HP server awaits Intel go-ahead
Hewlett-Packard is champing at the bit to release a new version of its ProLiant ML570 server that will use Intel's upcoming "Gallatin" Xeon processor.
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The ML570 will debut with Intel's Gallatin processor when the chip becomes available, an HP representative said Tuesday. The chip--a smaller, faster generation of processor with more high-speed "cache" memory--will initially run at 2GHz in the servers.
Intel will begin selling Gallatin chips this quarter, spokesman Scott McLaughlin said, but declined to give launch timing and chip speed details. Sources familiar with the plan expect a November debut for the chip.
The ML570, a design inherited from Compaq, is one of the workhorses of HP's Intel-based server lines and is a main weapon in the company's efforts to stave off competition from Dell Computer. HP also upgraded the two-processor, rack-mounted DL380, which initially used 1.4GHz Pentium III chips but now ships with 2.8GHz Xeon processors for $3,399.
In the future, the ML570 will support a "hot-add" memory feature, allowing administrators to install new memory without shutting a server down--useful for companies trying to minimize interruptions to services such as e-mail or accounting. The features requires Microsoft's .Net Server 2003 version of Windows--expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2003.
Previous versions of the ML570 used the 1.4GHz Xeon MP processor, built with a manufacturing process with 180-nanometer features. The Gallatin chips are built using a newer 130-nanometer process, permitting faster clock speeds and smaller circuits, leaving more room for cache memory.
IBM, with a boost from its high-end mainframe server specialists, has aggressively pushed memory technologies in its Intel servers. Its top-end Intel server, the x440, can protect data from faulty memory chips--a technology similar to the RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) technology used to for data protection on hard drives.
HP also is anxiously awaiting Gallatin chips for eight-processor servers. The company skipped over the current Xeon MP generation, saying the cache was too small to warrant an upgrade from the 900MHz Pentium III Xeons introduced years ago.
The new ML570, like its predecessor, supports the new higher-speed PCI-X data pathway for plugging in network and storage adapter cards.