Microsoft researching the use of low-powered processors in server farms, such as Intel’s Atom processor, which was designed predominately for the thriving netbook market, but is popping up in home servers from Tranquil PC, Acer and others.

Though slow compared with state-of-the-art multicore server CPUs, Atom processors draw less electricity to run and cool them, as little as one-twentieth of the energy required by conventional server processors, according to Jim Larus, who shows a prototype server rack holding 50 Atom systems in the video below, which, because of the low heat generated by the Atom, doesn't require a powerful fan for cooling the rack, though there are still fans for each individual Atom CPU.

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