HP launched the new  ProLiant BL460c Gen8 blade but you would have never known about it.   With the prelaunch work done it February it seemed like a non event.   The bulk of the goodness on the Gen 8 updates are across the ProLiant  family so I will try to keep my focus on those that pertain to the  BL460c.

The BL460c is focused around the new Intel Xeon E5-2600 Family  processors with up to 8 cores/16 threads each, advanced memory capabilities and new cloud ready management .

CPU
Eight-Core Processors

Intel® Xeon® E5-2680 (2.70GHz/8-core/20MB/130W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2670 (2.60GHz/8-core/20MB/115W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2665 (2.40GHz/8-core/20MB/115W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2660 (2.20GHz/8-core/20MB/95W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2650 (2.0GHz/8-core/20MB/95W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2650L (1.80GHz/8-core/20MB/70W) Processor

Six-Core Processors

Intel® Xeon® E5-2667 (2.90GHz/6-core/15MB/130W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2640 (2.50GHz/6-core/15MB/95W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2630 (2.30GHz/6-core/15MB/95W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2630L (2.0GHz/6-core/15MB/60W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2620 (2.0GHz/6-core/15MB/95W) Processor

Quad-Core Processors

Intel® Xeon® E5-2609 (2.40GHz/4-core/10MB/80W) Processor
Intel® Xeon® E5-2603 (1.80GHz/4-core/10MB/80W) Processor

Dual-Core Processors

Intel® Xeon® E5-2637 (3.0GHz/2-core/5MB/80W) Processor

One interesting thing I saw today when trying to get find out more  information was that you need both processers installed to use both PCIe 3.0 slots. Just something to keep in mind.

Memory

New HP SmartMemory is qualified to run at speeds up to 25 percent faster than industry standards but there is a catch. HP memory from previous generation servers are not qualified to run with Gen 8 Blade.  The HP SmartMemory has to pass testing by HP before meeting qualification. The best part about the new architecture is not having to guess if the amount of memory you put in the server will reduce the overall speed. It use to be if you filled all three DIMMs per channel performance would drop. The ProLiant BL460c Gen8 has four memory controllers per processor socket so that memory speed and capacity is not affected as more memory are added. When using the correct combination of processors and DIMMs, the server supports operating all 16 DIMMs at 1600MHz providing up to 256 GB for maximum memory speed or 1333MHz providing up to 512 GB for maximum memory capacity.

Standard (Pre-configured Models)
64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz RDIMMs at 1.5V
32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz RDIMMs at 1.5V
32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1333MHz RDIMMs at 1.35V
16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1333MHz RDIMMs at 1.35V

Maximum (LRDIMM)
512GB (16 x 32GB) up to 1333MHz at 1.35V
Maximum (RDIMM)
256GB (16 x 16GB) up to 1600MHz at 1.5V
256GB (16 x 16GB) up to 1333MHz at 1.35V
Maximum (UDIMM)
128GB (16 x 8GB) up to 1333MHz at 1.35V

The maximum RAM capacity is only based on 16 GB DIMMS but 32 GB will follow soon. There was even a non HP announcement today about 64GB DDR3 LRDIMM’s.

Cloud Management

The new management capabilities for Gen 8 have seem to come along away. In the end all the server vendors are playing with Intel , so this area is probably where the most vendors will differentiate themselves . My favourite new feature is the HP Active Health System.
All configurations change are logged, failed parts are tracked so they don’t get but back in and all the Active Health information can be sent to support automatically so I don’t have to stay on the phone with support.

The cloud based management is based on HP Insight Online. The portal gives you access to monitor your servers, warranty and contracts, service tickets and allows for replacement parts to be proactively ordered. You can give your partners access your portal for remote management and but it looks like automatic (direct-to-expert) support will cost you some additional dollars.

It’s also worth noting that HP changed their drives to better report and show drive failures. The old hard drives will not work in the new
blades.

As more information is released I plan to write about the impact for VDI on my blog at ITbloodpressure.com.

Dwayne is the newest Contributor to BladesMadeSimple.com and is the author of IT Blood Pressure (http://itbloodpressure.com/) where he provides tips on Virtual Desktops and gives advice on best practices in the IT industry with a particular focus in Healthcare.  In his day job, Dwayne is an Infrastructure Specialist in the Healthcare and Energy Sector in Western Canada.

The International Data Corporation’s (IDC) released their  Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker today covering Q4 2011.  Despite a 7.2% decrease in the worldwide server factory revenue, the blade market continued to experience growth in 4Q11 with factory revenue increasing 8.3% year over year.   Other key facts from the IDC press release:

• Bladed servers (including x86, EPIC, and RISC blades) accounted for $2.3 billion in revenues, or 16.1% of quarterly server market revenue.
• 89.6% of all blade revenue is driven by x86-based blades, which now represent 22.5% of all x86 server revenue.

HP maintained the number 1 spot in the server blade market in 4Q11 with 47.4% revenue share – down from 51% in 3Q11, while IBM grew from 18.2% in 3Q11 to 21.5% revenue share in 4Q11. Cisco and Dell rounded out the top 4 blade server vendors with 11.0% and 8.7% factory revenue share, gaining 5.3 and 1.3 points of blade market share, respectively from Q311.

According to Jed Scaramella, research manager, Enterprise Servers at IDC, “While there was softness in other segments, blades remained a strong point and continued as a driver of growth for the server market. The blade server category achieved both its highest reported revenue and revenue share in the fourth quarter of 2011.  IDC believes blades are a key element in a server vendor’s portfolio as they are a strategic footprint in the datacenter and important for vendor revenue and profitability. A converged blade platform is an opportunity for additional pull-through revenue beyond the server, including storage, networking, software, and services.”

For the full IDC report covering the Q4 2011 Worldwide Server Market, please visit IDC’s website at:
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23347812

Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has over 15 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.    Kevin works for Dell as a Server Specialist covering the Global 500 East market.

• Display is approximately 28” x 10.3” x 1.7” and weighs 18lbs.
• Each case is exactly the same for all blade servers being auctioned.
• Plaques will show the Realm Name and Mo/Yr of start and end date.
• The copy on the plaque varies.  An example of one reads: Blizzard Entertainment has carefully preserved and archived our retired server blades, releasing only a limited number for a noble cause. To us, this server blade is more than just hardware: within the circuits and hard drive, a world of magic, adventure, and friendship thrived. From fishing in quiet lakes to defeating Arthas in Icecrown Citadel, this blade was home to thousands of immersive experiences across the world of Azeroth and beyond. We thank you for the safekeeping of this important part of history.
• The signatures are printed on the plaque are not original and include the World of Warcraft team.

Current bids range from $107 to $225.  Details of the blade server configuration is not provided, however I would speculate, 2 x Intel 5400 CPUs with 64GB of RAM and 6 Network Interface Cards (NICs.)  UPDATE – one of our readers, Marrtins, commented below that he received a response from the auction that, “I  apologize but these server blades are non-working. All memory has been  wiped and they are non-functioning. They are strictly pieces of art.”

The auction runs through January 30, so go to http://stores.ebay.com/Blizzard-Blade-Servers and place your bids while you can!

I once was a huge fan of HP’s Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Modules but with the new enhancements to VMware vSphere 5, I don’t think I would recommend for virtual environments anymore. The ability to divide the two onboard network cards up to 8 NICS was a great feature and still is, if you have to do physical deployments of servers. I do realize that there is the HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Module but I live in the land of iSCSI and NFS so that is off the table for me.

With vSphere 5.0, VMware improved on its VMware’s Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) functionality and overall networking ability, so now it’s time to recoup some of that money on the hardware side. The way I see is most people with a chassis full of blade servers probably already have VMware Enterprise Plus licenses, so they are already entitled to VDS, however what you may not have known is that customers with VMware View Premier licenses are also entitled to use VDS. Some of the newest features found in VMware VDS 5 are:

The last feature is the one that makes me think I don’t need to use HP’s Flex-10 anymore. Network I/O control (NIOC) allows you to assign shares to your network interfaces set priority, limits control congestions all in a dynamic fashion. What I particularly like about NIOC as compared to Flex-10 is the wasted bandwidth with hard limits. In the VDI world, the workload becomes very bursty. One example can be seen when using vMotion. When I’m performing maintenance work in a virtual environment I think it sure would be nice to have more than 2 GB/s a link to move the desktops off – however when you have to move 50+ desktops per blade you have to sit there and wait awhile. Of course, when this is your design, you wait because you wouldn’t want to suffer performance problems during the day by lack of bandwidth on services.

A typical Flex-10 configuration may break down the on board nic (LOM) something like this

To get a similar setup with NIOC it may look something like this.

Total shares from above would be: 5 + 50 + 40 + 20 = 115

In this example FT, iSCSI and Replication don’t have to be counted as they will not be used. The shares only kick if there is contention. The shares are also only applied if the traffic type exists on the link. I think it would best practice to limit vMotion traffic as multiple vMotions kicking off could easily exceed the bandwidth. I think 8000 Mbps would be reasonable limit with this sort of setup.

Management: 5 shares; (5/115) X 10 Gb = 434.78 Mbps

NFS: 50 shares; (50/115) X 10 Gb = 4347.83Mbps

Virtual Machine: 40 shares; (40/115) * 10 Gb = 3478.26Mbps

vMotion: 20 shares; (20/115) X 10 Gb = 1739.13Mbps

I think the benefits plus the cost saving is worth moving ahead with a 10GB design with NIOC. Below are some list prices taken on November 28, 2011. Which one are you going to choose?

Flex-10

HP_6120G-XG

Dwayne is the newest Contributor to BladesMadeSimple.com and is the author of IT Blood Pressure (http://itbloodpressure.com/) where he provides tips on Virtual Desktops and gives advice on best practices in the IT industry with a particular focus in Healthcare.  In his day job, Dwayne is an Infrastructure Specialist in the Healthcare and Energy Sector in Western Canada.

Hot off the presses is the latest IDC worldwide server market revenue report for Q3 2011. The gist of the report is that while some of the numbers are slightly adjusted, really not much has changed in the blade server market.

Revenue growth for the entire server market (all servers, not just blade servers) slowed considerably showing only 4.2% year over year growth bringing in $12.7 billion. Growth in the world of servers continues but this marks the slowest growth rate for any quarter since Q1 2010. IDC believes that overall server sales will continue to decelerate due to weakening economic conditions around the globe. “After nearly two years of steady revenue growth, the server market began to decelerate in Q3 2011 as demand stabilized for many system categories,” said Matt Eastwood, group VP and general manager. Incidentally, IBM and HP are both holding steady, tied for the #1 spot in revenue share, at 29.8%.

When looking at the blade server market specifically, growth was steady for Q3 2011 but not as explosive as Q2 2011. IDC reports “solid growth” in the quarter with a revenue increase of 16.4% year over year (vs 26.9% growth in 2Q11). Shipments increased 2.4% (vs 6.2% reported growth for 2Q11). One thing that hasn’t changed since last quarter is that 89% of all blade revenue is driven by x86 systems. Also, blade server sales representing  20.8% of all x86 server revenue. This shows continued steady growth for the blade server segment but that the pace may be slowing slightly.

#1 market share: HP managed to hold the majority margin moving to 51.0% in Q3 2011 from 51.9% in Q2 2011.

#2 market share: IBM continues to see its margin chipped away slightly down to 18.5% in Q3 2011 from 19.1% in Q2 2011.

#3 market share: Cisco’s disruptive market penetration seems to have slowed at 10.7% overall compared to a solid 10% in Q2 2011.

#4 market share: Even Dell dropped slightly to 7.2% revenue share from 8.2% last quarter.

In looking at the totals, the top four vendors represented 87.4% of the revenue share in the blade servers market which is actually down 2% from last quarter. Cisco grew revenue share by less than 1% which means that some of the displacement of the remaining top vendors is not accounted for. Does this mean there may be some new players in the “others” category that we should be watching? Without a detailed breakdown it’s hard to tell but I’ll definitely be looking forward to comparing the numbers next quarter to see if the trend continues. It could, after all, just be a factor of the margin of error in the statistics.

According to Jed Scaramella, research manager, Enterprise Servers at IDC, “Blade systems represented the fastest growing segment in the server industry and now account for 16.0% of total server revenue – a historic high.”

Probably the most interesting aspect of the report is the introduction of hyper-scale servers. “Hyper-scale servers are designed for large scale datacenters with streamlined system designs that focus on performance, energy efficiency, and density.” This sounds like the mantra for blade servers with the main difference being the lack of management and high availability capabilities at the hardware level. Basically these represent the miles of simple, rack mount commodity servers used by the likes of Google and Facebook. This is a $428 million dollar server segment and growing.

For the full IDC report covering the Q2 2011 Worldwide Server Market, please visit IDC’s website at http://www.idc.com.

If you are like me, you are constantly referring to manufacture web sites for product specs, available options, etc.  Today, I’ve put together a list of web sites that will help streamline your search.  Since links change and new ones get added, I’ve put out a “helpful links” tab at the top of my blog as well for you to reference and bookmark.  As I get recommendations from my readers, I’ll update the “helpful links” tab, so be sure to add it to your favorites.

Cisco QuickLinks – http://ciscoquicklinks.com/

Cisco UCS 3 D Model – http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/ps10265/ps10279/ucs_kaon_model_preso.html

Cisco UCS 5100 Blade Chassis – http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10279/index.html

Cisco B-Series Blade Servers – http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10280/index.html

Cisco UCS Manager – http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/index.html

Cisco UCS Site Preparation Guide – http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/hw/site_prep/guide/siteprep_tech_specs.html

Manage your Cisco UCS via iPhone App;  SiMU Lab (Simple iPhone Management of UCS) – http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/simu-lab/id385832700?mt=8

Cisco UCS Emulator Download – http://developer.cisco.com/web/unifiedcomputing/ucsemulatordownload
 

Dell blade solutions (main page) – http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/blade-server-solutions.aspx

Dell M1000e Product Page – http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/pedge_m1000e/pd.aspx?refid=pedge_m1000e

Dell PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guidebook (PDF) - http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-m1000e-tech-guidebook.pdf

Dell Blade Server Product Page – http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/blade-server-solutions-dell-m-series-blade-servers.aspx

Dell Technical Guidebook for the M610 Blade Server (PDF) – http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-m610-tech-guidebook.pdf

Dell Technical Guidebook for the M710 Blade Server (PDF) – http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-m710-tech-guidebook.pdf

Dell M-Series I/O Solutions Guide (PDF) – http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/blade_io_solutions_guide_v1.2_jn.pdf

Dell M1000e Technical Whitepaper (PDF) – http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/poweredge-m1000e-white-paper-en.pdf

Power Distribution Whitepaper for M1000e Chassis (PDF) – http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/pe_m1000e_selection_whitepaper.pdf

Dell Systems Management Consoles Product Page – http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/dcsm-dell-consoles.aspx

Dell Tech Center (single site for Dell technical info, demos, blogs) – http://www.delltechcenter.com/

Dell Power Planning Calculator – http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pedge/topics/en/config_calculator?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

HP BladeSystem Main Page – http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/bladesystem/index.html

DDR3 Memory Configurator – http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/options/tool/hp_memtool.html

HP BladeSystem Enclosures Main Page – http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/enclosures/c-class/index.html

HP Proliant Server Blades Main Page – http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF02d/3709945-3709945-3328410.html

HP Blade Interconnects Main Page – http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-interconnects.html

HP Configurator Tool – http://h30099.www3.hp.com/eGlue/eco/begin.do

HP Server / Software Demo Site (recorded demos) – http://h20324.www2.hp.com/SDP/Content/Booth.aspx?ID=63

HP BladeSystem Power Sizer – http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/347628-0-0-0-121.html

NEW  IBM System x Mobile App: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/resources/mobileapp/

IBM Support site for Fixes and Downloads:  http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

IBM BladeCenter H Power Recommendation Document (from BladesMadeSimple.com) – PDF, 440kb

IBM Power Guide  – http://www-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP101706

IBM BladeCenter Benchmarks – http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/resources/benchmarks/results/

IBM BladeCenter Main Page – http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/

IBM BladeCenter Chassis Product Page – http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/chassis/index.html

IBM Blade Server Product Page – http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/servers/

IBM BladeCenter I/O Module Product Page – http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/openfabric/ethernet.html

IBM BladeCenter Interoperability Guide – http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brand=5000020&lndocid=MIGR-5073016

IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology Redbook – http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/SG247523.html

IBM BladeCenter and System x Reference Documents (xREF) – http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/pages/xref?Open

IBM Standalone Solutions Configuration Tool (SSCT) – http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brand=5000008&lndocid=MIGR-62168

IBM Server Configuration and Options Guide HTML – http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brand=5000008&lndocid=SCOD-3ZVQ5W

If I’ve missed any important websites, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them.

This week HP has its annual event, called HP Discover, in Las Vegas.  Previously this event was focused on hardware only and was called HP Tech Forum, but this year HP combined hardware and software into one uber event, called HP Discover.  If you are familiar with VMware’s VMworld – this event is very similar, only it focuses on HP products.  This is a great marketing event for HP but more importantly, it gives HP customers, partners and press insight into what’s happening with HP.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend HP Discover due to a well-timed, long overdue vacation – and I won’t be updating this blog.  However, I wanted to provide my readers with a source of how you can stay up-to-date with the announcements that HP will be providing during HP Discover.  I figured the best bet would be to provide you with a list of bloggers who will be blogging during the event:

If you are interested in following the HP Discover conference, but aren’t headed to Las Vegas, check out their virtual conference at https://h30406.www3.hp.com/campaigns/2010/events/discover/vegas/index.php

You can also follow the HP Discover conference by following the Twitter hashtag #HPDiscover (http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23hpdiscover).

As a last bit of interest, here are the links to my posts from last year’s HP Tech Forum:

• FIRST LOOK: HP’s New Blade Servers and Converged Switch

• Mark Potter Reveals New HP BladeSystem Products – 6/21/2010 (#hptf)

• New BL465c G7 and BL685c G7 (New Features)

• LEFT BEHIND in The Venetian Casino Data Center (Really!)

• My Interview with HP Vice President of Converged Infrastructure, Doug Oathout

• What Does it Take to Design an HP Blade Server?

“A year from now the difference will be (Cisco) UCS (Unified Compute System) is dead and we have had phenomenal market share growth in the networking space…And customers are thrilled and partners are making a lot of money.” – Randy Seidl, VP of the Americas, Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking,  HP (April 26, 2010)

 
This was a quote found in CRN’s article a year ago, today,  from Randy Seidl, HP’s senior vice president of the Americas, Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking, who was tasked in leading the charge against Cisco.  Needless to say, it’s a year later, and Cisco UCS is still around but with much question around how much market share they own since they’ve yet to release market data to IDC or Gartner. 

Why Hasn’t Cisco Failed?
I’m not a market analyst – just a guy with a passion for talking blade servers, so my opinion as to why Cisco didn’t fail, as predicted by HP, is as much of a guess as anyone would have.  I can only speak on what I observe:

1. Cisco has PASSION- I firmly believe that in order to succeed, you must have desire.  Whether you are promoting blade servers or virtualization software, if you don’t believe in your product, no one will.  No matter who you talk to at Cisco, they will tell you that UCS is the best product on the market.  I haven’t seen that passion in any other vendor lately.  Perhaps other vendors could learn a thing or two from Cisco’s employees.
2. Cisco’s UCS Management is Unique - if you spend any amount of time watching Cisco demonstrate their management of the UCS, you will see that it’s a unique way of handling blade server resources.  Rather than try to explain, I encourage you to take a look at M. Sean McGee’s blog post from a few weeks ago: http://www.mseanmcgee.com/2011/04/the-cisco-ucs-advantage-series/

Now that we see that Cisco UCS isn’t going to die, what do they need to succeed in winning the blade server market share?  Here’s an excerpt from a blog post I wrote in January:

———–

The following are my recommendations / suggestions for Cisco.  The intention is not to bash anyone at Cisco, but to provide an outsider’s perspective of what I think needs to happen if Cisco wants to increase their UCS blade server market share.

Focus on Product Branding.  When you ask people what “ProLiant” is, a majority of the people know it is an HP server brand.  On the contrary, ask people what “UCS” is and fewer people know.  Why?  Partially because HP has been in the server space for many years, but it’s also due to a lack of branding by Cisco.  Sure, everyone knows the name Cisco – even commoners (people outside of the data center) recognize the logo from TV shows like 24 and movies.  Cisco does a GREAT job of getting the company name out, but needs to focus on getting the UCS brand out there a little more.

Create Public Configuration and Reference Tools.  I’m a hands-on type of guy, and when I want to see what my server options are, I want to go to the manufacturers’ web sites and configure the systems myself.  IBM has a nice stand-alone product configuration tool, while HP and Dell have great web-based tools that can help you design a blade server system.  When it comes to reference tools, HP has QuickSpecs while IBM has a very informative Redbooks collection.  However when we look at Cisco, the details and list price of a UCS configuration is held within the arms of the Cisco sales teams or Certified Partners.  I don’t quite understand the reasoning of this, but if Cisco shared their tools and materials to the general public it could increase the interest in the product.

—————–

To read my entire blog post, go to
http://bladesmadesimple.com/2011/01/what-cisco-has-to-do-to-win-the-blade-server-market/

So what do you think?  Will Cisco UCS survive or was HP’s prediction just a little early?  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

UPDATED 11:30 a.m. EST (4/6/11) - Intel announced today the next version of their 4 socket chipset, known as “E7”.  Previously known with the codename of Westmere EX, the newly released Xeon 7600 will be rebranded as the Intel Xeon E7.  Following suit with the Intel “tick-tock” strategy, this refresh falls under the “tick” with a new core design and a smaller die at 32 nm.  The E7 CPU family increases the core capacity to 10 cores (20 with Intel’s Hyper-Threading feature) and has up to 30MB of last level cache that is sharable across all cores.  The integrated memory controller now offers 4 scalable Memory Interconnects with speeds up to 6.4 GT/s and there are now 4 full-width Intel QuickPath Interconnects linking the 4 CPUs together.  The Intel Xeon E7 will also provide support for 32GB DIMMs, although not every manufacturer will offer 32GB on their blade servers.

Here’s the complete Intel Xeon E7 Product Family Offering:

  As expected, Dell, HP and IBM all announced a refresh of their blade servers.  Here’s what has been announced to be refreshed:

Dell – announced a refresh in the PowerEdge M910 today at 10 a.m Pacific.  Click here for my blog post about this announcement.

HP – refreshed their BL620c G7 and BL680c G7 with new speeds using the Intel Xeon E7.  This refresh will not be the Gen 8 models – expect that to come with the release of the next generation Intel 2 socket offering (Sandy Bridge).   The BL680cG7 is a double-wide server that offers 64 DIMM slots for a total of 2TB of RAM (along with 40 cores of CPUs across 4 CPUs.) 

You can find the QuickSpecs on the BL680c G7 with the refreshed CPU on HP’s website at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13742_na/13742_na.html.    The QuickSpecs on the BL620c G7can be found here: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13747_na/13747_na.HTML

I’ve had the privilege of being invited to another HP Tech Day.  This time, the event is being held at the HP Facility located in Fort Collins, Colorado.  This campus is located approximately 1 hour outside of Denver and sits between Intel and AMD’s campuses (see map .) 

The focus of this event is for HP to showcase their “Sustainable Data Center” concept.  Over the next two days, me and a team of other bloggers (listed below) will be meeting with key HP personnel like the Vice President of Marketing, Converged Infrastructure, to fully understand HP’s concept.  To give you some ideas of the messaging we’re likely to be exposed to, here’s a slide deck from two years ago: http://www.slideshare.net/hewlettpackard/sustainable-data-centers-hp-labs.

Bloggers Participating

• Phillip Jaenke – Error404 On Twitter: @rootwyrm
• John Obeto – Absolutely Windows  On Twitter:  @johnobeto
• Eric Siebert – vSphere-Land.com On Twitter: @ericsiebert
• Bob Stein – ActiveWin.com On Twitter: @activewin
• Kevin Houston – BladesMadeSimple.com  On Twitter:@Kevin_Houston

To follow the action of this event over the next couple of days, follow hash tag #HPTechDay on Twitter.  Also, click over to this page where I’ll have more extensive coverage each day.

Disclaimer: airfare, accommodations and meals are being provided by HP, however the content being blogged is solely my opinion and does not in any way express the opinions of HP.