The Apple Xserve is a rackmount MacOS server featuring lightning-fast processing speeds with its 2 GHz G5 processor and 8GB of RAM. This allows users to maximize its vast storage capacity, which can reach up to 750GB internally. Plus, with the UNIX-based Mac OSX Server software, which comes with an unlimited number of licenses for multiple users, all this power is easy to manage. Along with these capabilities, the Xserve's thin design enables up to 42 units to be stored in a standard free-standing 19" rack.

• Ultra-High Bandwidth

Xserve G5 features the industry's fastest frontside bus to keep data moving in and out of the processor, and a superefficient point-to-point system controller allows data to move directly between all subsystems, without affecting the processor. Bandwidth is further optimized by a 400 MHz, 128-bit memory bus and a low-latency HyperTransport interface that connects the PCI-X controller and the I/O subsystems to the system controller.

• Heavy Metal

The Xserve cluster node configuration is ideal for High Performance Computing (HPC) in scientific and technical environments, as well as for workgroup clusters and render farms. The G5 processor's superscalar, superpipelined architecture supports up to 215 simultaneous in-flight instructions with a high-bandwidth execution core offering over 12 discrete functional units, including dual floating-point units and dual integer units, to process immense instructions in parallel and of course, with 64-bit precision on 64-bit wide data paths. And by subtracting the components better suited to server tasks, Xserve cluster node delivers the lowest price per gigaflop in the industry.

• Innovation Comes Standard

Each Xserve model features dual FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and an industry standard DB-9 serial port. You can expand the system using the latest 133MHz PCI-X expansion protocol with throughput of 1GB/sec. You can add one full-length card running at 133MHz or 2 short-form running at 100MHz. Blinking LEDs show you at a glance how your system is running. But when you're down the hall or halfway around the planet, Xserve's critically acclaimed monitoring and management tools let you keep your finger on the pulse of your network.

• Robust Server OS Without Per-User "Taxes"

Xserve G5 comes with Mac OS X Server, the UNIX-based server operating system that gives you a complete suite of standards-based network services. You can serve thousands of users--without spending thousands of additional dollars in licensing fees. Whether you have Mac, Windows, UNIX or Linux clients, or a combination thereof, Mac OS X Server provides cross-platform support for native file sharing, as well as Apache web server and WebDAV server, POP and IMAP mail, ftp, QuickTime Streaming Server, DNS and DHCP, right out of the box. Windows, UNIX and Linux are not treated any differently, and will enjoy benefits that Mac users take for granted.

• Keep Tabs on Your Operations

38 sensors in its enclosure make Xserve G5 the most instrumented server in its class. Embedded hardware sensors integrate with Apple's sophisticated Server Monitor software to check the condition of all critical subsystems, such as memory, fans, power supplies, and Ethernet links--and notify you if there's a problem.

• Networking

Dual onboard Gigabit Ethernet on an independent PCI bus eliminates network contentions with the I/O subsystems for throughput of up to 1000 Mbps per port. With the multi-homing feature of Mac OS X Server, Xserve G5 lets you serve more client systems, provide redundant links or support an isolated management network.

• High Density Server

Whether data center operations are located in San Francisco or Singapore, London or Lisbon, Tokyo or Toronto, the fact is that real estate costs eat up a significant portion of IT budgets. Given the cost of office space in metropolitan areas, density is the name of the game. That's why Apple packs the greatest possible amount of computational power into the smallest possible amount of space.

• UNIX power With Apple Ease Of Use

Mac OS X Server gives you a UNIX foundation for implementing open source and third-party clustering solutions as well as for using familiar UNIX utilities, shells, scripting languages and compilers to build specialized software for their work. Mac OS X Server provides you with a full suite of developer tools, including the gcc command-line compiler and Xcode, a powerful and easy to use development environment for creating Mac OS X applications, tools, frameworks, libraries, plug-ins, kernel extensions and device drivers in C, C++, Objective-C or Java. You can make a graphical interface for a command line application using Xcode and AppleScript in just a few hours.

• Crunching the Numbers

When you do the math on cost, Xserve G5 simply has no competition. At $361 per gigaflop, Xserve G5 offers you the biggest bang for your buck, so you can model everything from the expanding universe to the human genome. Add even more systems for the same price you'd get from IBM or Dell, and you're on the way to supercomputing stardom.