Intel Unveils Atom-Based Server Platform

Intel is aiming to tackle the small-business server market with its first server platform based on the Atom processor.

Unveiled here today at the CeBit trade show in Germany, Intel’s new take on the Atom — the processor most widely associated with the popular netbook form factor — relies on coupling the CPU with a low-end server integrated chipset. The idea is that the combination will provide enough power to satisfy the storage needs of home, small office/home office (SOHO), and SMB customers without breaking the bank or fattening their energy bill.

This is not the first Atom-based server, but it is the first from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).

In its design, Intel paired its Atom D410 and D510 processors with the ICH9R chipset normally used in desktop and low-end server PCs. There are no new chips here: Intel simply validated two previously unpaired parts to make sure they would work well together.

This pairing, argued Seth Bobroff, general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, offers the best of both worlds for the home office and SMB market.

For starters, the Atom has a tiny energy draw: just 14 to 17 watts.

Even a low-power Celeron has a power draw of around 35 to 40 watts, so the Atom’s far smaller thermal envelope makes it ideal for the form factor that these servers would use, Bobroff said. “Power consumption is a really big part of the equation,” he told InternetNews.com. “Some of our OEM partners have asked for something that would support a fanless design.”

Read the rest at Hardware Central.