Fabric7 Enters Enterprise Server Market

Start-up Fabric7 Systems Inc. on Tuesday officially launched its entry into the business market with the introduction of two servers that will serve as the basis for what it calls its "fabric computing architecture."

The Q160 and Q80 servers use Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices and Fabric7's Q-Par technology to let customers create hardware-based partitions of servers that are designed to work with network management and storage devices to optimize network bandwidth, says Sharad Mehrotra, founder, president and chief executive.

The company is focusing on the "core of the datacenter," Mehrotra says, including mid-range to high-end computing, as well as the switching that connects the systems. The servers can be provisioned and managed using the company's Q-Visor management system.

The servers are designed to run Linux or Windows operating systems, and are targeted to directly compete with Unix and RISC-based equipment such as Sun's Sparc systems, IBM's Power systems, and Hewlett-Packard's Itanium systems, he says.

"Our intent is to take lessons that have been learned and found effective in other switched infrastructures and deploy them in IT shops," Mehrotra says. "We are looking to disrupt that market by driving those systems to industry-standard components in form of processors and operating systems."The Q160 and Q80 can operate up to 16-way servers. The Q160 can be configured with up to 128 gigabytes of memory and up to 30 gigabits per second external I/O. The Q80 can be configured with up to 128 gigabytes of memory, eight 133-MHz PCI-X slots, and eight 1 gigabit per second Ethernet RJ-45 ports. The Q160 is available now with a starting price of $144,000, and the Q80 will be available beginning in January with a starting price of $42,000.