NEC launches the 'ECO CENTER' energy-saving server
(Top News, 28 May 2008 )
NEC Corporation has concluded development on the "ECO CENTER," a specialized space and energy-saving server whose marketing activities are scheduled to commence immediately.
The ECO CENTER consumes up to 55% less power, occupies 50% less space and is approximately 58% lighter than conventional servers due to the leveraging of cutting edge NEC technologies, such as highly efficient batteries, the optimum cooling functions of high-density packaging, and the adoption of advanced low power CPUs, chipsets and memory.
The ECO CENTER achieves maximum energy-saving benefits by capitalizing on the optimization technology of NEC's "Sigma System Center" integrated and VMware's "VMware(R) ESX 3.5"(1) to streamline allocation of operations in response to hardware demands.
The ECO CENTER incorporates batteries that require 20% less electrical power than conventional batteries. Furthermore, its server components are optimally located to maximize cooling airflow, which reduces the system's temperature and amount of electricity required to operate.
The system also features Intel's latest power saving CPU advancements through the low voltage "Quad Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor L5420."(2) Moreover, the most recent power conservation technologies, including chip sets, memory and more, enable the ECO CENTER to decrease power consumption by 55% when compared to earlier systems.
The ECO CENTER's dedicated housing is specially designed for easy storage as a compact server module consisting of 2 servers. Each housing unit measures 2 meters tall with a 128-processor / 512-core maximum capacity. The space required to store each unit has been reduced by as much as 50% in comparison to conventional equipment.
The server module is also composed of aluminum materials, and features cores mounted with 512-core capabilities. Furthermore, the module's weight of 540kg is approximately 58% lighter when compared to previously available servers.
Electricity Conservation through the latest Technology Optimizations The most valuable element of the system's electricity conservation is met through a combination of "VMware ESX 3.5" optimization and the integrated "Sigma System Center" platform management software, which optimally positions operations in response to burdens placed on the hardware (application servers).
Future measures with the "Sigma System Center" to reduce electricity consumption through optimization include a planned collaboration with the "Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition"(3) from Citrix Systems. Moreover, the correspondence to "Hyper-V" contained in "Windows Server(R) 2008"(4) is also planned.
The ECO CENTER is also expected to support "Windows Server 2003," "Windows Server 2008," and "Red Hat Enterprise Linux."(5)
NEC forecasts to begin shipment of the ECO CENTER to overseas markets, including the U.S., Europe and Asia by September 2008.
