Penguin Computing Announces New Altus Linux Servers with Next-Generation AMD Opteron™ Processors

Penguin Computing Announces New Altus Linux Servers with Next-Generation AMD Opteron™ Processors

San Francisco, Calif. -- 8/15/2006 -- Penguin Computing, an AMD Platinum Solution Provider, today announced its new Altus 1600 and 2600 servers with up to two of the Next-Generation AMD Opteron™ processors. Supporting Next-Generation AMD Opteron 2000 Series processors, the new line of Altus Linux servers provides even greater efficiency and compute power and faster memory than ever before on an AMD processor-based platform. The Altus family gives both high performance computing (HPC) and enterprise customers increased productivity and lower total cost of ownership even for the most compute-intensive applications.

“As customers are increasingly under pressure to do more with less, server technology that combines the latest AMD performance and efficiency-enhancing technologies with proven Linux expertise and support is an absolute requirement,” said Pauline Nist, senior vice president, product development and management, Penguin Computing. “In addition to the excellent value in hardware that these new Altus products offer, customers are also selecting us as a long-term partner based on the total value we provide. Our customers rely on the complete Penguin package; our innovative, painless purchase process, turnkey ability to pre-load and pre-test whole racks and easy to access to expert Linux support.”

“Penguin Computing’s Altus line of Linux servers based on AMD64 technology are able to deliver outstanding performance for server clusters while offering exceptional energy-efficiency,” said Pat Patla, director, Server/Workstation Marketing, AMD (NYSE: AMD). “We are pleased to work with companies like Penguin to provide AMD Opteron processor-based servers to the performance computing market.”

Available now, Penguin’s 1U Altus 1600 and 2U Altus 2600 servers feature SATA, SCSI and SAS storage options to suit a variety of storage needs, expansion slots for PCI Express serial input/output technology to accommodate high-performance cluster fabrics and enterprise-class storage adapters, and optional PCI-X slots for legacy expansion cards.

Enhanced Productivity
New processor features, including AMD Virtualization™, allow customers to increase productivity. This advancement adds CPU level support to enable low overhead context transfers between virtual machine instances, resulting in a reduction in the complexity of third party virtualization software and reduced overhead. It also enforces memory partitioning between virtual machines for improved security. This results in enhanced capabilities and stability of software virtualization technologies, which enables greater server utilization as well as power and space savings through efficient server consolidation. The new 64-bit Altus servers include integrated support for IPMI 2.0, for secure remote management, eliminating the need for external management devices and reducing costs for initial and on-going server administration. They also offer optional hot-swap capability for hard drive replacement while the system remains in operation.

High Efficiency
The new Altus line also incorporates many enhancements to increase efficiency, including up to 24GB of DDR2 memory to ensure a reliable 24/7 duty cycle. This type of memory module increases performance, requires less power than pervious generations of DDR memory and allows customers to build large RAM configurations at lower total cost. In addition, the optional redundant power supply of the Altus chassis enables high AC/DC conversion efficiency. This type of power efficiency is beneficial since it results in lower utility bills and reduced data center cooling requirements.

Penguin’s new Altus servers are ideal for a variety of uses because of their flexibility, affordability and scalability. Both Altus product families offer the latest memory technology, up to 24GB of fully buffered dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) for lower latency and higher throughput and error correction features, to ensure reliable operation and data integrity at full bus speeds. In addition, they provide 2 x 1MB level 2 cache memory and a HyperTransport bus for data transfer. All Altus servers support Red Hat Linux and SuSE Linux operating systems.

About Penguin Computing
Penguin Computing is the leader in Cluster Virtualization, delivering virtualized cluster systems driven by Scyld ClusterWare™ its unique Linux software, which makes large pools of Linux servers appear and act like a single virtual system. Through a single point of command/control, thousands of systems can be managed as if they were a single, consistent, virtual system, dramatically simplifying deployment and management and significantly improving server performance and data center resource utilization. Focused on the high performance computing, enterprise consolidation and web hosting markets, the company has an extensive customer base including Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies and educational institutions. Founded in 1998, Penguin Computing is headquartered in San Francisco, California. To learn more about High Performance Computing Linux and Web Clustering, please visit Penguin Computing at http://www.penguincomputing.com.

Penguin Computing is a registered trademark of Penguin Computing, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, and AMD Opteron, AMD Virtualization, AMD-V, and combinations thereof, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Technical Specifications Altus Servers

	Altus 1600	Altus 2600
Form Factor	1U rackmount	2U rackmount
Processors	Up to two AMD Opteron 2000 Series dual-core 64-bit CPUs	Up to two AMD Opteron 2000 Series dual-core 64-bit CPUs
Bus speed	HyperTransport bus at 1000MHz	HyperTransport bus at 1000MHz
Cache	2 x 1MB level 2 cache	2 x 1MB level 2 cache
Chipset	NVidia MCP55	NVidia MCP55 + IO55
Memory	Up to 16GB, DDR2 DIMMs, 667MHz, Registered, ECC	Up to 24GB, DDR2 DIMMs, 667MHz, Registered, ECC
Expansion Slots	•PCI-E x16 (8 lanes, std size) •PCI-E x8 (low profile) •Optional PCI-X 64bit/100MHz slot, replaces PCI-E x16 slot	•PCI-X 64bit/100MHz (std size) •PCI-E x16 (8 lanes, std size) •PCI-E x8 (8 lanes, std size) •2 x PCI-E x8 (low profile) •PCI-E x8 (4 lanes, low profile)
Internal hard drives	1600SA: 4 x 3.5” SATA hot swap drives, optional RAID	2600SA: 6 x 3.5” SATA hot swap drives, optional RAID
Optical drives	1600SC: 4 x 3.5” Ultra SCSI-320 hot swap drives, optional RAID	2600SC: 6 x 3.5” Ultra SCSI-320 hot swap drives, optional RAID
Network Interfaces	1600SS: 4 x 3.5” SAS hot swap drives, optional RAID	2600SS: 6 x 3.5” SAS hot swap drives, optional RAID
Ports	1600SX: 6 x 2.5” SAS hot swap drives, optional RAID	2600SX: 12 x 2.5” SAS hot swap drives, optional RAID
Management	Integrated 2 x nVidia 10/100/1000 NICs, dedicated 10/100 management NIC	Integrated 4 x nVidia 10/100/1000 NICs, dedicated 10/100 management NIC
Dimensions	IPMI 2.0 management processor with dedicated management NIC, remote power control, server health monitoring and console-over-IP. Optional KVM-over-IP feature	IPMI 2.0 management processor with dedicated management NIC, remote power control, server health monitoring and console-over-IP. Optional KVM-over-IP feature
Power Supply	1.70” H x 16.93” W x 27.38” D	3.44” H x 16.93” W x 27.38” D
Operating System Support	Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Suse Linux Enterprise Server	Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Suse Linux Enterprise Server
Warranty	Standard 3-year warranty included with every Penguin Computing server	Standard 3-year warranty included with every Penguin Computing server

Penguin Computing is a registered trademark of Penguin Computing, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.