Apple on Monday unveiled a new XServe, its line of 1U rack-mountable servers. The new XServe—a quad Xeon, 64-bit server featuring Mac OS X Server Tiger on two Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz—completes the company’s transition to Intel-based machines across its entire product line.
Standard configurations will feature equipped 1GB of RAM and 80GB of storage for $2,999, and will be available in October. Build to order options include faster processors, larger hard drives and dual power supplies.
The XServe server architecture includes PCI Express, independent 1.33 GHz front side buses with 4MB of shared L2 cache, and fully-buffered DIMMs (FB-DIMMs). Apple claims that the new Xserve delivers up to four times the I/O bandwidth, up to three times the memory bandwidth and twice the storage bandwidth of the Xserve G5.
Configurable with two Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running either 2.0, 2.66 or 3.0 GHz, the new Xserve supports up to 32GB of 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory with twice the capacity and three times the bandwidth of the Xserve G5. Two eight-lane PCI Express expansion slots provide up to 2GB/s of throughput each. XServe includes support for up to three 3Gb/s SATA or SAS drives, for up to 2.25TB of hot-plug storage. Thermal management capabilities take advantage of the low power of the Intel processors, running as low as 65W.
Other new features include quick deployment rails for rack mounting, a new lights out management system that lets administrators control the hardware from a remote location and Apple’s Server Monitor software and Remote Desktop agent.
The new Xserve ships with internal graphics that can drive up to a 23 inch Cinema Display as well as industry standard VGA devices and offers an ATI Radeon X1300 256MB PCI Express graphics card as a build to order option.
The Intel-based Xserve will be the first system to ship with a pre-installed unlimited client edition of Tiger Server software that is optimized to run on Intel-based systems. Tiger Server integrates over 100 open source projects and standards-based software applications with management tools for Mac, Windows and Linux clients.
The Xserve base configuration includes two 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors with 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM RAM, a single 80GB 3Gb/s SATA Apple Drive Module, dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board, internal graphics, three FireWire 800 and two USB 2.0 ports, and an unlimited client license of Mac OS X Server version 10.4 Tiger for $2,999. Build to order options and accessories include dual 2.66 or 3.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 32GB of 667 MHz FB-DIMM RAM; 80GB and 750GB 7200 rpm 3Gb/s SATA or 73GB and 300GB 15,000 rpm SAS Apple Drive Modules; ATI Radeon X1300 graphics card with 256MB SDRAM; Combo or SuperDrive; and 650W redundant power supply.