IBM licenses skinny server designs
Big Blue says it will use Network Engines' super-thin servers in its own line of Intel-based servers.
- 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.
The servers, each only 1.75-inches thick, can be stacked very densely to
support high-powered Web sites. Those sites typically use lots of small,
inexpensive servers to cope with the burden imposed by the huge numbers of
Web surfers who can inundate a site.
The Network Engines technology will be used in IBM's Netfinity line of Intel-based servers, the companies said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
IBM is working on its own line of servers, code-named Pizzazz, that are designed to be stacked densely. However, those machines, due this fall, use IBM's Unix operating system and PowerPC chips and belong to the company's RS/6000 family.
Network Engines currently offers two thin servers, one for Embedded Windows NT operating system and the other for Red Hat Linux. Both use Intel Pentium II or Pentium III chips.
Network Engines, based in Randolph, Massachusetts, was founded in 1997.