Augmentix unveils servers

Server start-up Augmentix is introducing business-critical servers that are highly reliable and manageable.

The company says its systems are designed for communications, industrial automation, medical, military and government markets. Augmentix’s servers consist of Dell PowerEdge systems that have been modified to withstand harsh environments.

Augmentix repackages servers for operation in high-temperature environments or where shock and vibration take place. The company rebuilds the servers to fit into 24-inch deep racks and makes them NEBS- and ETSI-compliant. The Network Equipment Building System is a set of criteria for components such as electrical systems and airflow that are required by service providers and telecommunications carriers. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is a nonprofit organization that produces telecommunications standards.

Augmentix supplies hardware and software for remote management and maintenance. Its A+HPI management software uses the Service Availability Forum Hardware Platform Interface (HPI), a specification for highly reliable infrastructure products.

An additional adapter – called A+SAMP, or Server Availability Management Processor – provides out-of-band management and monitoring even when the server is powered down.

The company’s A+1750 Server is 2U high and fits in a 20-inch-deep rack. It has two 3.2-GHz Intel Xeon processors that use HyperThreading technology. Each server has up to 8G bytes of RAM and an embedded dual-channel Ultra 320 SCSI controller. Two 133-MHz PCI-X slots on separate PCI buses are also included.

The A+1750 also has redundant AC or DC hot-swappable power supplies, fans and disk drives. It has 1M byte of Level 2 cache and dual embedded Gigabit Ethernet adapters.

The Houston start-up recently announced funding of $3 million led by Austin Ventures. Many of the founders of the company came from Radisys, a manufacturer of blade servers and embedded computers.

The server and A+SAMP adapter are expected to be available this quarter. Because the products are not yet shipping, they have not been priced yet.