HP has unveiled the next phase of Project Moonshot, its programme to develop low-energy servers, and announced that it will use cartridges featuring the Intel Atom processor codenamed "Centerton" for its initial production system, codenamed "Gemini".
The multiyear programme, began in November 2011 and is designed to help customers reduce server complexity and data centre energy requirements.
HP said it has selected Centerton due to the processor’s features like 64-bit support, hardware virtualisation (VTx), error correcting code (ECC) memory, lower power requirements, increased performance and broad software ecosystem.
HP added that the featuring the Gemini infrastructure, the new Centerton-based servers will be suited for workloads where using many extreme low-energy servers densely packed into a small footprint can be much more efficient than fewer standalone servers.
HP Industry-standard Servers and Software Hyperscale Business Unit vice president and general manager Paul Santeler said customers leveraging hyperscale computing are looking to realise radical space, cost and energy savings, and with Project Moonshot the company has introduced the breakthrough approach needed to achieve these savings.
"Together with Intel’s enhanced processor features and collaboration, we’re able to transform the server industry by enabling customers to exceed the limits of what was previously possible in hyperscale computing," Paul added.
The company stated the newly designed Gemini server system will enable web serving, offline analytics and hosting and is expected to realise similar power, cost and density benefits of the previously announced Redstone development platform.
Intel Data Center and Connected Systems Group Cloud Infrastructure general manager Jason Waxman said, "The unprecedented value of the Intel Atom processor codenamed Centerton — with features like 64-bit support, ECC and an established software x86 ecosystem — will offer customers the increased flexibility and drastically reduced total cost of ownership required to compete in the fast-growing hyperscale computing space."
Gemini server cartridges will see several enhancements primarily centered on its federated environment that is processor-neutral including support to thousands of servers per rack that share these components.
HP plans to ship its Centerton Atom servers by the end of 2012.
