Codethink, a Linux consulting company headquartered in the UK, has launched a new ARM-based server product called the Baserock Slab. Each individual node includes eight quad-core ARM CPUs. Two nodes can fit in a single 1U slot, for a total of 64 cores per rack unit.

The company says that it can fit up to 76 nodes in a full-size rack, for a total of 2,432 cores, without requiring specialized power or cooling infrastructure. The eight System on Module (SoM) boards in each Slab node use Marvell Armada XP ARMv7 chips clocked at 1.33GHz and have 2GB of RAM. The servers are compatible with Codethink’s own custom Linux environment and Debian. The company’s website says that support for additional distributions, including Ubuntu, will arrive soon.

ARM servers like the Baserock Slab offer high density computing with relatively low power consumption compared to conventional x86 servers. Codethink markets the Baserock Slab as an option for energy-efficient cloud computing, ARM build infrastructure, or server appliances. There are a number of products from other vendors that offer even higher density, such as HP’s Redstone server platform, which packs 288 quad-core Calxeda SoCs in a single 4U chassis.

Such configurations are potentially useful for handling certain kinds of heavily distributed workloads, but it’s still not clear whether they are truly cost-effective in common cloud usage scenarios.