Customers may also pre-install other high performance components to the servers from the factory, including low latency network cards, high performance memory, and hot swappable front-facing PCIe SSD storage.

FORBES: Dell Accelerates Servers For High Frequency Algo Trading

The low-profile, half-length WarpDrive card plugs into a standard 8 lane PCIe Gen 2.0 server slot and is designed to deliver high performance with low latency and a low CPU burden independent of main memory size.

ENGADGET: LSI's WarpDrive SSD is a steal at $11,500

To further cut costs, Sony is also said to be considering a switch from the speedy Rambus XDR memory to more traditional DDR3 memory, which could apparently be tied directly to the processor to cut down on latency.

ENGADGET: Sony said to be hanging onto Cell processor for PlayStation 4

Ordinary databases and grid may be too slow, but ScaleOut Software stores data in memory on server farms or uses distributed caching on compute grids, to eliminate bottlenecks and reduce latency.

FORBES: Big Data Analyzed Fast In Memory -- For Finance, Online Dating, Home Shopping Network