HP Seeks An Edge With First Blade ProductHP Seeks An Edge With First Blade Product

Hewlett-Packard Tuesday ushered in the latest wave in server architectures as it unveiled its new server-blade product--essentially an entire server resting on a single board. Other major server vendors, including Compaq and Dell Computer, are expected shortly to join the pursuit of a market that International Data Corp. values at $2.9 billion by 2005.

HP's Blade Server bc100 is powered by a new Intel subsystem that features a low-voltage Pentium III Tualatin processor and the 440 GX chipset, which can address up to 2 Gbytes of high-performance Error-Correcting Code memory. HP's server blades will initially run on Linux exclusively, but the company says Windows- and Unix-powered versions will be available in the first half of next year. Each blade can be combined with up to 36 other blades in a chassis that's sold separately. HP says the architecture is ideal for data-center environments with space and power-consumption issues. The chassis, with one blade, sells for $7,525. Additional blades are $1,925.

HP is the first major server vendor to unveil blade products, but that's not expected to give the company much of an edge in the market. "These are commodity products, so it's going to come down to how cheaply they can manufacture and sell these," says Technology Business Research analyst Brooks Gray. Gray notes that to date Dell is the proven master of low-cost manufacturing and distribution in the Intel-based PC and server market. Further complicating matters for HP is its pending merger with Compaq. Some IT buyers have said they're uncomfortable buying products from either HP or Compaq until the companies can provide a detailed, post-merger product roadmap.

IBM also looms as a competitor in the blade market, though not immediately. Tom Bradicich, IBM's director of server architectures, has said that IBM will forego the first generation of Intel-based blade servers in favor of more robust, future offerings. "We need to make sure everything is there in terms of power, reliability, and redundant features that people would expect in an IBM server," Bradicich said during an interview at the recent Comdex show. He says IBM will introduce a blade server labeled Xcaliber next fall. That's roughly when Intel plans to introduce a 900-MHz, dual-processor version of its Tualatin chip.