HP puts ARM at the heart of energy-efficient datacentres

Hewlett-Packard has introduced a line of servers using the Calxeda EnergyCore ARM Cortex low-energy processors which it claims will enable datacentres to host 2,800 servers in a single rack.

Called the HP Redstone Server Development Platform, the project is part of a wider initiative called Project Moonshot, based on HP Converged Infrastructure technology across thousands of servers. HP said the development paves the way to the future of low-energy computing for emerging web, cloud and massive scale environments.

Project Moonshot is designed to fuel the advancement of low-energy server technology, while promoting industry collaboration to break new ground in "hyperscale" computing environments such as cloud services and on-demand computing.

HP said the initiative could yield datacentre efficiencies of 89% less energy and 94% less space, while reducing overall costs up to 63% compared with traditional server systems.

Redstone could be deployed in areas such as social media and content delivery applications. "Companies with hyperscale environments are facing a crisis in capacity that requires a fundamental change at the architectural level," said Paul Santeler, vice-president and general manager, Hyperscale Business Unit, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP.