[mac-at-kearsarge]

I noticed that with the annoucement of the Intel X-Serves, there was no mention of whether or not there would be a cluster node model too. I would assume there would be considering how X-Serves are used in the science/research areas that require processing power.

Also, can it be assumed that despite the lower power consumption of the new Intel chips, they still put out a fair amount of heat? To me that would explain the retaining of the cheese grater design from the G5 tower and the big air intakes of the G5 X-Serves. I ask because I would have thought that without the massive heat, they could have put the Intel X-Serve back to a four drive setup like on the original X-Serve.

[Simon]

Currently Apple does not seem interested in offering Intel cluster nodes. This certainly makes some sense since you can fully configure the Xserves so you can chose a minimum HDD configuration for use a cluster node. Of course you can't get rid of the optical or the video that way though.

There were some rumors that they would introduce an Intel cluster node.
Apple retiring PowerPC-based Xserve Cluster system | CNET News.com

The story was quickly pulled though:
MacNN | Apple not planning cluster node Xserve