SeaMicro puts Atom N570 chip into servers

SeaMicro has unveiled a server powered by 256 Intel dual-core Atom N570 processors, which the company claims is the most energy efficient x86 server on the market.

The 10 rack-unit SM10000-64 combines 512 Atom processor cores with 1.024TB of memory. The server supports eight to 64 1Gbit Ethernet connections and has room for 64 hard drives.

The Atom platform has generally been used for embedded systems, tablets and mobile handsets, but SeaMicro has favoured the chips for server use based on their energy efficiency and smaller form factor.

SeaMicro said that using the Atom processor allows the firm to develop a powerful server that requires a fraction of the energy and space of conventional designs.

The SM10000-64 runs with one quarter of the power intake and space requirements of the 45 conventional dual-socket quad-core servers needed to match its processing power, according to SeaMicro.

Though smaller and more efficient, SeaMicro's systems are much more specialised than conventional servers.

Pund-IT principal analyst Charles King told V3.co.uk that the systems are best suited to lightweight server applications that would otherwise be performed on virtualised servers.

"What is cool from a developer standpoint is that Atom is an x86 architecture. Any application that will run on any flavour of Linux will run on a SeaMicro box without any kind of alteration. You should be able to plug it right in and get it up to speed," he said.

King suggested that there is plenty of room in the market for such systems, particularly at a time when enterprises are looking to save space and cut energy costs.

SeaMicro has not disclosed deals with any major names, but King noted that firms such as Google and Amazon, which operate extremely large server farms, could be ideal customers.