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Implementation of Intel Atom in data center servers rising
By siliconindia
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Monday, 19 April 2010, 19:31 IST
Bangalore: Major players are thinking about implementing Intel Atom processors in data center servers. Even though it is primarily known for the use in small netbook computers, Intel's Atom is less costly and requires less power than bigger Intel Xeon server chips. It could be used to create a lower-cost data center architecture compared with higher-power options like Intel's Xeon processor, reports Mark Fontecchio of SearchDataCenter.com.
There is an increased interest in Atom, and major technology vendors including Google and Microsoft are looking at running servers with low-power chips such as Atom. Others remain skeptical, saying that Intel's Xeon processor will continue to dominate in the data center.
Shannon Poulin, the Director of Xeon platforms in Intel's Data Center Group said, "There are different science projects out there to see if it's the right model, and a lot of experimentation happening in the market. But right now, the majority of deployment that I'm aware of is Xeon based." According to Poulin, all the original equipment manufacturers he talks to are interested in Xeon in the data center right now.
The argument against using Atom in data centers is that it doesn't provide the same level of performance or features, particularly the so-called reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features that Xeon does.
