Dell, IBM give thumbs up to ARM servers

Dell to test Marvell boards, IBM won't reveal plans

Rick Merritt, EETimes
(05/17/2010 3:38 PM EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Dell Inc. will test this summer multicore ARM processors from Marvell Technology Group for possible use in low-power servers for large data centers. The company has already shipped a few thousand low-power servers based on x86 processors from Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc.

Separately, an executive from IBM Corp. said Big Blue backs the trend toward new low power architectures for servers. But he declined to give any specifics about what, if anything, it is doing with ARM chips. The OEMs are among the latest to declare their interest in ARM-based servers for applications constrained by power budgets that don't need the muscle—or cost—of Intel x86 systems. One of the main target markets are large data centers such as those run by Web 2.0 companies such as Facebook.

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