SeaMicro shows off server with 512 Atom CPUs

SeaMicro jumps into the server market with a system that features 512 Intel Atom processors in an enclosure that takes up just a quarter of a typical full server rack. The main advantage of this compact supercomputer is its high energy efficiency, the company claims its 512-core Atom system requires 75 percent less power than current servers from firms like Dell and HP!

SeaMicro virtualized a lot of functions that took up a lot of space inside each server in a rack. It also did the same with functions such as storage, networking, server management and load balancing. Full told, SeaMicro eliminates 90 percent of the components from a system board. SeaMicro calls this CPU/IO virtualization. With it, SeaMicro shrinks the size of the system board from a pizza box to the size of a credit card.

By boiling down the rest of the system into a couple of chips, SeaMicro can get rid of a lot of the components in a system, thereby getting rid of space, cost, and power consumption. Put another way, older servers that had 512 microprocessors needed 512 systems with 512 power supplies. SeaMicro can pack 512 Intel Atom chips ito a space that is a quarter of a full server rack. But it only needs four power supplies for that job, as the power supplies are shared by all of those 512 processors. In a full rack, SeaMicro can cram 2,048 Intel Atom chips together in four servers. They are tied together by a supercomputer-like networking technology known as a fabric that operates at 1.28 terabits per second.

More info at VentureBeat.