Intel supports the new cheap blade server specification

Intel is expected to soon support the new blade server specification to help distributors save development costs and reduce the size of the entire system.

Developed by Server System Infrastructure (SSI), a new blade server specification was announced July 30 in Taipei, where the headquarters of many of the world's largest hardware manufacturers are located. Just like the current reference design, the new specification provides design guidelines for blade servers, specifying related features, such as board size and the types of connections used.

According to IDC, blade servers are currently the fastest growing segment of the server market. Blade server sales in 2005 increased 63.6%, and are expected to continue to grow at a rate of 38% each year until 2010.

However, the lack of standard design for blade servers has pushed the price of this product very high, leading to the fact that only large-scale corporations and data centers have enough financial capacity to use. This server system.

" Despite the rapid growth, the cost of the blade server is still very high, " said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel server platform. According to him, for the cost of designing a blade server and related components can amount to 12 million USD - a huge investment.

To reduce costs, the SSI specification searches for products available on the market, such as memory modules, rather than using special components.

Intel hopes the new specification will provide opportunities for small and medium businesses. In addition, Intel also expects many other chip makers to start manufacturing hardware products for blade servers.

It is expected that blade server products based on the new specification will appear on the market early next year, and will be mass-produced in 2008 when the new specification is finalized.