Apr 4, 2002 : Dell Releases New Modular Servers

📅 April 4, 2002 - Dell today unveiled its new servers, including a modular system that packages the performance of six servers in the space of one to simplify and lower the costs of enterprise computing for its customers.

The Dell PowerEdge 1655MC is comprised of high-performance server ?blades? to accommodate up to six servers with two Intel Pentium III processors in a single enclosure. Offering increased density and simplified server management, the new design is ideal for consolidation, thin client computing and high-performance clustering.
Dell introduced the PowerEdge 6600 and PowerEdge 6650 servers with Intel's Xeon multi-processors for applications requiring greater computing power, such as large database or on-line transaction processing. These are Dell's flagship tower and rack-optimized enterprise servers, designed for corporate data centers, with features for availability, system expansion and to accommodate large amounts of internal data storage.
Disclosing plans to broaden its line of modular PowerEdge systems with additional blade server designs, Dell based its systems on Intel's low-power processors that offer even greater levels of density for Web processing applications. The systems will also use next-generation brick servers, which will combine the flexibility of blades with the power of traditional enterprise servers. Designed for large-scale enterprise applications, these new modular systems will include emerging, industry-standard technologies, such as InfiniBand, for improved system performance.
Easing administrative and management tasks for customers, the PowerEdge 1655MC is distributed with hardware and software features. Each enclosure comes with an integrated Embedded Remote Access Module that monitors chassis and server blade status, providing remote power control and out-of-band management capabilities.
Dell's OpenManage software allows customers to simultaneously provision hundreds of servers from any location. The software also will be available for all traditional PowerEdge rack-dense and tower servers.
The Dell PowerEdge 6600 and PowerEdge 6650 servers support up to four Intel Xeon MP processors and include the ServerWorks Grand Champion HE (GC-HE) SystemI/O chipset. Offering local management features and advanced memory technologies, the new systems enable customers to quickly diagnose system issues locally and help ensure improved system uptime.
Expandable up to 876GB, the 7U PowerEdge 6600 offers 12 internal hard drives, providing a solution for collaborative and infrastructure computing, including applications such as on-line transaction processing, data warehousing, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and e-mail.
The 4U PowerEdge 6650 includes five internal hard drives for storage totaling 356GB and eight PCI-X/PCI slots, making the system ideal for customers who need to consolidate and centrally manage servers in Oracle Database, Microsoft Exchange, storage area network (SAN) and clustering environments.
?While some vendors have focused on niche applications and non-standard products, we believe that Dell's modular computing strategy is very focused on key customer requirements, with the features that integrate easily into existing environments,? said Mark Melenovsky, research manager for IDC.