Calxeda Launches EnergyCore Extreme Low Power Server Processor

On November 1, Caldexa unveiled it's ARM based, extreme low energy, "EnergyCore" Server-on-a-Chip (SoC). EnergyCore draws as little as 1.5W,and can be used to build a server that comsumes as little as 5W, including 4GB ECC memory and a large capacity SSD drive. This means that datacenter performance can be provided at half the price and using 10% of the power. HP will be using this new processor in it's first generation of extreme low power server development platforms.

"While we are proud to launch our Calxeda EnergyCore processors, we are even more thrilled with the many partners who are joining us on this journey," said Barry Evans, CEO and co-founder of Calxeda. He went on to say "The HP-designed system contains 288 Calxeda servers in a single 7 inch (4 Rack Unit) chassis. A single rack of HP’s Calxeda servers delivers the throughput of some 700 traditional servers"

The EnergyCore SoC processor has several key features on a single piece of silicon, offering a number of benefits:

• Quad-Core ARM processor with 4MB L2 cache provides great power efficiency while delivering all the performance.
• Embedded EnergyCore Fabric Switch connects thousands of SoCs through five low-latency 10Gb links.
• On-Chip EnergyCore Management Engine runs on separate dedicated processor to provide out-of-band systems management capabilities while simultaneously governing power policies and advanced fabric routing. This has it's own software built in.
• Integrated high performance interfaces such as memory controllers with 4MB ECC L2 cache and I/O subsystems for local SATA 2.0 ports and PCIe 2.0 support.

While each processor typically uses a maximum of 5W when fully loaded in typical applications, it uses an incredible 0.5W when idle! Combined with the scalability provided by the Fabric Switch, and the thousands of interconnected nodes it offers, this means that compact, large scale servers with huge numbers of processors, can be developed that use less energy than current systems with far less computing power. The EnergyCore Management Engine helps to keep the power level to a minimum by idling or turning off many features that are currently not being used within the node it serves. Those features can be turned back on within a few clock cycles of any request, thus reducing power usage dramatically without perceivably affecting performance.

The Fabric Switch offers 5 external channels and 3 internal channels per node, each capable of operating at up to 10 Gb network speeds. It can be configured to connect up to 4096 nodes, or 16384 cores. Each node can maintain a network presence even when it is powered down, giving a very fast network response time with parts of the system that were previously using no power. Networking interfaces include 1GB and 10GB ethernet, with up to 5 10Gb ports and up to 6 1Gb ports.

Other integrated features include a 72-bit DDR controller, supporting up to 4GB of physical DDR3(1.5V) or DDR3L (1.35V) memory per node. 4 PCI-E 2.0 controllers and 1 PCI-E 1.0 controller offer 2 PCI-E x8 lanes and 4 PCI-E x1, x2 or x4 lanes. For storage, the onboard SATA controller supports up to 5 SATA or SATA II devices, and offers AHCI 1.3 and eSATA.

Niall Dalton, Director of High Frequency Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald, said: "Companies in our industry are constrained by space and power, yet our appetite for analysis is insatiable. We need a 10X breakthrough and this could be it. We are evaluating the Calxeda technology in hyperscale throughput computing for data and simulation intensive applications. The Calxeda Linux platform enables rapid porting of our software, enabling us to quickly leverage the energy-efficient ARM cores and Calxeda's scalable communications fabric to scale our applications to new heights."