A dramatic slowdown in the worldwide server market is forcing server vendors to innovate more rapidly and build new uses for servers in a bid to kick-start the stagnating industry.
Intel and its Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) partners are betting that new system designs that would result in low-power, high-performance servers based on its Blade architecture will help rejuvenate the stagnating server market and boost enterprise server sales next year.
The new component design from Intel will allow computer makers to build super-slim, energy-saving server 'blades' that slide into specially configured racks.
Intel is combining a low-voltage Pentium III processor with its 440GX chipset to create a subsystem.
A blade is essentially an entire server resting on a single board, and it can be combined with other boards in a holding rack to create a more powerful system.
The current spending pullback ultimately will end, Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich wrote in a report on blade servers.
