Exciting news for all you HP Proliant fans out there.  HP have just rolled out their largest number of x86 and x64 based hardware in the company’s history.

This new generation of Proliant server features “advances in energy efficiency, virtualization and automation”.  In total 11 new HP Proliant G6 servers have been announced spanning across the ML, DL and BL ranges.

So What’s New?

HP are really keen to emphasise the power saving capabilities of the G6’s with some ThermalLogic technologies (see below for more details) making their way from the HP blade server range to the rack (DL) and free standing (ML) servers.  Those of you that have worked with the C7000 (and C3000) blade enclosures will be familiar with these features.  As well as these power saving features all of these new servers sport Intel’s new Nehalem EP Xeon processor.

The new HP Proliant G6’s come with the following features:

New Intel Nehalem CPUs – These new HP servers will all come with “Nehalem EP” Xeon 5500 series CPUs.  The ‘EP’ CPU will come in two varieties, dual and quad core.  The 8 ways are definitely on Intel’s road-map but we will have to wait a little longer for these to come to market.  These Nehalem CPU’s feature Integrated Memory Controllers (yep, just like AMD has had for a while now), Quick Path Interconnect and Intel Hyper-Threading (it’s back again!)Technologies.  It comes with the existing hardware-assisted Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) along with new capabilities including Extended Page Tables and Virtual Processor ID (VPID).

DDR3 Memory – The G6’s will use DDR3 memory ranging in speeds between 800-1333MHz and coming in registered and unregistered options.

New Smart Array Disk Controllers – Three new array controllers offering better IO performance (HP are claiming a 200% speed increase)  have been released and are integrated inside the G6 servers:

Increased amount of ‘standard’ memory – These G6 servers will come with either 6,8 or 12GB of memory as standard.

HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module – the industry’s first interconnect technology to allocate the bandwidth of a 10Gb Ethernet network port across four network interface card connections. This eliminates the need for additional network hardware equipment, and enables those of us deploying virtual machines to save money.

The HP Sea of Sensors – automatically track thermal activity across the server through a collection of 32 smart sensors. The sensors dynamically adjust system components such as fans, memory and input/output processing to optimize system cooling and increase efficiency.

Common Power Supplies – There will now be one physical format/size of power supply that will be interchangeable between all G6 servers. Within this range of new power supplies there will be four power ratings to choose from thereby  allowing customers to choose power supplies to match their specific workload and save power.

HP Dynamic Power Capping – reallocates power and cooling resources in the data center by dynamically setting or “capping” the power drawn by servers. By precisely identifying power requirements for each server and setting a limit based on that usage, customers can reclaim over provisioned energy to improve data center capacity.

Other Good Stuff – HP are offering a 20% discount on the Insight Control Environment (ICE) pack when purchased with a G6 server.

The New G6 Servers:

The following is an overview on which servers in the HP Proliant line have been refreshed or introduced  to the G6 range.

The Register gives a good summary of each of these servers here.

Related Reads:

HP Proliant Family Guide (including new G6’s)

HP – What’s new with Proliant? – There are some interesting Proliant G6 related videos on this page.

HP Virtual IT Center – Well worth a look.  Has plenty of G6 related multimedia content.

HP – What’s new with HP Blades?

FT.com – Intel hails “recession buster” Nehalem

The Register – HP goes to eleven with ProLiant launch