Well, the backplane issue is actually a non-starter - whoever wrote this = article doesn't know what they're talking about. On all of the major = blade vendors' designs, the backplane is a passive wire-management = system. That is, all of the blades have copper traces for every = ethernet, fibre channel, etc. on the backplane, that are brought back to = either a breakout panel or a switch). Based on that, there's no way that the backplane could be a performance = limitation - as its physically and electrically identical to a wire = running out the back of a 1U server. =20 Incidentally, that complaint is more valid about egenera - as they do = actually have a shared high performance backplane based on VI = technology, from which they create software-emulated ethernet and fibre = channel connections. Their backplane could theoretically be a = limitation, but I would argue they're not blade servers in the sense = that's being discussed here As far as the power/heat issue, yes the BTU/sq. ft. issue is a valid = one, but the fans/blowers that come in most of the blade servers these = days are a sight to behold. Our lab, which has a number of IBM = bladecenters running in it, is in fact, very cool, and requires no = special cooling or ventilation (in fact, some of the chassis do not have = the necessary back depth recommended by IBM, and run fine regardless - = their fans just run slightly faster than the others). Thanks, Matt -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jared.Still@xxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 1:55 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Blade Servers <snip> You're right, they are hot. We've not used them here, but I've read=20 comments by those that have. They generate a *lot* of heat. Make sure your data center can deal with it. They also share a backplane. Here's a good link detailing some issues. http://technologyreports.net/enterpriseinnovator/?articleID=3D1891 <snip> ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------