Lenovo deal gives ClearCube a boost

PC blade maker ClearCube gets major reseller deal

PC blade manufacturer ClearCube Technology scored a coup last week with the announcement that the third-largest PC company in the world will market and sell its blades.

The company’s blades will be marketed and sold by Lenovo, which was formed by the Lenovo Group’s acquisition of IBM’s PC business for $1.75 billion in May. Lenovo, China’s largest PC manufacturer, will sell ClearCube Blade PCs to U.S. customers, partners and distributors.

ClearCube, of Austin, Texas, has been making PC blades for the last seven years and dominates the market. HP is the only other company to have developed a bladed PC, one which is based on Transmeta’s low-power but underperforming Efficeon processor.

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PC blade manufacturer ClearCube Technology scored a coup last week with the announcement that the third-largest PC company in the world will market and sell its blades.

The company’s blades will be marketed and sold by Lenovo, which was formed by the Lenovo Group’s acquisition of IBM’s PC business for $1.75 billion in May. Lenovo, China’s largest PC manufacturer, will sell ClearCube Blade PCs to U.S. customers, partners and distributors.

ClearCube, of Austin, Texas, has been making PC blades for the last seven years and dominates the market. HP is the only other company to have developed a bladed PC, one which is based on Transmeta’s low-power but underperforming Efficeon processor.

ClearCube’s blades - consisting of an Intel CPU and other system components - are intended for data centers, where they can be serviced without interrupting desktop users. The blade communicates with a user port that sits on a desktop and connects to the user’s keyboard, monitor and mouse. Each PC Blade resides in a Cage or enclosure that can house as many as eight blades. The entire configuration is managed remotely from the ClearCube Management Suite. If a blade fails, it can be easily replaced without visiting the user’s desktop.

ClearCube was founded by CTO Barry Thornton in 1997 as Vicinity Systems. The company is funded by Austin Ventures, Sternhill Partners, Acer Ventures, SAIC Ventures and Techno Venture Management, Paladin Capital Group, GIC (Government of Singapore) and Wall Street Technology Partners (a division of Dresdner Kleinwort) for $57 million.

Among ClearCubes’ customers are the Oklahoma Heart Hospital, Northwest Memorial Physicians Group and NASA.

In addition to Lenovo, ClearCube’s blades are sold by IBM Global Services, Hitachi, Compucom and SAIC.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.