Re: Server shipments [was Re: Minutes from Feb 21 LSE Call]

Gerhard Mack
2003-02-25T23:35:58Z

On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Larry McVoy wrote:

> Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 15:19:26 -0800
> From: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>
> To: Gerrit Huizenga <gh@us.ibm.com>
> Cc: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>, Martin J. Bligh <mbligh@aracnet.com>,
> linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: Re: Server shipments [was Re: Minutes from Feb 21 LSE Call]
>
> On Tue, Feb 25, 2003 at 02:02:28PM -0800, Gerrit Huizenga wrote:
> > On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 20:17:01 PST, Larry McVoy wrote:
> > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2003 at 08:11:21PM -0800, Martin J. Bligh wrote:
> > > > > What part of "all servers from all companies" did you not understand?
> > > >
> > > > Average price from Dell: $2495
> > > > Average price overall: $9347
> > > >
> > > > Conclusion ... Dell makes cheaper servers than average, presumably smaller.
> > >
> > > So how many CPUs do you think you get in a $9K server?
> >
> > Did the numbers track add-on prices, as opposed to base server? Most
> > servers are sold with one CPU and lots of extra slots. Need to dig
> > down to the add-on data to find upgrades to more CPUs and more memory
> > in the field (and more disk drives).
>
> I included the URL's so you could check for yourself but I arrived at
> those numbers by taking the world wide revenue associated with servers
> and dividing by the number of units shipped. I would expect that would
> include the add on stuff.
>
> I'm sure IBM makes money on their high end stuff but I'd suspect that
> it is more bragging rights than what keeps the lights on.
>
> I think the point which was missed in this whole thread is that even if
> IBM has fantastic margins today on big iron, it's unlikely to stay that
> way. The world is catching up. I can by a dual 1.8Ghz AMD box for
> about $1500. 4 ways are more, maybe $10K or so. So you have the cheapo
> white boxes coming at you from the low end.
>
> On the high end, go look at what customers want. They are mostly taking
> those big boxes and partitioning them. Sooner or later some bright boy
> is going to realize that they could put 4 4 way boxes in one rack and
> call it a 16 way box with 4 way partitioning "pre-installed".

er you mean like what racksaver.com does with their 2 dual CPU servers in
a box?

Gerhard

--
Gerhard Mack

gmack@innerfire.net

<>< As a computer I find your faith in technology amusing.