Dell Unveils Four And Two-Socket Servers

2nd November 2006

Dell today announced two PowerEdgeTM servers featuring AMD OpteronTM processors that deliver industry-leading price-performance and performance per watt and reinforce Dell's commitment to reduce complexity in customers' server environments.

The new Dell PowerEdge 6950 is a four-socket server designed for demanding enterprise applications such as database, server consolidation, virtualisation and migration from costly RISC-based systems. Featuring AMD Opteron processors, the PowerEdge 6950 can deliver industry leading performance, eclipsing performance levels of conventional four-socket servers1 and consumes up to 20 percent less power than previous generation quad-socket PowerEdge servers2.

The new PowerEdge SC1435 is a two-socket, rack-dense server optimised for high-performance compute clusters, distributed Web serving and small- to medium-sized businesses that require the leading price-performance ratio and energy conservation features. The AMD Opteron processor-based PowerEdge SC1435 can deliver performance gains of up to 128 percent3 and performance-per-watt improvements of up to 138 percent4.

"The PowerEdge 6950 and PowerEdge SC1435 continue Dell's unwavering commitment to meet customer needs and lead the industry in price-performance and performance per watt," said Andy Rhodes, Head of Servers, Dell, EMEA. "These servers - combined with the integration of Dell OpenManageTM with Oracle applications to simplify the deployment, management and monitoring of Oracle applications - deliver the solutions our customers need to reduce complexity in enterprise environments."

Marty Seyer, senior vice president of AMDTM 's Commercial Segment noted Dell and AMD's vision to deliver uncompromising performance-per-watt choices and complete solutions to Dell enterprise customers.

"AMD and Dell share a commitment to deliver system-wide innovation where it matters most to customers," said Seyer. "By combining Dell's world-class product design, service and support with the performance-per-watt benefits of AMD OpteronTM processors and open innovation platform enabled by the AMD Torrenza initiative, customers have the right tools for addressing specific workload needs and applications while reducing total cost of ownership.'

Dell PowerEdgeTM - Leading the Way in Performance and Performance per Watt

The new servers complement Dell's ninth-generation PowerEdge servers introduced earlier this year, delivering the most comprehensive technology and design enhancements ever to the widely installed product line. Enhancements include: Industry-first programmable LCD that enables quick and easy visual diagnosis of server faults

• Individually labelled hard drives that provide quick identification of the technology, capacity and speed
• Standardised colour coding and cabling that make PowerEdge servers easier to manage and service today and with future generations
• Draw-latch design for tool-less access to server components
• ImageWatchTM , a Dell service that helps customers proactively manage the number of changes to system images, available in a block-release format further reducing the number of image changes a customer has to manage.
• SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) hard drives for faster, more reliable data transmission and reduced thermal output
• TCP/IP Offload Engine, which helps reduce traffic on a host processor to enhance system performance
• Enhanced virtualisation technology for improved performance, management and utilisation in virtualised workloads such as VMware ESX, Microsoft Virtual Server or Xen
• PCI-Express I/O, which delivers high-performance Ethernet, RAID, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel interconnect while providing investment protection for future technologies

Grid Management: Simplified

Dell and Oracle have integrated Dell OpenManageTM and Oracle Enterprise Manager to offer an industry-first solution for simplified management of the Oracle application infrastructure. The integration of these standards-based tools enables customers to natively manage Dell PowerEdgeTM servers within a single management console familiar to Oracle database administrators.

By continuing its commitment to integrate its OpenManage product family with partner solutions, Dell is delivering standards-based, enhanced management for customers. This enables faster issue isolation and improved availability between application and hardware, minimises training and use of multiple tools and leverages existing IT investments for customers.

• The integration of Dell OpenManage and Oracle Enterprise Manager includes support for lifecycle management of Dell PowerEdge servers with features such as: System discovery, reporting and configuration
• Managing server hardware health
• Cross-platform system event notification
• Event-driven policy execution

Source: www.dell.com