
Dell Unveils Via Nano-Based Server (pulls 20-29 watts @ full load) - iamelgringo
http://www.osnews.com/story/21525/Dell_Unveils_Via_Nano-Based_Server
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patrickg-zill
I wonder though, if you compared the performance of one of these 12-Nano
systems, with a loaded 48GB RAM, dual quad-core Nehalem system running Xen and
connected to relatively fast disks, which would be faster overall? 48GB RAM =
4GB per Xen slice if you have 12 slices.

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wmf
It's pretty easy to calculate; the Nehalem system would have 8x3GHz = 24GHz
while the Nano 12-pack has 12x1.6GHz = 19.2GHz and Nehalem does significantly
more work per cycle. The Nehalem could have 12x2TB SATA or 12x450GB SAS disks
with RAID while the Nano has 12x500GB laptop disks without RAID. You'd also
save on switch ports, etc.

If you're given the choice between a slow private server, or a small share of
a larger server, take the small share. (with apologies to Stuart Cheshire)

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bayareaguy
In general I agree but the Nano system could be better if

\- you need physically independent systems for some reason or

\- you have predictable data-parallel workloads with appropriate interconnect
or

\- the overall system cost was much cheaper

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dizz
And what's really cool with these guys is that you can have a full rack - 252
nodes - all running with a total power load of 7.2KW!
[http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/05/22/ServerUnder30W.a...](http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/05/22/ServerUnder30W.aspx)

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timdorr
Anyone have any benchmarks of the Atom or Nano chips as a webserver?

