer a PowerEdge and PowerVault maintenance service to offer a regular health-check for systems.