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IBM develops server deal with Fuji

Say cheese! Big Blue grabs a multimillion-dollar deal to sell Intel-based servers and computers for processing centers run by Fuji Photo Film USA.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
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Stephen Shankland
IBM has won a multimillion-dollar deal to sell Intel-based servers and computers that will act as the brains behind new film and digital image processing centers run by Fuji Photo Film USA.

The companies will announce Friday that IBM x220 servers running Microsoft's Windows 2000 are being installed in Fujifilm service centers. The centers combine allow customers process film as well as digital images, a burgeoning business.

Thousands of IBM servers will be used to run Fujifilm's Frontier Digital Lab, photo centers built into stores where prints are made from film as well as from digital images stored on floppy disks, CDs or flash memory cards. Also at the centers, customers can save images to a disk or upload images to a Web site. The servers then can connect to the store's own computer systems for billing purposes.

Retailers that are using or will use the Frontier labs include Costco, Eckerd Drugs, Longs Drugs, Meijers, Ritz Camera, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. Internet photo sites Shutterfly and Ritz.com also use the systems, Fuji said.

In addition, IBM NetVista PCs will be used in smaller-scale Aladdin Digital Photo Centers, which allow customers on their own to upload, manipulate and print digital photos.

IBM lags Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard in the market for Intel servers, but is fighting back with advanced designs and aggressive pricing.

One advantage Big Blue has over those competitors is its Global Services division, which is providing Fuji with hardware and system development.