Stratus' new mid-range fault-tolerant system boasts 66% performance boost

ftServer W Series 4600 System: The ftServer W Series 4600 system is ideal for applications with growing or unpredictable workloads because of the configuration headroom and ample system bandwidth.

Seizing upon the most current industry-standard technology while advancing current and future capabilities of its own unique fault-tolerant technology, Stratus Technologies today launched its third generation of continuously available servers for Windows Server 2003 with the announcement of the W Series ftServer 4600 system.

The new mid-range Intel-based server further extends Stratus' price/performance leadership in fault-tolerant server technology. It is especially well suited for applications with growing or unpredictable workloads because of the configuration headroom and greater system bandwidth.

The ftServer 4600 system is the first to use a new generation of Stratus-designed chipsets for fault-tolerant system performance. The new chipsets embody 25 years of Stratus research and fault-tolerant engineering expertise and, when combined with industry-standard hardware and software, result in much improved system performance in cost-effective, highly integrated packaging.

The new server has two logical Intel Xeon 3.6GHz (Irwindale) processors with 2MB iL2 cache, up to 16GB DDR2 memory, and an 800MHz front-side bus. The Stratus chipsets extend the overall system bandwidth, resulting in 66% improvement in processing performance compared to a similarly configured ftServer 5600 system, which the ftServer 4600 system replaces. Further, input/output-bound applications running on the ftServer 4600 system can expect as much as a five-fold performance improvement. The chipset also makes possible first-of-its-kind performance features and enhancements that Stratus plans to include in future Stratus 4000 Series server models.

Instead of six customer-replaceable units (CRU) like the current mid-range server, the third-generation ftServer 4600 is a two-CRU design, with each unit containing CPU and I/O in a 2U rack-mountable module (pedestal version also available). Each CRU is the equivalent of a simplex Intel server. The two units connect to a common back plane and, through the Stratus-engineered chipsets and Continuous Processing technology, form a continuously available, fully redundant server with better than 99.999% uptime performance. The dual-CRU design, with the traditional CPU and I/O logic combined on a single board, reduces system cost and complexity, aids cooling and power consumption, and takes up one-third less rack space than its predecessor. Fewer components and higher density translate into increased reliability and lower cost.

The base disk subsystem is now available with WD Raptor enterprise-class Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives from Western Digital. This new class of hard drives features comparable reliability (1.2 million MTBF) and performance (10 000 RPM, 4.5ms seek) to SCSI drives, but at significantly lower cost. In testing conducted by Stratus, hot-pluggable WD Raptor drives outperformed SCSI in similarly configured ftServer models.

The ftServer 4600 system uses six physical (three logical) internal 74GB WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA drives. Externally, the new server supports a full range of attached EMC storage including Clariion, AX 100 and Symmetrix, as well as Fibre Channel JBOD.

"With its W Series ftServer 4600 system, Stratus Technologies continues its exceptional industry leadership through the use of WD Raptor hard drives to help deliver reliability, price and performance to meet the demanding specification of this best-in-class product," said Hubbert Smith, WD's director of enterprise marketing.

The ftServer 4600 system is the first Stratus server to come with the Virtual Technician Module (VTM) as standard. Only Stratus systems offer a fault-tolerant remote access controller that, in turn, connects to the fully fault-tolerant Stratus ActiveService network to help ensure the highest reliability possible. Inserted into 168-pin DIMM connectors within each CRU, the VTM comes with hardened drivers and has its own power and network connections. Regardless of the server's operational state, the VTM allows a service engineer to remotely perform advanced diagnosis, troubleshooting and remediation. With the exception of physically swapping parts, virtually any task that can be performed onsite with the actual server can now be performed remotely, such as powering up, viewing the boot screen, or downloading software updates, for example.

The Stratus ftServer 4600 system joins a rapidly expanding portfolio of Intel-based fault-tolerant servers that comprise several product lines supporting the Windows, Linux and/or Stratus' proprietary VOS operating systems. All Stratus servers - both ftServer and Continuum server families - deliver field-proven uptime performance of better than 99.999%.