Fujitsu Computer Systems in October unveiled a two-socket Opteron-based blade server that could be combined to make a four-way system. In the next quarter, the company will roll out a version of the Primergy BX630 that can be combined to make an eight-socket system.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company was able to take advantage of the HyperTransport interconnect technology in Advanced Micro Devices dual-core Opteron chips to link two two-socket blade servers to create a single four-socket system. The system was designed to give enterprises the flexibility to buy the smaller systems and scale up to larger ones as needed, said Richard McCormack, senior vice president of product and solutions marketing for Fujitsu.
Now Fujitsu can use those same building blocks to create an eight-socket blade that can fit in the companys BX600 chassis and run alongside other Opteron-based systems or the BX620 two-socket blades powered by Intels Xeon processor.
“[Before], if you bought multiple two-socket blades, you could join them together and make a four-way [system],” McCormack said.
Now those four-socket systems can be used to create an eight-way—essentially creating a 16-processor system—or Fujitsu can build the eight-socket system before its shipped.
The bulk of applications running on systems powered by Opteron and Xeon chips can be run on two- and four-socket systems, he said. However, there is increasing demand to run larger workloads, such as databases, on those platforms, McCormack said.
Fujitsus technology enables customers to scale up its systems as needed and taking advantage of the benefits of blades, such as shared cabling and hot-swap capabilities, he said.
The eight-way-capable blades will start shipping in the second quarter, with an eight-socket system starting at less than $36,000.
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