ARM Based Server Cluster Benchmarked 55
An anonymous reader writes "Anandtech compares the Boston Viridis, a server with Calxeda's ARM server technology, with the typical Intel Xeon technology in a server environment. Turns out that the Quad ARM A9 chip has it weaknesses, but it can offer an amazing performance per Watt ratio in some applications. Anandtech tests bandwidth, compression, decompression, building/compiling and a hosted web environment on top of Ubuntu 12.10."
At least in their tests (highly parallel, lightweight file serving), the ARM nodes offered slightly better throughput at lower power use, although from the looks of it you'd just be giving money to the server manufacturer instead of the power company.
Re:You'll be giving money to someone (Score:4, Informative)
so natural gas costs 30% more per BTU input than fuel oil.
What planet do you live on?
heating oil $4.058/gallon [eia.gov], 138,700 BTU/gallon [energykinetics.com] = $29.26 per million BTU
natural gas $ 0.55143 [ohio.gov] per hundred cubic feet (ccf), 102,000 BTU's [onlineconversion.com] per ccf = $5.41 per million BTU