April 2001

1U Deserves Another

BY CHRIS DONNER

The lowly 1U server is perhaps the least respected of industrial computers. Outside of ISPs, who gives these guys any credit? Referred to, some would say demeaningly, as pizza boxes, these systems don't even necessarily have to be five-nines, so how can they measure up to telecom standards? And yet, the Web -- carried on the backs of these thin servers -- is in many ways responsible for the wealth of new companies, applications, and... well, wealth in the communications arena.

I remember my first peek behind the scenes at a local ISP, back when the Web was just being invented and before it represented the threat to all things good and wholesome that the RIAA and the family values crew like to paint it as now. I had two immediate impressions upon visiting my local ISP. First: how can they even keep things running with all of this junk lying around? And second: if they installed this equipment into a rack instead of just setting things anywhere flat, the whole place would be neater and make more sense.

That was the day that I discovered the real reason for the "pizza box" denomination -- these servers are exactly the right size for supporting a real box of pizza. The heat they generate even helps keep the pizza warm longer. They raise it just high enough off the workspace to protect the valuable pizza from inevitable soda spills, and their industrial design even makes them somewhat likely to withstand a direct soda hit.

It was in my second observation, however, that I had hit upon a critical reason for the current popularity of these units. (Mind you, I'm not claiming to have invented the rack system, but merely to have helped it along...) Measuring in at a mere 1.75" high, 1U servers could be stacked tightly, fitting up to 42 units in a standard 6-foot rack space and thus helping to answer that inevitable question of how to get more service out of the same space.

These systems are flexible too. They can serve many purposes: Web hosting and e-commerce servers, firewalls, DSN servers, e-mail servers, co-location platforms... The only limits are the physical dimensions themselves. And so, without further discussion, here it is: 1U, 4 U.

Advansor CHM1110-25XA
www.advansor.com
888-576-9668
The CHM1110-25XA is a 1U 19" rackmount chassis with 250W ATX PS and 4 SCA SCSI drive bays. The Internet application-ready chassis will be integrated with an ATX motherboard and the hot-swap SCA SCSI HDD. The complete integrated server in this chassis will serve the needs of critical ISP, ASP, firewall, and other Internet applications. The hot-swap 1" SCA SCSI HDD and the cooling fan modular design increase the manageability of the servers, thus increasing its efficiency.

Advantech ZA-101S
www.advantech.com
858-623-0838
The ZA-101S is geared toward the OEM, with prices starting under $1,450. The 1U thin server includes dual 100MHz Pentium III processors, 4,096 MB SDRAM, FDD/CD-ROM combo drive, 10/100 base Ethernet, and 2 hot-swappable SCSI drive bays. The ZA-101S also offers an optional advanced remote server management module that immediately alerts the operations manager or field service person for management or reboot of the servers -- ideal for co-location, Web server, and Web hosting applications. The ultra-thin ZA-101S rackmount chassis is ideally suited for growing multiserver environments such as those mentioned previously, plus e-commerce service ISPs, ASPs, and other graphic and data flow-intensive applications.

Thermal Protection is automatically monitored. Advantech designed the ZA-101S to run cool and efficiently in high-density server environments. Its rugged construction incorporates eight cooling fans to ensure system reliability. Monitoring and security features include automatic fault detection and alarm notification of power or fan failure and chassis overheating.

Advanced Industrial Computer RMC1M Series
www.aicipc.com
626-581-4300
The RMC1M series is a space saving, high performance, full featured rackmount chassis designed to meet the needs of Internet service providers, corporate data centers, and remote sites. The RMC1M series can support any full size extended 12" x 13" ATX form factor along with two hot-swap SCA or IDE hard drives. Customers can integrate high performance PIII M/B with onboard Ultra2/LVD SCSI and add-on RAID controller to make it an ideal slim RAID server for file/print, Windows NT server, Web, mail, or small database applications. Features include heavy duty steel construction, support for 1 x 5.25" slim CD-ROM and 1 x 3.5" FDD, a removable air filter, a speaker with built-in amplifier, supports indicators for power, HDD, and LAN, a 1 x PCI expansion riser card, and a 200W power supply. Exposed drive bays: 1 x slim 5.25", 1 x 3.5" FDD, and 2 x 3.5" half-height hot-swap drive bays.

APPRO 1002X-1 Server
www.appro.com
800-927-5464
The APPRO 1002X-1 server fits quite a bit into the 1U rackmount form factor. That includes a 250W power supply, hot-swappable SCSI HDD backplane, integrated dual 10/100 Ethernet ports, integrated VGA port, and a riser card supporting one 64bit/66MHz full-length PCI card. Options include single or dual Intel Pentium III 800EB at 866MHz, 933MHz, or 1GHz, DIMM from 256MB to 4GB, an IDE slim notebook type CD-ROM drive with 24X, and a 1.44MB floppy drive. Operating systems supported include Red Hat Linux, Windows NT Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advance.

Arise Computer RK-IS1000
www.arisecomputer.com
781-937-9888
The RK-IS1000 is a 1U rackmount chassis running an Intel Pentium III 700MHz processor with 128MB RAM, a 10GB IDE hard drive, CD-ROM, 1.44MB floppy, APG VGA on-board video support, one serial port, one parallel port, and one USB port, and two 10/100 Ethernet NICs included. The system has 3 PCI slots available for expansion.

Arista RS-100HS
www.arista.com
510-226-1800
The RS-100HS comes in several configurations: the 810E, 815A, 815E, DLE, and CUR. The differences between these configurations determine the best application for the server. For example, while the first 815s include a Celeron/Pentium III processor and 512MB RAM, the DLE and CUR come with a FCPGA PIII and 2GB RAM for more demanding server applications. However, there are many similarities as well, such as they all include a SLIM CD-ROM drive, a 180W power supply, and two HDD removable drives standard. For more information on the server configuration you need, your best bet is to contact Arista.

Axiom AX6115
www.axiomtek.com
626-581-3232
The AX6115 is a 1U fault-resilient IDE RAID Web server, an attractive unit made of heavy duty steel and including 1 x 3.5", 1 x 5.25", 2 x IDE RAID exposed drives, and 1 x 3.5" internal hard drive. Power supply options are for a 200W unit delivering +3.3, +5, and +12 volts at various current levels. The system can operate at a relative humidity of 5 percent to 95 percent, non-condensing.

Broadax Systems Ultra Axe
www.bsicomputer.com
800-872-4547
The Ultra Axe low-profile server is a cost-effective solution for high density server applications. Using an industrial-standard ATX form factor, it provides a one-slot PCI riser card as well as full complement of peripheral and device interfaces. The 1 rack unit chassis is constructed of heavy gauge steel, has three drive bays, a 180-watt power supply, and two filtered cooling fans. The system is built around an UltraSPARC-IIi 300 processor with 256K external cache and 4 DIMM sockets for up to 1024MB RAM. Also included are 4MB on-board SGRAM video, on-board 16-bit EBus-based audio, and 10/100BT Fast Ethernet. Sun Solaris 7.0 comes preloaded.

Crystal Group CS200 Rackmount Server
www.crystalpc.com
800-378-1636
Oddly named for a 1U server (why the 200? I don't know), this system fits in the requisite 1.75" space, and Crystal is always worth looking at. The CS200 has three processor options: an Intel Celeron up to 800MHz, an Intel Pentium III up to 850MHz, and an Intel Dual Pentium III up to 850MHz. All three of these systems include dual Ethernet and SCSI support, and can handle up to 3 IDE or SCSI hard drives, 1 internal CD-ROM, and 1 internal floppy. The CS200 is tested compatible with Linux, Microsoft Windows95/ 98/2000/NT, and Solaris.

In terms of ruggedness, the CS200 has two blowers positioned for redundant cooling, one 6.9 CFM fan in the optional expansion slot card cage, and two 40mm DC fans in the power supply to allow no more than 10° C rise above ambient temperature. The power supply itself is a 300 Watt auto-switching 120/240 VAC 50/60 Hz unit. And finally, the backplane handles 2 ISA/PCI expansion slots.

CSS Laboratories ProRack - 1/2U
www.csslabs.com
800-852-2680
The CSS Labs ProRack - 1/2U system has two separate motherboards with a 15GB hard drive and a separate power supply for each. The motherboards consist of Celeron or CopperMine Pentium III processors at 433 to 1000 MHz, an Intel 810 E chipset, and 1 DIMM socket for up to 256MB SDRAM. Expansion slots are one PCI slot (32 bit/33 MHz) on the riser card. Integrated systems include one 10/100 Fast Ethernet server controller, Intel 82810E DC-133 graphics, and graphics memory of 4 MB SDRAM, integrated PCI/ISA IDE Xcelerator (PlIX4e).

Other features include two EIDE drives, two stacked USB connectors, (not brought out the rear), one serial port, one IEEE 1284 parallel port, and a floppy controller. The operating temperature is 10° C to +35° C with a relative humidity, non-operating up to 95 percent at 30° C non-condensing.

DAX Systems 1U Rackmount Chassis
www.daxsystems.com
973-227-8111
DAX Systems' 1U Rackmount Chassis is part of the Application Ready ISP Server Platform series. The system includes a 150 Watt power supply, 300 MHz SPARCengine ULTRA AXe processor, 128 MB memory, a 15 GB IDE hard drive, 48X CD-ROM, 3.5" floppy, VGA on-board, 10/100 Ethernet, and 1 PCI slot.

Diversified Technology CRM120A
www.dtims.com
800-443-2667
Diversified Technology (DTI) recently introduced new high-performance 1U and 2U platforms. In keeping with the theme of this article, I would like to focus my attention on the 1U version, the CRM120A. The CRM120A is high performance, configurable rackmount server building block designed to be used by OEMs and next-gen systems integrators for applications like Web servers, VPN gateways, and cache, policy, and firewall servers.

The CRM120A includes a 150W ATX power supply, two 3.5", one slim-line CD-ROM, and one slim-line floppy front accessible bay. An optional SCSI kit allows a RAID-1 array with hot-swappable SCA drives to be implemented. Two full-size 64 bit/66MHz PCI slots provide over 500 Mbps combined throughput to accommodate high performance I/O such as gigabit Ethernet. Separate card cage and power supply cooling ensures reliable operation in dense environments. Power for the CRM120A is based upon single or dual Intel Pentium III processors and the ServerWorks HE-SL chipset. This combination provides unsurpassed performance with front side bus speeds of 133 MHz and processors exceeding 1 GHz. An up to 4GB interleaved memory array, with ECC circuitry, provides a throughput of over 2GB/s using standard PC-133 DIMMs.

Force Computers Flexor System 1
www.forcecomputers.com
408-369-6144
The Force Flexor System 1 is a high density rack mount that includes a Flexor range SBC with integral graphics, Ethernet, disk controller, serial port, and USB port. Also included are a disk drive, 200W power supply, and a 10GB drive. There is also an optional combined DVD and floppy drive. Two free half-length PCI slots and optional one half-length ISA slot provide I/O expansion.

The standard PICMG PCI/ISA SBC slot allows the use of a choice of two SBCs from the Flexor range, the ICS370/566 or IP3S370/600, offering a range of price and performance. In addition to all of these features, the Flexor System 1 is available with a second 10/100 Ethernet port, making it ideal for network-based applications including: ISP Internet access points, Web servers, e-commerce servers, application servers, disk servers, kiosks, and ATMs.

I-Bus/Phoenix TR1S
www.ibus.com
888-307-7892
The TR1S is a 1U motherboard chassis with 150W ATX power supply with single PCI slot riser card. Motherboard options include the I-Bus/Phoenix ATX 7 or ATX i370, or the SPARCengine ULTRA AXe. The system provides a fully PICMG-compliant backplane with 1 ISA or 1 PCI expansion slot. In addition, there are one 5.25" and two 3.5" drive bays, and five 8.0CFM fans (two 5.3CFM exhaust fans in the AXe version only).

ICS Advent Omnix 100L
www.icsadvent.com
888-294-4558
ICS Advent's Omnix series is a group of fully integrated system solutions for rackmount applications. Offering robust performance and a full range of standard and optional system components, the line consists of seven basic product groups. For purposes of this article I'm going to focus -- how'd you guess? -- on the 1U version.

The Omnix 100L is a 1U, 23-inch system with a 150W power supply, and a three-slot traverse ISA/PCI backplane. The system accommodates one each of 5.25" and 3.5" drives (both front accessible), and an internal 3.5" hard drive. The unit also has a locking front door for security. An additional feature of the Omnix series has to do with the simplicity of ordering. Using ICS Advent's online System Configurator (such a cool name), you are able to configure and order your entire system online. Of course, an online ordering tool is only as good as the backend support, but my experimentation with configuring the 100L online leads me to believe that the whole process can be completed pretty painlessly for standard system configs.

Interlogic Industries Pre-Configured 1U Rack Mount (Pro)
www.interlogicindustries.com
631-420-8111
Interlogic's Pre-Configured 1U Rack Mount Computer Systems come in three classifications: the Basic, Standard, and Pro. The specs in this article are for the Pro, but if you're looking for a basic system, you should check out their Web site. The Pro system includes a 150W power supply, the Intel CA810E motherboard with a 750MHz Pentium III processor and 256MB SDRAM. The system also includes a 30GB hard drive, as well as full video, audio, and Ethernet support.

ITOX Little Dragon 1U FlexATX Case
www.itox.com
888-200-ITOX
The Little Dragon 1U FlexATX is available as a bare bone or complete system and is one of the smallest servers available today. Designed with application service providers in mind, it offers the performance of a much larger server in the fraction of the space. The Little Dragon 1U can hold a FlexATX motherboard and can accommodate a full length PCI expansion card. Three drive bays are provided: two front accessible 3.5" and one 5.25" can hold your choice of hard drive, floppy, or CD-ROM. All units have a standard 150W supply and efficient cooling built-in.

Applications for which the Little Dragon is suited include front-end Web server, Beowulf clusters, NAS (Network Attached Storage), print server, firewall, DNS server, and computer telephony servers.

MiTAC MiXpress
www.mitacinds.com
800-648-2295
MiTAC describes their MiXpress 1U rackmount thin system and server series as a highly integrated rackmount system solution for ISP and CTI applications that have space limit considerations. For purposes of this article, I looked at the newest member of this series, the SYS-124-ATX-S2510-PIII600. Built with the MiTAC MCH-102 chassis, this unit includes a 250W slim size power supply and is built around two Intel Coppermine PIII (FC-CPU) 600MHz CPUs with 128MB DIMM RAM. The system has full video (ATI Rage IIC with 4-16MB memory) and 10/100 Ethernet support, two 9GB SCSI hard drives, and has options for a CD-ROM drive and 1 PCI expansion slot.

NEXCOM/Nex Computers NexServer 1000
www.nexcom.com
510-656-2248
NEXCOM's NexServer series includes a 1U high end server equipped with ATX dual processors, the NEX 6320A, or the NEX 6420A. Called the NexServer 1000, it is designed to provide necessary features for the increasing demands of ISPs and ASPs. The NexServer 1000 features include dual Pentium III processors with 66/100/133 MHz FSB up to 866MHz, dual 10/100 Ethernet ports, dual Ultra SCSI ports, on-board VGA controller, and support for one slim CD-ROM, one 3.5" bay, and one 3.5" internal HDD bay.

The system is cooled by five fans mounted in the chassis: two in the middle, two in the front, and one in the rear side. Five 40mm fans coupled with a specially designed heat sink system support Pentium III 850Mhz CPU at an ambient temperature of up to 50° C.

RadiSys RAS100
www.radisys.com
800-950-0044
The RAS100 is an ultra-thin 1U high rackmount server that still delivers sizeable processing power. It utilizes the RadiSys Endura PW810 motherboard, built around the Intel 810 chipset in the microATX form factor. It can use either a 433MHz Celeron processor or a 600MHz Pentium III processor, and comes standard with 64MB DRAM, with up to 512MB max. Five port Ethernet interface comes standard for those network intensive applications, and there is integrated video support, a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy, a 10GB hard drive, and a 200W power supply.

With the addition of the appropriate software, these building blocks can be transformed into a variety of servers such as a VPN gateway, Web cache server, firewall, and policy server.

Rave Systems AX1105
www.rave.com
800-966-RAVE
Rave Systems' 1U AX1105 features the highly integrated 64-bit UltraSPARC-IIe processor, allowing the system to deliver 500MHz performance in a 1U slim profile. Other features include dual Ethernet ports, one PCI slot, and a full complement of peripheral device interfaces such as EIDE, USB, serial, and parallel ports. Operating on Solaris, the Rave suggests that the platform is ideal for a host of networked applications, including applications for service providers and embedded systems.

Siliconrax-Sliger SRCX1140
www.siliconrax.com
800-700-8560
The SRCX1140 is a dual Intel Pentium III up to 1GHz, dual LAN, 1U rackmount server with four 25 degree angled 3.3V 168-pin DIMM sockets to hold up to 4GB PC100/PC133-registered SDRAM. The system has two Intel 82559 LAN controllers with 10/100Mbps data transfer rate per controller. Graphics are provided by ATI-Rage XL PCI VGA 4MB, and there is also dual channel Ultra160 LVD SCSI support. There is one 64-bit/66MHz 3.3V slot expansion available. Operating temperature is from 0º to 50º C, with a humidity of 5 to 95 percent at 40º C. The SRCX1140 supports Windows NT, 2000, and Linux.

Teknor DreamSpeed
www.teknor.com
800-387-4222
Teknor describes their 1U DreamSpeed platform as a configurable customized turnkey solution that provides the necessary speed, power, and scalability for today's global Internet infrastructure. DreamSpeed targets systems integrators and independent hardware/software vendors who supply dedicated Internet infrastructure solutions deployed in B2B e-commerce sites, portals, server farms, and ISP/ASP data centers.

DreamSpeed is built around a 500MHz Pentium III processor, with up to 1 GB SDRAM, and an AC 150W and 150W - 48VDC power supply. There is its front bezel access to one serial port and two 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet ports. Teknor also provides an option for either one IDE CompactFlash Disk or two 3.5" hard disk drives. Inside the unit are three PCI expansion slots for high scalability. DreamSpeed is compatible with several operating systems including Linux, Windows 95/98/NT 4.0/2000, and QNX.

Ziatech Ketris
www.ziatech.com
805-541-0488
Okay, what's an overview of a certain market segment without at least one exception to the general rule? Ziatech's Ketris platform provides a 0.5U server -- that's right, a server that fits in a half-rack unit. However, the server is clustered into either a 2U or 9U chassis, so however you look at it, you don't end up with a 1U solution. And if you let that stop you from considering this platform, you're focusing too much on semantics.

Ziatech describes Ketris as a comprehensive, CompactPCI-based, Internet provisioning solution for data centers. In fact, Ziatech claims that with the Ketris Deployment Manager you can transition from a raw server (out of the box) to a fully functional (running) server in less than 10 minutes. Ketris server farm chassis are equipped with redundant components such as N+1 power supplies, fans, and disk drives, and Ketris' various internal modules can be hot swapped quickly and painlessly. Ketris systems can also be configured as clusters for further redundancy.

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