Dell tests ARM chips

PCWorld.

Some Dell clients are intrigued by low-power servers with ARM processors, which have interesting attributes related to power and density in data centres, said Forrest Norrod, VP and GM of server platforms for Dell.

However, there are major concerns about the weak software ecosystem surrounding ARM.

"Fundamentally, it's a software issue," Norrod said. "Are there enough benefits from that architecture for porting your code over to that new instruction set... and maintain[ing] two different software stacks? It's never as trivial as it sounds."

According to Computerworld, many servers run on Intel's Xeon and AMD's Opteron chips, but there is a growing interest in adding low-power x86 netbook chips as companies look to cut energy bills.

Dell already offers low-power servers with Via's Nano chips on a selective basis, and start-up SeaMicro last week unveiled a low-power server that includes 256 of Intel's latest Atom N570 dual-core processors.

Meanwhile, CIO notes there are also time and cost issues associated with porting software from x86 to ARM.

But the prospect of ARM processors - which are used in most of the world's smartphones and tablets - being an alternative to x86 is drawing attention.