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To: hlpinout who wrote (88975)1/22/2001 7:02:29 AM
From: hlpinout  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 97611
 
January 22, 2001 12:00am

Thin rack servers gain momentum

By Ken Popovich eWEEK


Thin is in, as sales of slim, rack-mounted servers
continue to soar and competition for customers heats
up with two more major computer makers entering the
fray. In addition, a startup may shake up things later
this year when it introduces an ultracompact server
featuring a vertical "blade design."

While rack-mounted servers come in various sizes, the
most popular are the slimmest versions. Shaped like a
pizza box, so-called 1U servers are about 1.75 inches
thick and feature one or two chips.

Thin servers typically sell for $2,000 to $4,000 each. In
addition, companies can easily scale their computing
power to meet growing needs simply by adding servers.
By contrast, high-end servers can cost $1 million and
are often too expensive and powerful for smaller
companies.

Compaq Computer Corp., of Houston, is the leading
supplier of rack-mounted servers. Last week,
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. each
unveiled their first 1U servers. The NetServer LP 1000R
from HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., features dual Intel Corp.
Pentium III processors and starts at $3,799. Sun, also
of Palo Alto, introduced the Cobalt RaQ XTR, featuring
dual Pentium IIIs and starting at $4,799.

And the startup, RLX Technologies Inc., of Houston, is
not only offering an even slimmer form factor but also
reducing two key problems associated with rack
servers: heat and power consumption. Led by former
Compaq executives Gary Stimac and Michael Swavely,
RLX's newly designed thin server, code-named Razor,
will feature low-power processors from Transmeta
Corp., of Santa Clara, Calif. It's set to go on sale later
this year.