Question 1: What is Xserve (Cluster Node)?
Answer: The Xserve (Cluster Node) is a 1U rack-mounted server tailored for use in computational clusters and distributed applications.
Question 2: What market is the Xserve (Cluster Node) aimed at?
Answer: The Xserve (Cluster Node) is aimed at creative, higher education, and life science communities.
Question 3: What does clustering enable me to do?
Answer: You can save a great amount of time by dividing one large problem into smaller parts, which can then be computed simultaneously on clusters. Examples of large problems include looking for a specific gene sequence or 3D rendering.
Question 4: What are the differences between Xserve (Slot Load) and Xserve (Cluster Node)?
Answer: The following table outlines the major differences between the Xserve (Cluster Node) and the Xserve (Slot Load):
| Xserve (Cluster Node) | Xserve (Slot Load) |
| one hard drive bay | four hard drive bays |
| one gigabit Ethernet interface - on logic board only | two gigabit Ethernet interfaces - one on logic board, one on card installed in PCI/AGP slot |
| no graphics card | one ATI card, optional AGP 4x card |
| no optical drive | CD-ROM or Combo Drive |
| no connectivity to PCI/AGP slot | one half-length combination PCI/AGP slot |
| 10-user license of Mac OS X Server | Unlimited-Client Edition of Mac OS X Server |
Question 5: Can the Xserve (Cluster Node) be used as a server?
Answer: Yes, the Xserve (Cluster Node) can be used as a server. However, this configuration was specially optimized for computing cluster tasks and the differences between Xserve (Slot Load) and Xserve (Cluster Node) should be kept in mind.
Question 6: What is the hard drive capacity of the Xserve (Cluster Node)?
Answer: There is one hard drive bay that comes with a 60 GB Apple Drive Module (ADM). The 180 GB ADM can also be used in this server and can be purchased as a separate kit from Apple.
Question 7: Are Xserve (Cluster Node) Apple Drive Modules compatible with those in the Xserve and Xserve (Slot Load)?
Answer: Yes.
Question 8: Can the Xserve (Cluster Node) serve as a host to the Xserve RAID?
Answer: Yes. Apple does not offer the Apple Fibre Channel PCI card as a configurable option for the Xserve (Cluster Node), but the Fibre Channel PCI card can be purchased as a separate kit from Apple.
Question 9: What is the maximum memory capacity of the Xserve (Cluster Node)?
Answer: 2 GB of 333 MHz Double Data Rate (DDR) memory.
Question 10: What ports are available on the Xserve (Cluster Node)?
Answer: The back panel of the Xserve (Cluster Node) has two FireWire 800 ports, two USB 1.1 ports, and one DB-9 (RS-232) port. The front panel has one FireWire 400 port.
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