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Job Ad Hints At Microsoft Move To ARM Servers
An anonymous reader passes along a brief EE Times note on a suggestive Microsoft job ad. ARM is explicitly mentioned, as are solid-state disk drives as an area of experimentation in the quest to reduce power consumption; but Intel does not get a mention. Here is the ad. "Microsoft is looking for senior software development engineer to help with its Bing data centers, potentially running them on ARM hardware, according to an EE Times article. Whoever gets the job 'can own the decision on the hardware that we use,' the job description said, and added that power management is a key aspect of the job. ... Microsoft was reportedly experimenting with the Intel Atom microprocessor in February 2009 with a view to creating a green low-power data center. One issue discussed then was the Atom microprocessor lacked performance compared with other Intel processors and that therefore any power saving might be negated by the need for more processors to carry a given computational load."
Given the number of people who can actually use bing and find stuff that is actually relevant you can probably run the servers on a couple of netbooks.
I randomly try to use bing to find stuff. I always get the wrong answer. I remember back when MSFT first switched windows live to bing you could search for Linux and get microsoft.com answers.
It has gotten better than that. but not nearly as much as MSFT wants you to believe.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I hope the reset button on the datacenter does not require a fine tip point to reach. :p
-Will P.
I'd like to see Apple ship an ARM-based Mac Mini server. That would come in handy for a couple of home-automation projects I'd like to do.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."