Fabric7 Delivers Advanced Resource Management Capabilities on Flagship Q160 Server
Debuts Solaris 10 on its Q80 midrange enterprise server, releases Windows benchmark results
Mountain View, CA -- July 10, 2006 -- Fabric7 Systems, Inc., today announced the addition of several key resource management capabilities to its flagship enterprise server, the Q160.
The fabric computing architecture at the heart of Fabric7’s servers enables customers to dynamically create and provision “fabric” servers, complete with customized processor and memory partitions, networking, and storage access with on-demand provisioned interfaces and bandwidth allocation. With today’s announcement, Fabric7 delivers several additional capabilities that enhance the fabric computing environment, including a converged Fibre Channel gateway, additional processor and memory boards designed for application service modules (ASMs), higher networking port density and enhanced quality of service (QoS) controls.
Said Sharad Mehrotra, CEO of Fabric7, “These new capabilities expand the power of the fabric computing architecture by delivering a new gold standard of resource allocation tools not available on other enterprise x86 servers, including the ability to define extremely fine levels of I/O virtualization and provisioning. This potent combination of high-end features implemented with industry-standard x86, Ethernet and Fibre Channel economics directly reduces the cost and complexity of datacenter operations.”
The new capabilities available today from Fabric7 include several powerful tools for cost-effective, dynamic IT management:
A converged Fibre Channel gateway allows for one-time cabling of a single, physical storage area network connection which provides virtual, dynamically provisionable storage interfaces to any and all Fabric7 servers in the fabric
Two processor and memory modules with two AMD Opteron™ processors each and up to 64GB of memory running Windows, Linux, and Solaris; up to three PMM-200 modules can share the same low-latency fabrics as the larger 8-processor PMM-800s to increase the processing power of each Q160 to 14 AMD Opteron™ processors configured as up to 7 fault-isolated hardware partitions
Low-latency application service modules provide advanced SSL encryption and server load balancing services; each Q160 supports up to three ASMs that are fully integrated into the fabric, thereby delivering better overall application performance across a fabric of multiple Q160 and Q80 servers
Expanded networking capabilities for up to 24 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single Ethernet Network Module, enabling high-fan out connections that make the 10Gbps network switch at the heart of the Q160 even more powerful
Enhanced quality-of-service controls for more precise virtualization and customization of resources on the fabric, including network bandwidth; the new features are ideal for messaging intensive environments and enable traffic filtering and prioritization across the low-latency fabric, which the Q160 can create and manage
Advanced functionality for the Q-Visor™ software, which enables a Q160 server to act as a single, remote management point for a fabric-wide collection of other Q160 or Q80 servers through an intuitive Java-based user interface
In addition to the enhancements to the Q160, Fabric7 is also announcing five new feature packages of its Q80 midrange enterprise server. The Q80 offers an 8-socket platform of AMD Opteron processors with the added flexibility of hardware-partitioning through Fabric7’s Q-par™ technology. Both server models can be partitioned into two, four or eight-socket partitions, and each server (in various configurations) has achieved major performance success on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark, with the Q80 recently reaching 180,418 business operations per second (bops) on the Microsoft Windows 2003™ operating system (22,552 bops/JVM). For full Fabric7 SPECjbb2005 performance results, please visit the SPEC Web site at http://www.SPEC.org.
The Q160 and Q80 servers run industry-standard Windows™ and Linux™ operating systems (Novell SuSE® and Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and can be managed through the company’s Q-Visor™ management suite. The Q80 also runs Sun Microsystems’ Solaris™ 10 operating system, easing the transition for customers moving from expensive proprietary RISC chip sets, to the more economical x86 platform with Fabric7.
Pricing and Availability
Fabric7’s servers start at $28,700 for the Q80 midrange enterprise server. The starting list price for the Fabric7 Q160 server, with its built-in high-speed switched fabric, is $144,000. For full pricing information, as well as competitive comparisons, visit the Fabric7 Web site at http://www.fabric7.com.
About Fabric7
Fabric7 designs and builds enterprise servers that integrate compute and networking technologies into a dynamic fabric of IT resources. Fabric7 delivers a fundamental breakthrough in server design that provides its customers the flexibility, efficiency, and simplicity required to meet their changing business needs. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.fabric7.com or call +1 (650) 210–0100.
Fabric7, Fabric7 Q160, Fabric7 Q80, Q-par, Q-Visor, and the Fabric7 logo are trademarks of Fabric7 Systems, Inc. AMD, AMD Opteron and Direct Connect are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Novell SuSE® Linux are trademarks of the Novell Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Other names used are for informational purposes only and are trademarks of their respective owners.