HP Announces Energy-Efficient Server with New Centerton Atoms

HP has introduced a new server platform based on Intel’s upcoming Atom socs codenamed Centerton. With the Gemini servers, the manufacturer focuses on economy and less on applications where a lot of computing power is important.

Gemini will use cartridges containing the processors. Users can add or remove modules as needed. Initially, HP will supply the cartridges with Atom-socs from Intel, but at a later stage the platform will also support ARM chips. The Atoms are chips of the new Centerton generation, which should be available in the second half of this year.

Centerton is Intel’s chip for small and economical servers. It is a dual core with HyperThreading support and a maximum clock speed of 1.6GHz. The NM10 platform controller hub is integrated on the chip and there is no display controller, for example. Partly because of this, the tdp is relatively low at 6W. In addition, support is available for 64bit, hardware virtualization and error correcting code memory

According to HP, the Gemini servers with the chips will be suitable for web servers, offline analytics and hosting, among other things. The manufacturer expects to be able to deliver the first systems before the end of the year, but the prices are not yet known. HP lists Gemini as part of its Moonshot server-efficient initiative. The first result of that initiative was the Redstone, which uses Calxeda’s ARM socs. However, those servers have only been released to a select group of companies for testing purposes.