What's needed, then, is a server setup that uses low-power chips but which is also 64-bit x86-compatible, and has clever chipset technology.

Well, . Silicon Valley startup SeaMicro announced an innovative server called the that features no fewer than 256 Atom N570 dual-core processors, each clocked at 1.66GHz, making for 850GHz of total computing power across 512 cores.

The Atom N570 chip was created for tablet computers but is 64-bit and contains virtualization extensions. That makes it surprisingly useful on the server. In theory, for example, the 256 processors in the SM10000-64 could be further subdivided into virtual machines for various tasks

Each chip runs as a separate server and SeaMicro's trick is to integrate the chips in a way that even Intel didn't envisage, adding-in things like load balancing and management software so that many of the chips can be worked together as a single computing unit.

Because it uses Atom chips, the SM10000-64 uses only a quarter of the power of an equivalent setup using traditional x86 server chips, such as Intel's Xeon line. Additionally, because Atom chips are designed for mobile phones and are therefore physically very small, the SM10000-64 server cabinet takes up just 10U of rack space and heat generation is significantly reduced.