Oracle Refreshes The Entire X86
On June 28th 2010, Oracle announced a very significant update to both the x86 based rack mount server portfolio and the Blades portfolio.
The rack server updates include all of the existing 2 socket x86 servers, upgrading them to 'M2' versions with access to the latest Intel Xeon Processor 5600 Series CPUs (formerly known as Westmere-EP), and introduced two totally new, high end enterprise grade, 4 and 8 socket capable servers in completely new form-factors, using the Intel Xeon Processor 7500 Series CPUs (formerly known as Nehalem-EX).
List of Servers:
The Sun Fire X4800
This is Oracle's new high end x86 enterprise system, providing up to 8 sockets of Intel Xeon Processor 7500 series CPUs, huge memory, hot-plug PCI-Express gen 2 IO options, including access to up to 8 x 1GbE and 8 x 10GbE NICs and compute scalability up to 64 cores (128 threads with Intel Hyperthreading enabled).
A quick summary of the features:
- 4 or 8 Socket configurations of Intel Xeon 7500 series CPU's
- Up to 1TByte of in-system memory using todays 8GB DIMMs
- 1 new 5RU form factory chassis accommodating pluggable modules...
- 4 x CPU Modules (CMODs), incorporating 2 x CPU sockets and 32 DIMM slots
- 8 x PCI-Express ExpressModule (EM) Hot-pluggable/swappable expansion modules
- 4 x PSU modules
- 4 x Fan modules
- Hot-Pluggable Service processor (Oracle ILOM) Module
- 8 x 2.5" SAS Disk Drives (Hot-plug/swap with appropriate software/hardware RAID configuration)
Some pointers to more information:
The Sun Fire X4470
This server provides up to 4 sockets of intel Xeon Processor 7500 series CPU's, in only a 3RU chassis with huge memory capacity and IO bandwidth, providing an ideal platform for virtualisation and consolidation or enterprise critical workloads.
Taking a closer look at some of its specifications:
- 2 or 4 Socket configurations of Intel Xeon 7500 series CPU's
- Up to 512GBytes of memory across up to 64 DIMMs (using 8GB DIMMs)
- 6 x 2.5" Local SAS2/SATA Disk bays with hot-plug/swap capability
- Up to 10 PCI-Express gen 2 Low Profile Expansion Slots
- Dual redundant, hot-plug/swap Power Supplies
- Redundant Fan modules with hot-swap/plug
Some pointers to more information:
The Sun Fire X2270 M2
Updating the earlier Sun fire X2270 platform, the system has been refreshed to incorporate one or two Intel Xeon Processor 5600 Series CPUs, up to 4 x high capacity (up to 2TB) conventional SATA disk drives. The platform removes PSU or Fan redundancy due to its expected position in the lower cost, higher volume space, being utilized in technical computing type applications that are heavily horizontally scaled across many identical high performance servers, a single server failure having only a small impact on overall application throughput.
Links to more information...
The Sun Fire X4170 M2 server
A refresh of the original Sun Fire X4170, now targeting the deployment of scalable Enterprise applications. Using the same motherboard as the Sun Fire X4270 M2 systems, the same capabilities are provided with a couple of 1RU form-factor driven differences.
- The system provides the same 144 GByte memory capacity as the 2RU systems.
- This model accomodates up to 95 Watt CPU's (the 2RU X4270 M2 accommodates up to the 130 Watt range CPUs).
- 3 PCIe gen 2 expansion slots are provided within the 1RU form-factor.
- Disk storage is available through 8 front mounted 2.5" SAS2/SATA disk bays, all capable of supporting a full complement of SSD's or HDD's.
- An optional DVD+/- RW drive is provided on the front panel.
Links to more information...
The Sun Fire X4270 M2 servers
Oracle has refreshed the existing Sun Fire X4270 server line replacing the current X4270 and X4275 with two models of Sun Fire X4270 M2. The two new chassis introduce a considerable number of changes under the skin providing more choices around storage and expansion capabilities as well as providing access to the latest generation of Intel CPUs.
Both models provide two sockets of Intel Xeon Processor 5600 Series CPU's, and 1 or 2 socket configurations are supported. With up to 18 DIMM slots and todays 8GB DIMMs, memory capacity is up to 144GB. I/O card expansion is provided by up to 6 PCIe Gen 2 Low profile slots, but an option is available to replace two of the rear PCI slots with a rear mounted dual 2.5" SATA disk cage (expected to be used for OS installation, leaving the front accessible disks as general storage without worrying about accidental OS disk interference during hot-swap procedures). All of the front disk bays on both chassis are capable of accommodating a full complement of SSD's should customers want such a configuration.
The X4270 M2 - 12 Disk chassis
- This variant replaces and updates the previous Sun Fire X4275 server, providing 12 x 3.5" SAS2 disk bays capable of providing up to 24TBytes of storage capacity when filled with 2TB disks.
The X4270 M2 - 24 Disk chassis
- This is a new chassis variant providing an extremely high 24 disk count using 2.5" disk drives, providing high spindle counts and high speed SAS2.
For more details, check out the links below:
Written Peter Wilson - Oracle
BSI House, 59 Markham Street, London SW3 3NR United Kingdom | Tel: +(44)20 7352 7007
