Compaq Computer Corp, the second biggest personal-computer maker, yesterday introduced its slimmest-ever server computer to compete for sales of low-end systems.
Compaq ProLiant BI e-Class, or "blade server," is an ultra-thin machine that piles all of the chips and a hard drive onto one board the size of a long book, rather than current pizza-box-size models. That lets users put several servers into a smaller space.
"This is a quantum leap forward in terms of density savings in the data center, better power utilization and reduction of operational costs through new software tools," said Mary T. McDowell, Compaq's vice president in charge of industry standard servers.
The blade servers would compete against servers from International Business Machines Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc, said McDowell.
Hewlett-Packard Co, which is buying Compaq, in December introduced its own version of the "blade server."
The servers are used to manage Web pages and run security firewalls to bar unauthorized access. Compaq's smaller servers will allow 280 servers per a standard rack, compared to 42 servers that a rack typically handles. Compaq said the new servers are faster to replace or upgrade than previous versions.
The blade server is almost five inches high, about half of an inch wide and about 15 inches deep, spokeswoman Theresa Parenteau said. Compaq's DL360, a popular model, is about 1.7 inches high, 24 inches wide and 36 inches long.
The new machines include a single Intel Corp Ultra-Low Voltage Pentium II processor, up to 1 GB of ECC memory, 30 GB of disk storage and two 10/100 Ethernet connections.
Prices start at US$1,599 each and 10-packs can be purchased for US$15,191.
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