Supermicro Debuts 4W And 8W Atom-Based Servers
Weighing just ten pounds and with a depth of 9.8", these "mini-sized" 5015A SuperServers feature a high-efficiency, quiet power supply, two internal hard drives, and a full-height, half-length expansion card option. These are designed for use in embedded applications, though the expansion here makes 'em useful in a variety of situations. And even for an Atom-based system, these things devour a remarkably small amount of energy.
Ideally, these would be used where power comes at a premium and where silence is valued. Something like a print server, storage server, email server, etc. The X7SLA-L platform, which consumes just 4 watts of power and includes Intel's Atom 230 processor, supports up to four SATA ports with RAID /1/5/10, seven USB 2.0 headers, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Intel's GMA950 graphics and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. The higher-end X7SLA-H integrates the dual-core Atom 330 processor, which consumes 8 watts of power and expands upon the features of the X7SLA-L with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, an additional onboard Type A USB 2.0 connector and an extra internal serial port. No price is mentioned for either, but both should be available to order now via the right channels.