With dual 1GHz PowerPC G4s, up to 2GB DDR SDRAM, two 64-bit 66MHz PCI slots (plus a third combination PCI/AGP slot), dual Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, USB and four Ultra ATA/100 Apple Drive Module bays, Apple’s best-in-class 1U configuration compares favorably not just with 1U competitors, but even with many 2U servers.

Mac OS X Server, the industrial-strength server operating system

Xserve comes with Mac OS X Server, the cutting-edge, UNIX-based server operating system that gives you such coveted features as protected memory, preemptive multitasking, symmetric multiprocessing, advanced memory management and the latest in networking technologies. At the core of Mac OS X Server is the industrial-strength open source foundation called Darwin. Based on the Mach 3.0 microkernel and BSD UNIX, Darwin is the rock-solid foundation that gives Mac OS X Server its remarkable performance and stability.

Out of the box support for Mac, Windows, UNIX and Linux clients

It doesn’t matter whether you have Mac, Windows, UNIX or Linux clients — or a combination thereof — on your network. 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.*

Remote hardware monitoring

Xserve also features Server Monitor, a remote monitoring application that lets you administer your servers — on a machine-by-machine basis, or hundreds of machines at a time — with an intuitive, easy-to-use Aqua interface. You can gauge everything from system temperature, blower operation, hard drive health and Ethernet status to the condition of your power supply. Red, yellow and green lights provide a quick visual summary of hardware health, and a tabbed window interface gives you one-click access to the details of each hardware subsystem.