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.
You'll be giving money to someone (Score:1, Interesting)
" although from the looks of it you'd just be giving money to the server manufacturer instead of the power company."
Isn't that the truth. This is the new market paradigm for just about everything. You no longer pay for a product or service. You pay for what you get out of it.
For example, the way fuels have been priced for the last decade or so (since the first runup after 9/11), you pay for the energy you get out of the fuel, not the fuel itself.
Case in point, diesel cars are 20% more efficient than gasoline cars, so diesel fuel costs 30% more. Natural gas furnaces are 25% more efficient than fuel oil furnaces, so natural gas costs 30% more per BTU input than fuel oil.
Corporate America is going to stick it to you no matter what you do to get ahead. If you find a clever way to save money, our greedy corporate masters will STEAL it from you one way or another, because at the end of the day, they are pulling all the strings and turning all the knobs.
HP makes two inkjet printers that are identical in every way, except one has an adjustable ink density in software, allowing you to reduce ink usage by 30%. Ink cartridges for that printer cost 40% more.
You can get "free" energy by installing a solar array, but the moment you grid-tie the power company only gives you credit for generation, so you end up paying THEM for "transmission" and "transition" on your own goddamn electricity that you paid to produce for your own home.
Shit like that...