Penguin Computing enters the low-power ARM-based server arena with the Ultimate Data X1 (UDX1)-- one of the first server platforms using the Calxeda EnergyCore System on a Chip (SoC).
The Calxeda SoC carries a complete server with a low-power ARM processor, fabric switch and management software. Each server node uses only 5W of power and builds up a scaleable server infrastructure containing thousands of nodes.
The EnergyCore ECX-1000 core at the heart of each server node is a 32-bit processor-- but Calxeda promises it will move to 64-bit processors by 2014, once customers develop new generations of cloud applications designed for ARM-based architectures.
On the other hand the Penguin UDX1 features a modular design customers can configure with up to 48 EnergyCore server nodes. Each node carries x4 EnergyCore ECX-1000 server cores.
It also has an internal 10-Gbit ethernet switch fabric and up to 144TB of HDD storage.
Calxeda also says the UDX1 is ideal for Hadoop big data environments, as well as other applications demanding more processing rather than internal storage.
