Elmer - Here's another article on the Tualatin Servers from Compaq -
news.ft.com
Compaq-Intel compact server steals RLX's thunder
By Tom Foremski in San Francisco
Published: May 6 2001 10:10GMT | Last Updated: May 6 2001 17:21GMT
Compaq Computer and Intel will announce on Monday a very compact server system a day before rival RLX Technologies plans to introduce a similar product using Transmeta microprocessors.
The Compaq QuickBlade server is aimed at a rapidly growing market for "ultradense" servers. The QuickBlade is very thin and will use very low power consuming chips from Intel when it becomes commercially available in the second half of the year.
Ultradense servers are designed to allow customers to accommodate large numbers of the servers in data centres. They save money because customers typically rent space in web-hosting data centres by the cubic foot.
Ny using Intel's forthcoming low power consuming microprocessors, codenamed Tualatin, the QuickBlade server will use much less power than current servers. This is increasingly important because of the strain on local electric power supplies by data centres especially in California, which has been beset by power supply problems.
Mary McDowell, senior vice president of the Compaq industry standard server group, said: "We are announcing a new metric for server choice-transactions per watt per square foot."
The QuickBlade will be introduced at the Networld+Interop trade show in Las Vegas and will be mentioned in a keynote speech by Craig Barrett, chief executive of Intel.
It is Intel's first design win for its low power consuming microprocessors which are designed to compete against similar low power microprocessors from rival Transmeta.
Intel denied that the timing of the announcement was designed to steal the limelight from RLX Technologies, a startup headed by former senior executives from Compaq.
RLX has raised $58m and investors include IBM and George Soros, the billionaire financier. However, RLX has chosen Transmeta microprocessors for its ultradense server product.
Transmeta gained a lead on Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, with the introduction last year of PC compatible microprocessors for mobile computers that use much less power than comparable Intel chips. Transmeta's goal is to extend the battery life of portable computers.
But Intel will not concede this part of the market, even though it initially said its customers had not asked for low power consuming microprocessors.
In addition to mobile computer applications, low power consuming microprocessors have found an additional market in servers. These are used for a wide variety of web site hosting and e-business applications. |
