Dell talks up multicore servers, workstations

IDG News Service - Dell Inc. has added multicore technology to its single-core dual-socket servers and workstations, the company announced Monday. Dell claims that the new systems provide a maximum improvement in performance of 53% compared with the single-core, dual-socket machines they supersede.

Multicore computing is the placing together of two or more CPUs onto a single piece of silicon as a way to both cut costs and lower thermal emissions. Since processor-intensive tasks can be handled separately, multicore chips can also help improve the performance of multithreaded applications.

Dell's PowerEdge 1850, 2800 and 2850 servers, PowerEdge 1855 blade server, and Precision 470 and 670 workstations will ship in the first half of October with dual-core Intel Corp. Xeon chips instead of single-core processors, according to Neil Hand, vice president of worldwide marketing in Dell's Products Group.

"This is our core range of servers, in the 1U, 2U and 5U range as well as tower [configurations]," he said in a phone interview Friday. U is the standard unit for measuring the space between shelves on a server rack; 1U equals 1.75 in.

"We will bring out a four-socket dual-core system before the end of the year," Hand said.

The older single-core and the new multicore Dell machines share a common system image and are backward-compatible, according to Hand, simplifying application migration as customers move up from one to the other.

In terms of power consumption, the new dual-core processors raise the total performance per watt of Dell's PowerEdge and Precision machines by a maximum of 43% over their single-core peers, Hand said.

The new PowerEdge servers will ship with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Server 2003 operating system and Red Hat Inc.'s Enterprise Linux. The PowerEdge 1850 server and the 1855 blade are both priced from $2,448, while the PowerEdge 2800 costs from $2,548 and the PowerEdge 2850 from $2,748. The Precision workstations will ship with Microsoft's XP Professional operating system and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux. The Precision 470 costs from $2,479, while the Precision 670 is priced from $2,779.

Dell shipped its first dual-core server, the PowerEdge SC430, aimed at small businesses, in July.

Dual-core-based PCs and servers are appearing more and more in the market from all four of the leading systems vendors -- Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc.

Unlike its competitors that sell systems based on chips from both Intel and its rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell sells only machines based on Intel's chips. Perhaps because of that loyalty, Dell is often the first systems vendor to ship newIntel technology in its machines.