HP has launched a Moonshot system designed with a 64-bit ARM processor, making the company the first vendor to offer it in a server. HP is also releasing its first Moonshot server designed with an Intel Xeon chip.
New server cartridges, the m350 and m710, are made to accommodate the high-density Moonshot server chassis system. Together with the new hardware configurations, HP is introducing four application-specific solutions. These are identified as web infrastructure in a box, video transcoding, managed web hosting and application delivery.
The m350 is aimed at managed hosting providers, which is HP's densest system to date. The company believes it has the best solution for high-density managed hosting environments as the server density is able to reach up to 180 servers per 4.3U Moonshot 1500 chassis.
Each server is a small cartridge that is nestled in the Moonshot chassis. By using closely integrated network interface cards and switches, coupled with shared power and cooling supplies, HP has managed to place 45 cartridges into a chassis of up to 4.3 rack units, achieving a height of 7.5 inches. That would mean having a number of servers in a relatively small amount of space.
The m710, also known as the Moonshot ProLiant m710, uses a quad-core Xeon dubbed as E3-1284L v3. It's built with an integrated GPU, which is enough for making light graphics work.
The m710 is designed to accommodate one or two workloads with no issues. These would be video transcoding and application delivery. Both are made possible with the chip's integrated GPU.
HP pairs with Vantrix Media Platform and Harmonic VOS to deliver ambitiously 20 times more transcoded video streams per rack. Moreover, the company aims to gain reduced costs of 80 percent and reduced floor space in its data center of up to 95 percent. The transcoding solutions can also be offloaded to the embedded GPUs.
With the existing m300 cartridge, HP offers an all-in-one web-infrastructure-in-a-box solution. This would enable multiple tiers to be delivered from one chassis.
For applications delivery, HP collaborated with Citrix in order to use the XenApp software, which is capable of streaming Office applications together with other programs for users. Since the m710 is shipped as a bare metal, customers would have to buy licenses for XenApp and for the supported Windows Server 2012 OS. HP, on its part, will provide the necessary documentation for the setup instructions.
The server starting prices, which are set at $48,937 for the m300, $55,147 for the m710, and $85,372 for the m350, include 15 server cartridges, three power supplies, one chassis, a switch and other software and components.
