Xserve Refresh?

Look's like Apple is going to finally take advantage of the low power variants.

However, a switch to dual core in these machines would really make them move quick in the cluster niche.

Wonder if Virginia Tech will upgrade if they go Dual core ?

Xserves are really starting to lag behind the PowerMacs. Especially if the PMs are supposed to be getting a speed bump next month.

Currently, Xserves are dual-2.3, while PowerMacs are dual-2.7.

Last I heard, dual-core PPCs max at 2.5 GHz right now, but four of those would collectively be 10 GHz, compared to the Xserve's current "mere" 4.6 GHz.

Where do people think the xServe falls into the transition to x86? At the beginning or towards the end?

Xserves are really starting to lag behind the PowerMacs. Especially if the PMs are supposed to be getting a speed bump next month.

Currently, Xserves are dual-2.3, while PowerMacs are dual-2.7.

Last I heard, dual-core PPCs max at 2.5 GHz right now, but four of those would collectively be 10 GHz, compared to the Xserve's current "mere" 4.6 GHz.

2x 2.5 ghz processors does NOT mean they are equal to a 5ghz processor. That would only be the case in the perfect world where all instructions could be executed in parallel and already knew how to be divided up. For example... to preform (A*B)+7.... you have to finish multiplying A*B before you can add 7... you cant do both at the same time... (wow that was a bad example... but still works)

i'd predict dual dual core 2.2GHz 970MP's with the low end a single dual core 2.2GHz, it would match what AMD is currently offering with the opteron.

Where do people think the xServe falls into the transition to x86? At the beginning or towards the end?

Towards the later half of the switchover I would say.

I also suspect that even after everything has been switched over to Intel processors there will probably be one G4 Powerbook and one G5 PowerMac that will probably be available for an additional several months. Much like there was an OS 9 bootable PowerMac model available for several months after everything else switched to OS X boot only.

The XServe is in an interesting spot relative to the x86 transition. On one hand, a lot of XServes are basically running whatever services Apple ships with it--fileserver, print server, webserver, directory services, etc. For those users, you could switch to x86 today and nobody would know the difference. On the other hand, for these users, if the PPC is performing equal to or better than whatever x86 chip would replace it, there's also zero reason to change.

On the other hand, there are people with specialized clustering or single-purpose apps. If these apps are already set up to take advantage of the G5's vector unit, or just designed by companies that are slow moving, folks aren't going to be too anxious to switch. Furthermore, if, as some special-purpose high-end benchmarks have shown, the G5 is on the leading edge of performance for certain specific kinds of apps, there's not much reason to change over until that's no longer true, as application compatibility isn't a big deal.

For this reason, I'd guess the XServe will be the last of Apple's machines to go x86. If IBM can offer Power-based servers for specific market segments, certainly Apple could as well.

2x 2.5 ghz processors does NOT mean they are equal to a 5ghz processor. That would only be the case in the perfect world where all instructions could be executed in parallel and already knew how to be divided up. For example... to preform (A*B)+7.... you have to finish multiplying A*B before you can add 7... you cant do both at the same time... (wow that was a bad example... but still works)

Of course, which is why I said "collectively" (just adding up the GHz). OTOH, two slow processors can often result in more speed than one fast one, since a big process will hog all of a single processor, but a dual machine still has another processor free to do other things.

But, more to the point, a machine with four 2.5 GHz processors is almost always going to be faster than one with two 2.3 GHz processors, no? :)

It's going to be a while before an Intel processor can replace the 970. The big issue to 970 users is a suitable FMA and Altivec replacement. I think the Xserve will be the last to go Intel if at all. Remember when the G5 was released, it was supposed to go across the line. But, IBM admitted later that Apple never let them in on their consumer Mac line. So Apple never intended for the G5 to go across the board. They always intended for the Intel processor to take over for the G4 while the G5 stays in their Pro systems.

That is my opinion. However, three years from now who knows what the processor landscape will look like and it is nice to know that Apple has the option to go in any direction.