14 DAY TRIAL // After pulling its online store down for maintenance, Apple has now confirmed the availability of new Xserve models, packing either one or two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors, revving at 2.93GHz. The system comes in two standard configurations, both of which pack 3GB of memory, a 160GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA drive module, and Mac OS X Leopard Server to boot. The only difference is the number in cores (processors).
According to Apple, “the new Quad-Core Intel Xeon 'Nehalem' processors deliver outstanding performance through an enhanced microarchitecture, integrated memory controller, and two new features: Turbo Boost, which dynamically speeds up the cores in use when others aren’t needed; and Hyper-Threading, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each processor core,” the company explains.
Also noteworthy is that the new CPU architecture puts processor cores into lower-power modes when they’re inactive. As Apple indicates, the active cooling system intelligently manages fan speeds, ultimately allowing the Xserve to deliver 89 percent better performance per watt than the previous-generation model.
Taking on the Xeon processors specifically, Apple explains that each processor provides three channels of fast 1066MHz DDR3 ECC RAM for up to a 2.4x improvement in memory bandwidth and 40 percent reduction in latency compared with the previous generation. Apple's servers include up to 12 DIMM slots for greater memory expansion using lower-capacity modules and two x16 PCI Express 2.0 slots for more bandwidth for expansion cards. An optional Xserve RAID Card offers more performance (up to 497MB/s without taking up a PCI Express slot), featuring 512MB of RAID cache, a 72-hour cache battery backup for rigorous data protection, and hardware RAID levels 0, 1, and 5.
As you would expect, Xserve includes a built-in NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and Mini DisplayPort output. According to Apple, this makes it easy to manage your server using a keyboard, mouse, and display. Additionally, the 2D/3D acceleration of the GPU enhances rendering and video processing for server-side tools like Podcast Producer. To support connections to standard VGA devices and KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switches, an optional VGA adapter is also available.
Xserve ships with Mac OS X Server v10.5 Leopard, which supports an unlimited number of Mac, Windows, Linux, and UNIX clients. To learn more about the new Xserve models, visit Apple here.