A Blade Kill
In April, SPEC updated their server power benchmark to allow results for blade servers, and now HP has released its first blade result.
HP just published a SPECpower_ssj2008 result for the HP BL280c G6 server blade. It's the top score for a blade. I talked to Kari Kelley, the BL280c product manager, and she called it a "solid kill."
The kill comment made more sense after Kari explained she played division-1 volleyball while at Texas A&M. "A kill is a good thing," she assured me.
SPEC didn't open up that benchmark to blades until their SPECpower_ssj2008 V1.10 came out this spring. For a multi-node system (like a blade infrastructure), the benchmark has to be run with a full set of servers -- so a c7000 enclosure filled with 16 BL280c servers in HP's case. Power is measured at the AC line voltage source, while the test itself monitors throughput and power usage at various performance levels, including periods when the servers are 100% idle. HP has written this whitepaper that talks more about the benchmark methodology.
For the BL280c G6 server, the overall result was 1877 ssj_ops/watt. Full details here. For full details about kills, along with sets and spikes, you'll have to talk to Kari.
SPEC and the benchmark name SPECpower_ssj are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. The latest SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark results are available on the SPEC website at http://www.spec.org/power_ssj2008.
