Major news this week including the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series and Bromolow platform launch, Microsoft releasing a free iSCSI target for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Home Server 2011 moving to RTM status and being released to OEMs, TechNet and MSDN subscribers.
Intel Xeon E3 CPU and Bromolow Platform Launch
As has been discussed extensively on ServeTheHome, Intel this week launched its new Bromolow platform and Xeon E3-1200 series CPUs along flagship Xeon E7 ten core twenty thread monsters. The big highlights here are the additions of SATA III 6.0gbps ports and awesome power consumption figures. Here are the key ServeTheHome Intel Xeon E3 articles thus far:
- Intel Xeon E3-1220 Review
- Intel Xeon E3-1230 Review
- Intel Xeon E3-1240 Review
- Intel Xeon E3-1280 Review
- Tyan S5512 C204 Motherboard with onboard LSI SAS2008 Review
- Intel Bromolow C202, C204, and C206 Review
More coverage to follow in the coming weeks.
OCZ Launched the Vertex 3
This week OCZ launched the Vertex 3 based on the new Sandforce SF-2000 controller offering improved 4K IOPS over previous generations and sequential transfer speeds in excess of 500MB/s read and write. This is perhaps the most anticipated drive of the year. After additional firmware testing OCZ and Sandforce are finally launching their SF-2000 consumer drives which promise to be the hottest SSDs of the year.
Microsoft Provides a free iSCSI Target for Windows Server 2008 R2
This week, Microsoft launched their iSCSI target software for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions. This is a huge development for those users looking to run Windows based servers as storage servers. With Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 sitting atop traditional Windows Server platforms, it is great to see Microsoft open up the iSCSI target for free to these platforms. The free iSCSI target is well tested with Hyper-V and Microsoft iSCSI initiators making this an interesting option for Microsoft applications. One side note is that it appears that Hyper-V Server R2 cannot act as the iSCSI target, which is an unfortunate but understandable outcome.
Microsoft Releases Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Windows Home Server 2011 to RTM
A key milestone in Microsoft’s process bringing a new piece of software to the marketplace is the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) step. This is where a “final” version of the software is released to disc manufacturers so that media can be produced for launch. Alongside this, Microsoft generally adds new software to its MSDN and TechNet program subscription service so professionals can put final software into development and testing environments prior to the actual launch.
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