Eight-way Servers Coming Intel buyout aims it deeper into SMP business By Rick Boyd-Merrit, EETimes Irvine, Calif. -- Intel Corp. signaled its intention to push deeper into the territory of symmetric-multiprocessing servers with last week's acquisition of Corollary Inc., a longtime designer of SMP chip sets and boards for the X86. Together, the two are expected to craft a new generation of eight-way SMP servers based on an upcoming high-end version of Intel's Deschutes processor (a.ka. Pentium II). The deal casts a cloud over a handful of system manufacturers rolling out eight-way Pentium Pro systems based on their own designs. "The demand for our four-way Pentium Pro server is increasing dramatically," said Kevin Soelberg, marketing manager for high-end systems in Intel's Enterprise Server Division, which supplies systems, motherboards and silicon. "By applying Intel's volume manufacturing technology to eight-way systems, we can bring that class of systems to a much broader, price-oriented market." Under the agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, Corollary will continue to operate here as a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, with Corollary president George White reporting to Dave Cowan, general manager of high-end systems in the Enterprise Server Division. The company will be responsible for design of its eight-way Profusion chip set and a reference system based on it. The acquisition is expected to shift the focus of business for Corollary, which typically sold reference designs that large OEMs reworked to suit their own systems. Now Intel's server group in Dupont, Wash., is expected to start manufacturing server motherboards and systems using the Corollary chip sets. "I think almost all the customers will be for board-level products," said White. Intel is also expected to act as a sales agent, promoting systems and boards to a broad group of large and small OEMs who previously lacked the resources to field such products. The merger comes as Corollary struggles to get its Profusion chip set into production. The set, which has been delayed about three quarters, would make possible eight-way systems based on the existing 200-MHz Pentium Pro. Only one of two Profusion chips is ready, raising a strong possibility that Corollary will shift to a design targeted at the first Deschutes processor that will support eight-way SMP. That part is not expected until the middle of next year. White said Corollary will finish the Profusion design for the Pentium Pro but has not decided whether to market it. It could have a Deschutes-class chip set ready by the third quarter of next year. "We just have to crank up the clock on Profusion to support Deschutes," said White. That delay may provide some respite for a handful of system makers who are just now shipping their own high-end SMP servers based on the Pentium Pro. NEC and Mitsubishi are selling eight-way Pentium Pro servers in Japan. In the United States, Hyundai's Axil subsidiary is shipping one, and Unisys is shipping a 10-way Pentium Pro server. NCR Corp. is expected to bring an eight-way Pentium Pro server to market later this fall. (Next article) (c) 1997 CMP Media, Inc [This article comes from EE Times in a joint cooperative effort with the Motley Fool. For more articles like it, please look at Fool's Gold every weekend or simply go to the Fool's Gold Mine and page through our back issues, which all have clever and cool EE Times articles in them.]

© Copyright 1995-2000, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. The Motley Fool is a registered trademark and the "Fool" logo is a trademark of The Motley Fool, Inc. Contact Us

..

..

..

..

..

..

..

..