New IBM Energy Saving Method for Linux servers

Add the Linux server side to IBM's new energy-saving method-Linux Enterprise Application-Linux server application information. The following is a detailed description. IBM has designed a new type of rack server specifically designed for companies with a high network load running Web 2.0 websites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

IDataPlex is designed to connect to unlicensed "white box" PCs-network companies connect thousands of such PCs to maintain network operation-competition. IBM claims that its new server (running Linux, Intel-based quad-core Xeon processors) consumes 40% less power than the average rack server system, while packaging more computing capabilities. IBM says most of the energy savings come from cooling energy required by new designs, less than previously.

Rack servers are long and look like a rectangular pizza box, stacked one by one in the server chassis. The standard height of the server is 1u or 2u, but the depth or distance from the bottom of the chassis is increased because the supplier tries to add more hardware to a single chassis.

According to IBM's response, this creates a problem. The cooling system blows the gas from the bottom of the server, and as the server deepens, the fan needs more power supply to fully cool down. CTO Gregg McKnight from the module system team at IBM "The power consumed by the fan is proportional to the cubic speed of the fan, so if you want to double the speed of the fan, that means you need to increase the power supply by eight times."

The solution for IBM is to rotate the server 90 degrees horizontally, that is to say, to produce a server that is wider than a common server but has a depth of only 15 feet (the current rack server depth is 25 feet ). "This allows us to lower the fan speed and reduce the energy supply of the fan by 67%," he said ."

IBM places two rack servers together and creates a wide rack that can accommodate 84 iDataPlex servers. This allows servers on the same rack to share three power whips. McKnight says Power whip is a mobile Power outlet connected to a cable that costs between $1500 and $2000 a month.

IBM has also designed an optional, water-cooled backdoor Heat Exchanger in a wide back space to suck up all the heat in the system, so it will not cause overheating of the data center.

The fault tolerance capability of the shared power cable system is poor, but the software used to run the website is usually designed to quickly switch to another server when a fault occurs. "We visited Web 2.0, and they consistently reflected that their design would design the application software to defend against server faults," McKnight said. Therefore, because this server is more economical and energy-saving, it is a very suitable product ."

This concept is a milestone, said Joe Clabby, president of Clabby analytics. Major server vendors focus on designing highly Redundant servers with high costs. These servers are used by companies to run enterprise background services (these services are critical ).

IDataPlex will compete with server integration products from standard x86 servers, Verari Systems and Rackable Systems in China.

Although the main target market is Web 2.0, IBM claims that this server is also suitable for complex financial analysis, video conversion, and high-performance computing. The target market for this server is a network company. The factory is located in China and is currently only available to companies with large orders. Previously, consumers generally purchased thousands of rack servers.

IBM does not offer a price or a specific structure. You can select from 22 structures, including networks, switches, and storage. The product comes from IBM partners such as Avocent, QLogic, and Blade Network Technologies.

This product was designed 18 months ago when IBM realized that there was no product specifically for the Web 2.0 market.