Intel and Compaq team on low power chips and servers

Compaq has announced plans to work with Intel to produce power-friendly servers using low-voltage processors.

Compaq's upcoming QuickBlade hyperdense server architecture for its ProLiant server line will incorporate Intel's low-voltage processor, codenamed Tualatin, the hardware company today announced at the N+I trade show in Las Vegas. The vendor considers hyperdense servers to be those smaller than one rack-unit (1.75-inches) tall, allowing more systems to fit on a server rack.

The Tualatin-powered ProLiants are slated to appear by year-end and Compaq will pitch them as general-purpose servers, said Sally Stevens, the vendor's director of marketing for density-optimized servers. Between then and now, Compaq will work with data centers to help them plan for an environment suitable for denser server farms.

"They're beginning to plan for their new data centers," she said. "Some are ready ... and some need to re-evaluate."

Costs for maintaining banks of servers have grown due to increased Internet use by corporations and rising energy costs. The ability to increase the number of servers fitted in the same space is being viewed as a way to cut costs for air conditioning and server-room real estate.

Thinner servers in denser racks work on the contingency of lower energy consumption per server. Lots of servers with standard microprocessors in a small space will heat up quickly, introducing processing errors and equipment failures. Transmeta has been aggressively marketing the value of its low-voltage consumption Crusoe chip for servers.

Crusoe debuted as a processor for notebook computers, and Intel counterpunched with mobile Pentium III chips using its SpeedStep power management technology. Intel's Tualatin chip design uses a 0.13-micron architecture and is scheduled to arrive in the second half of this year.

Compaq, in Houston, can be reached www.compaq.com. Intel, in Santa Clara, can be reached at www.intel.com.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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