Cisco intros Xeon E5-based blade, rack servers

SAN JOSE, USA: Networking company Cisco announced enhancements across its Unified Computing System (UCS) to deliver a third-generation fabric computing platform, and integrates Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family.

Cisco broadened the UCS portfolio with one blade and two rack-mount servers based on the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600, which will be available in March.

Also Read: HDS to intro Xeon E5-based server line-up

Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Server:  The server provides high density through its 24 DIMM slots and up to 80 gigabits of I/O bandwidth.

UCS C220 M3 Rack Server: The Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Server is a one-rack-unit (1RU) server.

UCS C240 M3 Rack Server: The Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Server is a two-rack-unit (2RU) server.

The Cisco UCS third-generation fabric computing platform includes multiple server form factors delivering up to eight times the memory capacity and four times the I/O compared to previous UCS servers, says Cisco in a release.

Through enhanced integration with Cisco Unified Fabric technology, Cisco UCS Manager now unifies management for both blade and rack servers within a single domain.

In the second half of 2012, Cisco will introduce technology to support large-scale UCS deployments through centralized management for multiple UCS domains, spanning thousands of servers either in a single data centre or spread across data centres around the world, providing automation and orchestration for cloud environments.

The chassis I/O module 2204XP provides options for 80Gbps and 160Gbps down to each chassis to handle workload bursts. The module also offers port channeling.

The Cisco UCS 6296UP Fabric Interconnect doubles the switching capacity of the UCS fabric (from 960Gbps to 1.92Tbps) and reduces end-to-end latency by 40 per cent, the release added.

The Cisco UCS 6200 Series combined with Cisco Nexus Fabric Extender extends Cisco UCS Manager benefits to larger scale UCS deployments for both blade and rack form factors.