Broadberry CyberServe CLx40

Broadberry advised us that the CLx40 is generating a lot of interest in a range of market sectors, and both Microsoft and Intel were keen to get involved in this review. Intel ensured the ten processors were made available, while Microsoft took this opportunity to show off its Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003. Microsoft also added SharePoint Server and Office 2007, with Excel configured as a calculation engine for submitting analysis jobs to the CCS Job Scheduler. Usefully, the CCS administrator allows you to remotely access each compute node for general configuration and management. Linux is also available as an option and, at the time of review, Broadberry was validating the CLx40 with SUSE 10 and Red Hat 4 with Platform OCS.

The CyberServe CLx40 is undoubtedly an innovative solution to an increasing demand for affordable high-performance computing. Packing 40 Xeon cores into a box of this size is no mean feat, and its modest power consumption and low noise levels make it possible to have this kind of computing power beside your desk.

Author: Dave Mitchell