Linux in Dallas at the SEG

[Alan Jackson]

On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 15:21:33 -0500
Kurt Wall <kwall at kurtwerks.com> wrote:

> Quoth Alan Jackson:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > the AMD Opteron 64 bit for clusters. IBM had a rather nice blade
> > system which could take whatever you want, AMD, Intel, or other. And
> > I saw a Sun system perform much like an SGI. So things are continuing to
> > progress.
> 
> Stupid question: What exactly is a "blade" server?

Don't know *exactly*, but I think it's basically a sort of rack-mount
chassis into which you can plug many (dozens) of self-contained cpus (blades)
IBM's blades were about the size of a paperback - each one had dual cpus,
a lot of memory, and plug into a high-speed bus. People worry about
floor-space, power consumption, cooling, price, and capability. Trick
is to find the right balance of all those for your application.

Ahh... google is my friend...

http://search390.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid10_gci770169,00.html

 A blade server is a thin, modular electronic circuit board, containing one,
 two, or more microprocessors and memory, that is intended for a single,
 dedicated application (such as serving Web pages) and that can be easily
 inserted into a space-saving rack with many similar servers. One product
 offering, for example, makes it possible to install up to 280 blade server
 modules vertically in multiple racks or rows of a single floor-standing
 cabinet. Blade servers, which share a common high-speed bus, are designed to
 create less heat and thus save energy costs as well as space. Large data
 centers and Internet service providers (ISPs) that host Web sites are among
 companies most likely to buy blade servers.

A blade server is sometimes referred to as a high-density server and is
typically used in a clustering of servers that are dedicated to a single task,
such as:

    * file sharing
    * Web page serving and caching
    * SSL encrypting of Web communication
    * transcoding of Web page content for smaller displays
    * Streaming audio and video content 

Like most clustering applications, blade servers can also be managed to include
load balancing and failover capabilities. A blade server usually comes with an
operating system and the application program to which it is dedicated already
on the board.

Individual blade servers are usually hot-pluggable and come in various heights,
including 5.25 inches (the 3U model), 1.75 inches (1U), and possibly "sub-U"
sizes. (A U is a standard measure of vertical height in an equipment cabinet
and is equal to 1.75 inches.)

Also see brick server and pizza box server. 
-- 
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| Alan K. Jackson            | To see a World in a Grain of Sand      |
| alan at ajackson.org          | And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,         |
| www.ajackson.org           | Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand |
| Houston, Texas             | And Eternity in an hour. - Blake       |
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