The performance race for server technologies is far from over. However, investing in data center services time and again costs money – more than actually necessary. The use of alternative standardized processor modules can drastically cut these costs. Microservers leveraging congatec Server-on-Modules based on the vendor-independent COM Express Type 7 standard help to significantly reduce upgrade costs. After three to five years, a second generation is expected to cost only about 50% of the initial investment, as a simple replacement of the processor modules will be all that’s required in the majority of cases.
It is not only the telecoms market that is struggling with the fact that revenues per Gigabit of data transfer are constantly falling, while performance requirements are constantly rising –despite the given TDP spectrum of each server rack. The same applies to data center operators as well as on-premise cloud and server applications, and even more so in the industrial server and energy-sensitive microserver segment, where space is often much more limited. Here too, Internet, IIoT and Industry 4.0 connected installations must manage increasingly complex challenges, such as image data recognition using artificial intelligence, without the option to scale the available server space in the control cabinet rack of machines or systems in often harsh environments. This makes it necessary to pack more and more performance onto the same microserver footprint without any additional thermal design scope.
When installing a new generation of microservers, it is already clear that the next generation will have to follow within three to five years in order to keep pace with requirements. But how can this next performance upgrade be implemented as cost-effectively as possible? German IT company Christmann has taken an innovative approach utilizing the new COM Express standard for Server-on-Modules to develop a new generation of modular 2U and 3U rackmount servers. They can be flexibly equipped with up to 27 CPU microservers with x86 or ARM architecture. In addition, they also offer standardized modular options for parallel processing in the form of GPGPU cards and FPGA modules, which the company also physically implements in a COM Express Basic footprint.
