Today (November 1), HP is expected to announce its first Itanium-based blade server, capable of running HP-UX Unix, as well as versions of Linux and Microsoft Windows.
Currently, HP is the second-largest vendor of blade servers after IBM. However, there are key differences between the product lines of these two companies. IBM’s blade servers, which utilize Power chips, can run IBM’s proprietary Unix operating system, AIX, whereas HP’s products do not support their own operating system. This discrepancy will be addressed with the new HP blade server version, which is equipped with Intel’s Itanium chip.
Most blade servers use x86 processors, such as Intel’s Xeon and AMD’s Opteron. Major companies like IBM, HP, Dell, and Sun Microsystems also utilize these chip versions. Specifically, Dell employs Xeon, while Sun Microsystems will use Opteron for their blade server versions in the coming months.
According to previous plans, HP’s blade servers employing the Intel Itanium chip were expected to debut around mid-year. However, this timeline has not materialized as anticipated. It’s also known that Intel’s new dual-core Itanium chip (codenamed “Montecito“) has been delayed until mid-2006.
VH – (C.Net)
