The Server Room Blog

'You are not Alone' - When it comes to moving from RISC

eoin.j.mcconnell@intel.com — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:18:41 GMT

Change is hard, but it can be done and the benefits of change usually outweigh the concerns which were on our minds before we made the change.

When making the change from running your solution on a RISC architecture to running that solution on a Xeon architecture, the biggest concern usually relates to whether that solution will run at the same level as on the previous architecture. I'm not talking about performance specifically, but usually the question is around whether operating systems like Linux, Windows, and Solaris on Xeon will meet your business needs for yourmission critical solutions.

Like the underlying improvements in the microprocessor, I believe that there have also been major fundamental improvements in the operating systems that run on both today's and the soon to come next generation microprocessors (sorry, my obligatory Nehalem-EX advertisement... coming soon in 2010). A decision made many years ago to run your solution on Unix/RISC was made based on comparing all the different variables at that time to pick what was right for your business. At that time you likely decided that your solution would not run on these operating systems, these operating systems were not suitable for your mission critical workloads etc. Probably right decision at that point, but like everything else decisions get revisited based upon the here and now and what may have been the right solution in the past (and right decision) may not be the right solution for your needs now.

I wanted to share some thoughts specifically on Redhat Linux today. Lets take a little look at Redhat Enterprise Linux. Current versions of Redhat can deliver what is required for your critical solutions. RHEL is ready and here are some of the reasons cited by Redhat in recent webinars on this topic and my interpretation of their comments

Hosts real-time global mission-critical infrastructures and operations 24 X 7 - its tried and tested by other Enterprises
Enables 5x9s availability in highly secure environments - pretty important to most critical solutions
Contributes measurable reductions to TCO and enables, agile, standardized, and virtualized infrastructures - TCO benefits through standardization
Has major ISVs on-board with the majority of 3rd party Unix applications have Linux and/or Windows versions available - the ISVs that traditionally delivered applications to you based on Unix, also have versions supported on Linux/Windows
Many customer unique applications are developed with programming languages such as C, C++, JAVA, or J2EE and can be migrated to Linux and / or Windows - your applications can be moved
Hosts most major database systems standard for your infrastructure - all the major databases run and run well on Linux

One of the other things we encounter a lot is around whether the technical considerations to move from one operating system environment are too high to overcome and outweigh the benefits of moving. There are always technical considerations and things that you need to know to move from one environment to another. However you are not alone in trying to understand these technical considerations. Redhat have done a phenomenal job of documenting the challenges of moving from say Solaris to Linux and have developed a great Strategic Migration Planning Guide. This is available on request. In recent webinars Redhat outline some of the things that you need to consider for the following technical categories

- Development Environment; Kernel tuning; Security; Filesystems; Debugging, tracing, Profiling; Command Differences; Deployment methods; Software Management; Virtualization; Application considerations

In addition to the current versions of Redhat running on Intel architecture, we are also working very closely on future versions that will take advantage of the 20+ new RAS features that are planned for Nehalem-EX - more on that in a future blog

You are not alone, resources, tools and expertize exist to help you make that move and reap the business benefits while still delivering to the requirements of your business. Check out Redhat online tools for more information that dives deeper into all the areas for consideration http://www.redhat.com/migrate/solaris_to_linux/

We think Redhat Linux and Xeon are ready to run your mission critical workloads and solutions...What do you think?

Germany, France, or the UK: Who Wins for Server ROI?

edward.g.groden@intel.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:41:28 GMT

Most of the time, server ROI is measured on the data center scale, replacing tens, hundreds, or even thousands of servers with fewer higher-performing and more energy efficient servers.

But...have you ever wondered how much power you could save if you replaced every 4 year old server in an entire country with Xeon 5500 Nehalem-based systems? What about how much CO2 that could be removed for those same 4-year old servers – and number of cars it effectively removes from the road?

Well, wonder no more! Check out this short paper for an eye-opening comparison of the UK, Germany, and France, and how big of an ROI they can realize if the entire country refreshed ALL of their 4-year-old servers. It looks at power savings, land reclamation, and monetary savings in slightly different terms, like how much space can be saved in comparison to the floor area of Notre Dame Cathedral? You’ll need to read on to find out more… J

Additionally, all calculations were done using the Xeon ROI tool, so check it out and come up with some more interesting comparisons based on your city, state, or country data. Be sure to post them here!

Why upgrade your hardware when migrating to SAP ERP 6.0?

ennis.p.skillern@intel.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:10:06 GMT

Why upgrade your hardware when migrating to SAP ERP 6.0? Because it makes simple, practical, business sense that is all. SAP has identified several key reasons why customers are concerned about migration and several among them are as follows:

· Cost, Cost, Cost

o HW infrastructure cost is highlighted as one of the key barriers of migration

· Business Justification

o Is there a compelling business reason to upgrade the hardware?

· Additional risk of business disruption

o Migration of ERP environment is complex enough…how much more risk is there when upgrading your hardware?

From a cost perspective, the perception that hardware is a barrier to migration can be easily overcome. Based on research, the hardware cost as a percentage of the overall migration cost is only about 7%. That means 93% of the cost is in licensing, consulting, etc, etc. HW costs are only the “tip of the iceberg” and the real $ investment lies elsewhere in the equation.

Is there a compelling business reason to upgrade your hardware? Well…frankly, it does not make sense not to do it. One, we showed above that the hardware investment is minimal compared to SW licensing, consulting, service, etc. Two, the hardware requirements of ERP 6.0 are significantly higher than previous versions. ERP 6.0 requires up to 2.5x more CPU performance, 2.5x more memory and 1.5x more I/O! You will need the increased performance and scalability that Intel provides in our microprocessors. While the ERP performance requirements have increased 2.5x, Intel performance with SAP has increased 10X! Oh, btw…energy efficiency does matter and in your new ERP environment you will be able to consolidate servers and save on power and cooling costs. TCO will be significantly reduced and from hardware investment standpoint, you are likely going to recover the cost of the servers in a very reasonable timeframe.

From my discussions with the IT community, their major concern and number one focus area is to prevent business disruption and downtime. This costs companies real and significant money. The fact is that an ERP migration is a complex enough project managing the strategic, functional and technical portions. Adding a server infrastructure change increases fundamental risk. But, the key here is that it is done often and done successfully. Intel IT has published several whitepapers on the subject and communicated “Best Known Methods” to minimize that risk. A quick summary is inserted here:

Challenge:

• Convert Intel’s Worldwide Warehouse Management Software

• Upgrade from SAP* ERP version 4.7 to 6.0, change the DBMS, and perform a Unicode* conversion as well as a hardware upgrade

• Minimize downtime

Benefit to Intel IT:

• SAP ERP 6.0 improves Intel supportability

• Increases ease of integration to SAP NetWeaver* 7.1 Suite

• Provides access to Enhancement Packs and Enterprise Services

• Intel^® Itanium^®-based servers provide access to 128 GB of memory for database and SAP operations and significantly increased performance from true 64-bit processing

Key Results:

• Reduced downtime of upgrade by 50% by using Intel Architecture

In summary, upgrading your server infrastructure when migrating your ERP environment is a very, very complex task, but form a business perspective, it should be fairly easy to see the true benefits from combining the ERP migration and hardware upgrade at the same time.

Companies Benefiting from Server Refresh

hugh.mercer@intel.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:57:37 GMT

Every day, Intel® technology and platforms help companies solve business problems and challenges. Here are a few of the growing number of stories and reasons for choosing Intel processors and technology.

Winning: Humana – Healthcare product and services company

Humana continues to refresh its infrastructure with more powerful, energy-efficient technologies. For Humana, technology is vital for providing information and a full array of health benefit services to members. To replace an outdated facility, the company worked with Intel to design a state-of-the-art data center with a compact, energy-efficient infrastructure that could deliver flexibility and scalability.

Read about it here

The results:

· The Intel processor–based virtualized environment helps IT deploy new services quickly and ensure high availability.

· Humana added 25 percent more servers in 56 percent of the previous space while decreasing data center power consumption by 16 percent.

Winning: Emerson Electronics

Emerson reshapes its IT infrastructure for future growth, consolidating approximately 135 data centers down to four using Intel® technology–based servers

Read about it here

The results:

· 3,600 physical servers are eliminated by virtualizing on Intel processor–based blade servers, for 18:1 consolidation worldwide

· Power-saving processors help make Emerson’s new global production data center in St. Louis 31 percent more energy efficient than traditional data centers

Winning: Türkiye Finans Katılım Bank

Leading Turkish Financial Institution Drives Better Growth and Services with Intel®Technology. Türkiye Finans Katılım Bank makes use of the online Intel Xeon processor-based Server Refresh Savings Estimator

Read about it here.

The results:

Intel® Xeon® processor-based Server Refresh Savings Estimator¹ sets expectations clearly, predicting 80 per cent reduction in power/cooling requirements, and a 30 per cent increase in system performance already realized. With only 20 per cent of capacity currently utilised, bank has significant headroom for business expansion

Winning: Oracle IT

Oracle uses Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series–based systems with Intel® Intelligent Power Node Manager to increase rack density and propel business growth. Refreshing its existing dual socket, quad-core servers on a three- to five-year schedule to increase processing capability and energy efficiency, but had no significant power management in use in the data centers.

Read about it here

The results:

More processing capability can fit within the data center power envelope because Oracle can actively manage power consumption for individual servers and applications.

· Energy savings of 35 percent are projected with Intel Intelligent Power Node Manager, for reduced operating expenses

· 50 percent more servers per rack saves data center space and enables more growth while keeping costs low

Winning: DataPipe®

DataPipe® retains a competitive edge by designing a new facility and refreshing existing data centers with cutting-edge technology that can deliver outstanding processing performance for a broad range of customer applications. Low-voltage Intel® Xeon® processors help DataPipe create a dense, energy-efficient infrastructure for managed IT services.

Read about it here

The results:

New Intel Xeon Processors Provide a Foundation for Cloud Computing. With the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, DataPipe is creating

a robust virtualized server environment, Stratosphere™, for hosting customer applications.

Somebody Blew The Whistle on The ‘Nehalem’ Effect

bryce.olson@intel.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:24:19 GMT

There’s a video going around from one of Intel’s top external customers. Before you see this (video linked below) I wanted to position this correctly. I caught up with Mr. X at an undisclosed coffee shop and got his approval to share publicly the messages that we would have rather had him go out with. Those messages are as follows:

Mr. X’s 4 year old servers were a burden on his organization, he spent all of his budget on just maintenance, nothing left for innovation.

He looked at his old infrastructure and determined that replacing them with more powerful-energy efficient servers from Intel was a strategic investment.

The New intel Xeon 5500 based servers provided the opportunity for him to innovate again. He claimed that these new Intel Xeon Processor 5500 (Nehalem-EP) are the best enabler of IT business value that he's seen in years.

They boosted energy efficiency, saved him big $ and extended his facility lifespan – now he doesn’t have to go build a new data center.

He replaced his old servers in a 9:1 ratio (getting rid of 9 old and replacing with 1 new) that enabled him to cut operational expenditures by 90% …And that savings alone is paying for the investment in these new servers in just 8 months.

By strategically investing in IT when his competitors hunkered down and cut spending – he is now positioned to grow faster and gain share as the economic upturn arrives.

Ok, now that I’ve had a chance to convey his real messages, you can check out this video.

Reporting live from the Intel booth at Oracle OpenWorld

jason.t.beane@intel.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:23:43 GMT

At Intel, we not only pack a lot of performance in a small form factor, we also pack a lot of great demos and theater presentations into our booth at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco (South Moscone, booth #1621). We have 5 demos from 5 of our customers—Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, and Sun—and 3 other demos showcasing Wind River, Intel’s SOA Expressway product, and last, but certainly not least, Intel’s amazing and upcoming Nehalem-EX processor, which you heard Michael Dell praise in his keynote this morning.

Over the course of the three days of our booth at OOW (Monday through Wednesday this week), we will have over 35 brief presentations that will help you plan your requirements for your next generation data center. They are short and sweet, and you can ask all the questions you want. If you simply attend a presentation and get a few more stamps form our demo stations, you can enter to win one of two netbooks that will be given away at the end of each day.

Outside of our booth, you may find us presenting in various partners’ booths and we hope to see you in a session we are having later today (see info below). We had an amazing session yesterday from resident Intel genius, Steve Shaw. The huge room was filled to capacity. At this other session today we will be giving away a netbook. Here are the logistics for today’s session:

ID#: S309892

Title: Ten Ways to Improve J2EE Application Performance on Multicore Systems

Track: Oracle Develop: Enterprise Java and Oracle WebLogic

Date: 13-OCT-09

Time: 17:30 - 18:30

Venue: Hilton Hotel

Room: Yosemite B

We hope to see you around somewhere at Oracle OpenWorld, but if for some reason we miss you entirely, please visit www.intel.com/server for more info on Intel’s fantastic products. Also, please visit Channel Intel on youtube for some videos from the event.

Michael Dell is Bullish on Nehalem-EX in Oracle Open World Keynote

bryce.olson@intel.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:32:43 GMT

Nehalem-EX has been in the news quite a bit over the past several months.

First, in May, Intel described how Nehalem-EX will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, delivering a number of new technical advancements (Intel Nehalem Architecture, Quick Path Interconnects, 16 threads, 24MB cache, new RAS features like MCA-Recovery, 16 DIMM slots per socket, 128 threads on 8 Socket systems) and boost enterprise computing performance (the greatest gain in generational performance ever seen at Intel.)

Next at IDF in September Intel described how Nehalem-EX would deliver a bigger generational performance improvement than that delivered by the Intel Xeon 5500 processor (including a 3X Nehalem-EX gain in database performance); a large shift in Xeon scalability with over 15 >8S systems anticipated and expandability for the most data demanding enterprise applications, the addition of about 20 RAS capabilities traditionally found in the Intel® Itanium processor family – along with a demonstration of MCA-Recovery. IBM announced their upcoming BladeCenter products that will support 4S Nehalem-EX blades and Super-Micro announced a 1U box, specifically targeted at HPC. Staying on the HPC theme, Mark Seager from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was also quoted with stating that “Nehalem-EX allows us to invest in science, not the computer science of porting and adapting software to new architectures, but real science. Nehalem EX is an innovative SMP on a chip solution that provides us access to a “super node” … The result is an astonishing new level of performance.”

And Oracle Open World on October 13^th, the drumbeat for Nehalem-EX continued. Michael Dell in his Oracle Open World Keynote today discussed how Nehalem-EX will provide a true leap in performance, with up to 9x the memory bandwidth and 3x the database performance vs. prior generation. And he mentioned that Dell’s unique implementation of the memory architecture will allow the most cost effective scaling, with 4S systems up to 1TB of DRAM (64 Dimms x 16GB Memory sticks) enabling customers to run their entire database in system memory. He also mentioned that standard based systems are driving new efficiencies with applications like Oracle, where Dell’s data shows Oracle apps run better on x86 vs. proprietary architectures, up to 200% better. Check out this short video from the keynote and watch what Michael Dell had to say.

Keep your eyes on the Server Room for more Nehalem-EX news as it comes between now and launch. And visit the Intel booth at South Moscone Booth #1621 to learn more.

Bryce

Windows* Server 2008 R2: Great improvements in energy efficiency

dave.r.hill@intel.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:13:55 GMT

If you hadn’t heard, Microsoft* and Intel spent a lot of effort optimizing Windows* Server 2008 R2 (and Windows 7) to improve energy efficiency by reducing system power consumption at idle and under load. For more details, check out the presentation from the Intel Developer Forum a few weeks ago titled Microsoft and Intel: Innovations in Hardware and Software to Help Deliver New Technology Experiences. This presentation (and other IDF presentations) can be found at intel.com/go/idfsessions (search for SPCS003 using the session ID number). There is good information on the operating system optimizations that were done to reduce power consumption. Slide 22 has an excellent comparison of the power consumption of Windows Server 2003 vs. Windows Server 2008 R2 running on the same Xeon® 5500 series processors. It shows that using WinSrv2008 R2 reduced system idle and peak power consumption by ~60W!! In addition, Hyper-V* 1.1 now uses the power management features of Intel processors to reduce power consumption during periods of low utilization.

This is a great time to show your customers the energy efficiency benefits that come with upgrading to WinSrv2008 R2 at the same time they refresh their server infrastructure with Xeon® 5500 based servers.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others

Sun Solaris Is Getting Ready For Nehalem-EX - Is Your Data Center?

greg.okeefe@intel.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:45:59 GMT

Sun has recently published a whitepaper that discusses how the Solaris OS will take advantage of the next generation Intel Xeon processor (codename Nehalem-EX) for expandable servers (4 sockets & greater). Sun with over 20 years of experience in larger socket, core & threading capabilities is working to have the Solaris OS be ready to take advantage of the features & new capabilities of “Nehalem-EX”. The three areas of collaboration for Solaris & Nehalem-EX are around scalable performance; advanced reliability and energy efficiency between the specific features in Solaris and the next generation Intel Xeon processor. Read this recently published whitepaper

Nehalem - The Cash Machine that Keeps on Giving…For IT

bryce.olson@intel.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:17:36 GMT

In March '09, former Intel executive Pat Gelsinger predicted that Nehalem-based Xeon 5500 servers would become "cash machines" for the IT industry, due to unprecedented power-efficient performance gains that can deliver a very short ROI for IT. Pat's description of the Xeon 5500 was validated during a briefing with Intel CIO Diane Bryant in San Francisco on October 6^th, as reported in TG Daily.

She discussed the ROI achieved and the impact that a proactive serve refresh strategy has had on Intel’s bottom line, as reported in PC World. Some of her key points:

· Intel is expecting up to $250M savings over 8 years, saved $45M in 2008 alone.

· Despite these results, economy forced Intel to re-evaluate capital spending in 2009. Found that delaying server refresh would cost us $19M more than continuing. So we continued.

· Getting an average of 10:1 server consolidation with Xeon 5500 in design computing environment and 20:1 virtualization server refresh ratios in Office/Enterprise.

Did you know that Server Refresh is also the #1 driver of Intel’s Carbon Footprint reduction as well, with an initiative to reduce Carbon footprint by 5% per year. We are projected to reduce by approximately 4K metric tons (2009) and this server refresh strategy is forecasted to be #1 project to help IT reduce Carbon.

Staying on the green IT theme, the newest ally for IT to help drive carbon-reduction and energy cost savings is the energy utilities. A prime example of this is the Energy Trust of Oregon, who offers cash incentives to motivate Oregon businesses to make energy saving investments. Intel gained access to a $250K incentive from them as a result of energy savings gained by replacing older servers with newer, more energy-efficient servers in our data centers. If you are replacing older servers with modern energy-efficient Xeon 5500 based servers and you haven’t had this conversation with your utility yet – please do so. You may be eligible for utility incentives for energy savings that can lower your operating costs and reduce the impact of your business on the environment. To estimate the energy savings associated with server refresh, go to www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator.

You’re going to hear more about these “cash machines” in the very near future…stay tuned!

Bryce

Using the Xeon ROI tool case study - check it out

edward.g.groden@intel.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:27:45 GMT

Really good case study for a leading Turkish bank that used the Xeon ROI tool to justify their server refresh with Xeon 5500 and 7400 platforms: http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4114#cf

Companies Benefiting Today from Server Refresh

hugh.mercer@intel.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:51:21 GMT

About Hugh Mercer: I am a sales development manager in Intel’s Enterprise Solution Sales group. One of my responsibilities is working with Intel’s Server Platforms Group to indentify, develop and highlight success stories around Intel’s server platforms and technologies.

Winning: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH)

Leading German university turns to Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series for high-performance computing

Read about it here

The results:

· Implemented small server farm. Intel Xeon processor series performed more powerfully than RISC architectures.

· 2010 scale out. In 2010, the university plans to implement some 400 more systems with over 20,000 cores powered by the upcoming Intel Xeon processors code-named Nehalem EX

Winning: Alvotech

Alyotech turns to Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series to deliver insightful design improvements

Read about it here

The results:

· Alyotech benchmarked the new processor, developed on 45nm Hi-k next generation Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture, and increased performance by 65 percent over the previous generations, dual-core servers

Winning: Atos Origin

Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series helps Atos Origin lower total cost of ownership of its data centre environment.

Read about it here.

The results:

Atos Origin compared the performance of the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series with four cores to that of the previous-generation with just two cores. It found, on average, 2.4x greater transaction throughput running a web server, 1.75x running a database server and 1.25x running an email server.

Winning: Business and Decision Group

Business and Decision Group powers forward with huge virtualization project underpinned by the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series.

Read about it here

The results:

Early results showed that with the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series they could gain virtualization rates of 20:1 and with a processor load slightly below 55 percent.
Power consumption was reduced by approximately 30 percent compared to the previous generation of processors.

Winning: Onkosh.com

Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series boots performance of unique Arabic search engine Onkosh.com

Read about it here

The results:

· Onkosh.com already witnessed an increase of around 20% in performance. This performance increase was possible due to the new micro-architecture with Intel Turbo Boost

· Onkosh.com is now able to grow about 300% in terms of the ability to crawl and parse new Arabic content automatically discovered on the World Wide Web.

Winning: BMW

Migration to Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series lowers total cost of ownership and increases flexibility

Read about it here

The results:

· BMW Group is deploying Dell PowerEdge* servers powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series, which will replace a RISC-based infrastructure that has much higher costs, lower performance and less flexibility

· This allowed BMW Group to increase the workload to more than 80 percent and to significantly decrease the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Winning: Société d'Exploitation des Transports de l'Agglomération Orléanaise (SETAO)

SETAO turns to Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series to strengthen and build on its service offerings.

Read about it here

The results:

· Thanks to the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series and VMware hypervisor, SETAO is now able to provide mainframe-class quality of service and ensure easy deployment of new virtual machines and applications while reducing total cost of ownership.” Olivier Parcollet, Chief Technology Officer, SET

· SETAO estimated that it could save approximately 40 percent on energy costs due to the higher server consolidation ratio and greater CPU energy consumption management.

The Most Energy Efficient Investment That Government Won’t Help You Make

bryce.olson@intel.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:39:41 GMT

First there was the Multi-Billion Dollar Automobile “Cash for Clunkers” program that I wrote about back in early August. Then in late August we started reading more about the planned $300M state-run rebate programs for consumer purchases of new ENERGY STAR® qualified home appliances. Appliance categories eligible for rebates include: central air conditioners, heat pumps (air source and geothermal), boilers, furnaces (oil and gas), room air conditioners, clothes washers, dishwashers, freezers, refrigerators, and water heaters.

The government wants to make cars and homes more energy efficient, while helping to support the nation’s economic recovery. But what about making Data Centers more efficient?

A couple of years ago the US Environmental Protection Agency reported that the energy consumption associated with data centers had doubled between 2000 and 2006, reaching some 60 billion kWh in 2006, roughly 1.5% of the entire US energy use. The EPA says this is expected to double again by 2010. The same authors of that report previously calculated that US servers currently use the same level of electricity as all color TVs in the country combined.

So this got me thinking…which industries have done the most to increase output per energy unit and which products also offer the most attractive paybacks when you invest in them. The findings were interesting to say the least. Let’s first look at the sectors creating more energy-efficient products over the last 30 years*.

Autos – 1978 (14.3 MPG), 2008 (20 MPG): Energy Efficiency gains = 40%
Airlines – 1978 (22.8 Revenue passenger MPG), 2008 (50.4): Energy Efficiency gains = 121%
Agriculture – 1978 (0.63 units of output per unit of energy use), 2008 (1.46): Energy Efficiency gains = 132%
Steel Mfg – 1978 (63 lbs of steel per MBtu), 2008 (167 lbs): Energy Efficiency gains = 167%
Lighting – 1978 (Incandescent light bulb – 13 lumens per watt), 2008 (Compact Fluorescent Bulb – 57 lumens per watt): Energy Efficiency gains = 339%
Computer Systems – 1978 (1,400 instructions per second per watt), 2008 (40,000,000 instructions per second per watt): Energy Efficiency gains = 2,857,000%

*Source: “A Smarter Shade of Green,” ACEEE Report for the Technology CEO Council, 2008.

Next let’s look at some big ticket energy efficient products that offer the most attractive paybacks on their investments. (Note: Buying a hybrid automobile wouldn’t make this list below in terms of rapid payback, hence not included.)

Central Air Conditioning: 4.7 year payback per Energy Star Savings Calculator (I used Los Angeles as Location)
Freezer: 4.3 year payback per Energy Star Savings Calculator
Refrigerator: 2.8 year payback per Energy Star Savings Calculator
Commercial Ice Machine: 2.1 year payback per Energy Star Savings Calculator
New Intel Xeon 5500 based Server: 9 months payback per the Xeon ROI estimator at www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator. (I modeled refreshing from older 2005 Single-Core servers, getting 10:1 server consolidation ratio.)

IT industry far exceeds others at increasing output per energy unit… and Intel servers also offer a faster payback on investment than other energy efficient products (including Energy Star Products). Yet there is not government stimulus package to help encourage these purchases in energy efficiency. Simply, this is the most energy efficient investment that the government won’t help you make.

I would be curious to hear what you think.

bryce

Testing ENERGY STAR Intelligently

jennifer.sanati@intel.com — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:40:25 GMT

ENERGY STAR compliance is becoming an increasingly important factor for servers and workstations.

Accurate interpretation of the ENERGY STAR specification can be quite challenging with the ever-expanding scope of rules and regulations that govern platform and component-level design considerations.

Intel recently developed a semi-automated test tool to greatly simplify ENERGY STAR testing of servers and workstations. This tool has the following capabilities:

1. Ability to identify the relevant ENERGY STAR criteria per configuration

2. Automated assignment of ENERGY STAR test conditions and system testing

3. Preparation of system test data for analysis and ENERGY STAR submission

Feel free to stop by my booth at IDF in the Eco-Technology Community for a hands-on demonstration and to learn more.

Jennifer

Packing even more performance per rack with the new Xeon L5530

edward.g.groden@intel.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:28:10 GMT

Last month, Intel added another high-performing, low power to the Xeon 5500 SKU lineup with the Intel Xeon L5530 processor (2.40 GHz, 60W TDP). As with the L5506 (2.13 GHz) and L5520 (2.26 GHz) SKUs that were launched in March, the L5530 deliver the same performance as its 80W counterpart (E5530), but at 25% lower CPU power.

With space being a valuable asset in power-constrained data centers (IDC estimates datacenter construction costs at an average of $1,000/sq ft and $40,000/rack), the Xeon L5530 delivers even more performance in the same 60W CPU power envelope to help get the most out of each rack. Here’s the tale of the tape:

66% more performance than previous generation Xeon L5420 SKU
45% more performance than the Xeon L5506 SKU

(performance numbers based on SPEC_int_rate2006*, see http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/ for more details)

Want to find out more about the Xeon L5530 and the rest of the 5500 lineup, check out: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/products/server/processor/xeon5000