New startup using TMTA chips...could be very interesting:
Former Compaq Computer Corp. executives are staffing and
funding an Internet computer start-up that is building a novel,
ultra-compact business computer employing neither of the PC
industry's usual technologies.
The company, called RLX Technologies Inc., is expected to
announce Tuesday a management team that includes Compaq
co-founder Gary Stimac as its new chief executive, people
close to the company said.
Unlike Internet servers made by Compaq and Dell Computer
Corp., RLX's initial computers are being designed with
Transmeta Corp. chips, which because of their low power
consumption are used in laptop PCs, and a version of the
open-source Linux software, according to these people. A
spokesman for RLX declined to comment on the company or
its plans.
If successful, RLX could pose a challenge to Compaq and to
Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., which supply chips and
software used in most Web-site computers.
Robert W. Stearns, a venture capitalist at Sternhill Partners,
which has invested in RLX, called the executives "the folks
who invented what is now the PC server. They're about to
re-invent it."
RLX is one of several start-ups designing "ultra-dense" servers
to meet the economics of Web-site hosting. For companies
that house and manage thousands of computers for Internet
operations, such very small machines allow them to collect
more fees per square foot of computer room.
William Tai, another RLX investor and venture capitalist with
IVP Partners, Menlo Park, Calif., said the company aims to
deliver servers with "eight times the processing power per
cubic foot at one-quarter of the power consumption"
compared with current servers.
RLX, founded in 1999 as RocketLogix Inc., last summer
raised $12 million from wealthy individuals and
computer-industry luminaries, including Microsoft researcher
C. Gordon Bell and Compaq co-founder Rod Canion.
It has relocated its headquarters to The Woodlands, Texas,
near Compaq, and has received pledges for more than $40
million for a first-round of venture financing, according to Mr.
Tai.
Mary T. McDowell, senior vice president of Compaq's PC
server group, brushed off the challenge, noting Compaq sells
the majority of PC servers designed for vertical racks. It
continues to evaluate smaller designs, she said.
The market for very small Web servers isn't large but is
poised for rapid growth as more corporations turn to
Internet-service providers to house and operate servers.
Gartner Group Inc.'s Dataquest market-research arm projects
sales of such servers to reach $2.8 billion by 2004, up from
$420 million this year.
Mr. Stimac has recruited former Compaq managers involved
with its early hardware and software development. RLX also
hired a Compaq vice president who, until recently, oversaw
the Houston computer-maker's relationships with
Internet-service companies.
Many of his recruits come from the team that led Compaq
into the PC server market, a business it dominates even today.
Mr. Stimac left Compaq in 1996. RLX's new president is
Michael S. Swavely, a former Compaq marketing and sales
executive.
Messrs. Stimac and Swavely together sit on the boards of
TeleComputing Inc., a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., company that
provides online software, and small-business service provider
OfficeDomain Inc., Austin, Texas.
(Wall St Journal) |
