Xserve

Xserve, or Xserve G5 with more recent models, is the name of Apple Computer's Macintosh 1U rackmount server computer.

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Apple introduced the Xserve on May 14 2002. Originally, it had one or two PowerPC G4 processors running at 1.0 GHz and supported up to 2 GB of PC-2700 memory on a 64-bit memory bus. Three FireWire 400 ports (one in front, two in rear), two USB 1.1 ports (rear), an RS-232 management interface (rear), and a single onboard gigabit port (rear) were provided for external connectivity. Two 64-bit/66 MHz PCI slots and one 32-bit/66 MHz PCI/AGP slot were provided; in the default configuration the two PCI slots were filled with an ATI Rage video card and an additional gigabit ethernet card. Up to 4 UATA/100 hard disk drives (60 or 120 GB) fit into hot-swap bays in the front, allowing software RAID-0, 1, and 5 arrays to be created. A tray-loading CD-ROM drive was mounted in the front.

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Initially, two configuration options were available: a single-processor Xserve with 256 MB of memory at $2999 and a dual-processor Xserve with 512 MB of memory at $3999. Both shipped with an a single 60 GB disk and Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" Server.

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On February 10 2003 Apple released an improved and expanded Xserve lineup. Improvements included one or two 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 processors, two FireWire 800 ports (rear), and higher capacity UATA/133 hard disk drives (80 or 160 GB). A new model, the Xserve Cluster node was announced at the same price as the single-processor Xserve, featuring two 1.33 GHz processors, no optical drive, a single hard drive bay, no video or ethernet cards, and a 10-client version of "Jaguar" server.

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On April 2 2003 the Xserve RAID was introduced, providing a much higher capacity and higher throughput disk subsystem for the Xserve.

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On January 6 2004 Apple introduced the Xserve G5, a redesigned higher-performance Xserve. The 32-bit PowerPC G4s were replaced with one or two 64-bit PowerPC 970 processors running at 2GHz. Up to 8 GB of PC-3200 ECC memory was supported on a 128-bit memory bus. One FireWire 400 port (front), two FireWire 800 ports (rear), two USB 2.0 ports (rear), an RS-232 management interface (rear), and two onboard gigabit ethernet ports (rear) with TCP offload provided greater connectivity. A 133 MHz/64-bit and a 100 MHz/64-bit PCI-X slots rounded out its expansion options. Ventilation issues restricted it to 3 SATA hot-swap drive bays (80 or 250 GB each), with the original space for the fourth drive bay used for air vents. A slot-loading optical drive (CD-ROM standard, DVD-ROM/CD-RW optional) was mounted in the front.

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Three configuration options were available: a single-processor Xserve G5 with 512 MB of memory at $2999, a dual-processor Xserve G5 with 1 GB of memory at $3999, and a dual-processor cluster node model with 512 MB of memory, no optical drive, a single hard drive bay, and a 10-client version of "Panther" Server at $2999.

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The higher memory capacity and bandwidth of the Xserve G5 as well as the stronger floating-point performance of the PowerPC 970 made it more suitable for High Performance Computing (HPC) applications. System X is one such cluster computer built with Xserves.

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On January 3 2005, Apple speed bumped the Xserve G5 with 2.3 GHz PowerPC 970 processors in the dual-processor configurations. 400 GB hard disks were made available for up to 1.2 TB of internal storage. The slot-loading optical drive was upgraded to a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW standard, DVD-/+RW optional.

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Recently, Apple quietly updated the Xserve and Xserve RAID to allow the use of 500GB Hard Drives.

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Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" Server is now available for the Xserve.

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