Compaq Computer Corp. and Intel Corp. Monday embarked on a partnership
targeting IT customers who seek low power consumption, and increased density
in their front-end servers.
Financial terms of the co-marketing and engineering deal were not revealed,
but the No. 2 computer maker will use the chipmaker’s ultra low-voltage
(ULV) processors (code-named Tualatin) as part of its pending hyper-dense
ProLiant server architecture (code named QuickBlade), slated for later this
year.
As has been the case industry-wide, the call for increased Net
infrastructure for scaling purposes has called additional servers into
action particularly for tasks such as streaming media, caching and the
ever-important firewall protection.
Accordingly, more servers mean more real estate and power costs (think of
the space and additional energy required for more servers). To combat this,
companies have been tapping hardware specialists to make server platforms
with improved density, cost per transaction and power usage requirements.
Compaq and Intel, with this agreement, would deign to answer the bell. The
firms will work to free up some floor space for their customers and increase
server performance, as well as reduce power consumption. Basically, the
hyper-dense, or ultra-sense servers, as they are often called, may be
stacked together to conserve room in data centers — that is what Compaq’s
pending QuickBlade line of servers is geared toward.
To date, Intel is the king in the dense server market, and most major
hardware makers, Compaq included, have chosen Intel’s chips over rivals
Transmeta and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). IBM Corp. and
Hewlett-Packard Co. have also been working on similar methods of
thinner-than-thou server racks.
“As companies require powerful racks of front-end servers that conserve
power consumption while increasing server density, Intel Architecture will
be able to meet these needs,” said Mike Fister, vice president and general
manager of Intel’s Enterprise Platform Group.
To be sure, the union of Intel and Compaq gives each company strength
against their enemies. While Intel’s place at the table of ultra-dense
servers seems all but reserved by hardware developers, Compaq is still
jousting with arch-rival Dell Computer Corp. for supremacy; Compaq lost the
No. 1 personal computer maker position to Dell during the first quarter of
2001.
And like Intel and AMD, the two titans are currently engaged in a price war.
Dell has said it will be merciless in managing costs and will consider more
layoffs to keep its current top spot and seize additional market share from
Compaq.
