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Apple Xserve

  • As Jan 31, 2011 this product has been discontinued.
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Introducing Intel Xeon "Nehalem."

Many quad-core processors are composed of two separate dies, which means some cached data has to travel outside the processor to get from core to core. That's an inefficient way to access information. Enter the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem”processor. Its single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the four processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data, reduced traffic between processors, and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get an Xserve that's up to 2x faster than the previous generation.1

 

Integrated memory controller.

System memory is often connected to a processor through a separate I/O controller. But each Intel Xeon “Nehalem”processor features an integrated memory controller that connects memory directly to the processor, reducing memory latency by up to 40 percent. The integrated memory controller provides three channels of fast 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM. And when you configure the new Xserve with eight processing cores, you double your memory resources to six channels and 12 physical DIMM slots. The result is up to a 2.4x increase in memory bandwidth over the previous-generation Xserve.2

Xserve Controller

Increased performance per watt.

The new Xserve delivers a 19 percent reduction in idle power consumption and provides 89 percent better performance per watt over the previous generation when running server workloads.3 How do you get more performance with less energy? For starters, the Intel Xeon “Nehalem”processor is built on an industry-leading 45-nm process technology that reduces leakage and improves switching times. Integrated power gates in the processor design allow an advanced power management system to dynamically manage cores, threads, cache, and interfaces to deliver outstanding energy efficiency and performance on demand. These power management enhancements, coupled with smart system design in Xserve, mean a server that's less expensive to power and cool.

Turbo Boost technology.

The new Xserve introduces Turbo Boost: a dynamic performance technology that automatically boosts the processor clock speed based on workload. If you're running an application that doesn't need every core, Turbo Boost shuts off the idle cores while simultaneously increasing the speed of the active ones. That means a 2.93GHz system can perform at up to 3.33GHz under dynamic workloads.

Xserve Top View

Virtual cores through Hyper-Threading.

The new Intel Xeon “Nehalem”processors support Hyper-Threading, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. This enables an 8-core Xserve to take better advantage of its execution cores. Hyper-Threading increases performance and allows the processor to fully utilize its execution resources without significantly increased die size, transistor count, or power requirements.

Faster per clock.

The “Nehalem”microarchitecture executes up to four instructions per clock cycle per core on a sustained basis. It can also run more instructions out of order. The enhanced SSE4 SIMD engine handles 128-bit vector computations in a single cycle. And, of course, the processor continues 64-bit support for large memory loads.

QuickPath Interconnect.

A new bidirectional, point-to-point connection - called QuickPath Interconnect - gives the Intel Xeon “Nehalem”processor a high-speed connection between processors, as well as to the Xserve I/O subsystem. In an 8-core Xserve, there's a QuickPath Interconnect between the two quad-core processors, too. This connection acts as a direct pipeline, so processor-to-processor data doesn't need to travel to the I/O hub first, eliminating a major system bottleneck. And it provides strong RAS (reliability, availability, serviceability) features, including CRC data protection and link-level retry.

 

Quickpath Interconnect

More I/O bandwidth.

The new Xserve delivers up to 2x the I/O bandwidth of the previous generation via two 16-lane (x16) wide PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots. Because the slots are independent, bandwidth isn't shared between them. So you get all the bandwidth you need for the latest I/O cards, including 10Gb Ethernet and multiport 4Gb Fibre Channel cards.

Built-in graphics.

Thanks to a built-in NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card, it's easy to manage your system using a keyboard, mouse, and display, without taking a valuable expansion slot. The 2D/3D acceleration of the GPU enhances rendering and video processing, a valuable feature for Apple's professional applications and server-side video processing tools such as Podcast Producer in Mac OS X Server. An optional VGA adapter supports connection to standard VGA devices and KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switches.

 

1.  Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using a preproduction 2.93GHz 8-core Xserve (2 chips, 8 cores, 4 cores per chip, 2.93GHz; SPECjbb2005 bops = 203,439, SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM = 50,860) and a shipping 3.0GHz 8-core Xserve (2 chips, 8 cores, 4 cores per chip, 3.0GHz; SPECjbb2005 bops = 103,387, SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM = 25,847). SPEC® and SPECjbb2005® are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect internal Apple testing and were submitted to SPEC in February 2009. For the latest SPECjbb2005 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/osg/jbb2005. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve.

2. Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction 2.93GHz 8-core Xserve units, preproduction 2.26GHz quad-core Xserve units, and shipping 3.0GHz 8-core Xserve units. All units were configured for optimal memory performance (18GB for 8-core 2.93GHz units, 12GB for quad-core 2.26GHz units, and 16GB for 8-core 3.0GHz units). Results are based on the STREAM v. 5.8 benchmark (www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/ref.html) using OMP support for multiprocessor-compiled builds. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve.

3. Testing conducted by Apple in March 2009 using a preproduction 2.93GHz 8-core Xserve (SPECpower_ssj2008 result of 464 overall ssj_ops/watt; 173W at Active Idle; 227,974 ssj_ops and 334W at 100% target load) and a shipping 3.0GHz 8-core Xserve (SPECpower_ssj2008 result of 245 overall ssj_ops/watt; 213W at Active Idle; 141,739 ssj_ops and 353W at 100% target load). All units were configured for optimal memory performance (18GB for 2.93GHz 8-core units and 16GB for 3.0GHz 8-core units). SPEC and the benchmark name SPECpower_ssj are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Competitive benchmark results stated here reflect internal Apple testing and were submitted to SPEC in February 2009. For the latest SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/power_ssj2008. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Xserve.

 

 

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