News
Intel Unveils Low-Power Chip for 2-Way Blades
- By Scott Bekker
- March 22, 2002
Intel Corp. this week revealed a low-power processor capable of being used in dual-processor blade servers for rack-dense server farms.
The processors are the Low Voltage Intel Pentium III processors at 800 MHz. They contain 512 KB of L2 cache and support 133 SDRAM memory and a 133-MHz system bus.
Dell Computer Corp., Fujitsu-Siemens and other OEMs are developing servers based on the processors for release later this year, according to Intel. The 2-way motherboards will be produced by third-party companies.
Low-power server processors achieved a high-profile last year when California experienced protracted power supply problems. Transmeta was among the earliest chipmakers to stake a claim in the low-power market, but primarily as a laptop chip provider.
The potential for savings on power and cooling is essential in some of the same environments that require servers to be dense -- such as Internet Service Providers and other Web hosting companies.
Intel positions the systems as optimal for applications that require extended life-cycle support in environments requiring thermally sensitive processors.
Specific applications for the processors and third-party boards include security, storage, telephony and wireless applications.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.