HP sharpens thinner blades push

Hewlett-Packard will today announce a new, thinner blade server that will enable customers to stack twice as many of the dual-processor machines into the same space.

The BL30p server is scheduled to ship by the end of June and will cost less than the current dual-processor BL20p, according to HP, though both systems use Intel's new "Prestonia" generation of the Xeon processor.

As many as 16 of the BL30p systems fit into an enclosure 10.5 inches tall. By comparison, IBM's market-leading BladeCenter can accommodate 14 dual-processor servers in a chassis 12.25 inches tall.

Blade servers slide side-by-side into a chassis like books into a bookshelf. The chassis includes components such as power supplies and external network connections all the blades share. HP and IBM are duking it out for top billing in the blade server market, with Dell and Sun Microsystems trailing.

In 2003, IBM was the top blade server seller, with $202m in revenue to HP's $179m, but IBM has begun making gains, according to market researcher IDC. Big Blue took the blade market lead from HP in the third quarter.

Ultimately, many expect blade servers to take over much of the market for today's stand-alone servers. However, one person not yet convinced is Robert Marsh, CEO and "head surfer" of website hosting company EV1Servers.net, who said blades are too expensive to buy today.

"We did take a look at blades, but by and large, the cost related to deployment of blades far surpasses any savings you might gain in space, power or cooling," Marsh said. "They might be a solution for high-end, managed computing, but for the lower-end, entry-level, self-managed products, it did not look compelling."

Marsh isn't a customer to be trifled with: EV1Servers.net has about 20,000 servers today, and, as part of a data center expansion, just purchased 3,500 new Dell dual-processor servers for shipment in 75 tractor-trailer loads.

HP, the overall leader in the market for x86 servers using chips such as Intel's Xeon or Advanced Micro devices' Opteron, plans future blades as well. The company said it will ship blades using Intel's upcoming "Nocona" version of Xeon, when that chip becomes available, an event scheduled for the second quarter of 2004. And HP plans to ship Opteron-based blades in the third quarter, executives said in February.

Nocona will be Intel's first x86 chip to include 64-bit extensions such as those already found in Opteron, extensions that get around the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit chips.

Blade servers today are bolted into racks, but they aren't suited for all customers. Many small and midsize companies buy stand-alone servers that need more storage capacity but not as much processing power. For these customers, HP sells its ML100 family.

Stephen Shankland writes for CNET News.com