New Server: Compaq Drives Innovation with Industry's First Space-Saving, Full- Featured, High Performance Rack Server

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 10, 1998

Continuing to design products that address specific customer needs, Compaq Computer Corporation, the industry-standard server market share leader, Tuesday announced worldwide that it is shipping the first space-saving, full-featured, high-performance rack server -- the Compaq ProLiant 1850R. The Compaq ProLiant 1850R offers the latest technology, including a 400MHz Pentium II processor, along with enhanced expandability and serviceability, all in a small 3U (5.25 inch) form factor. The server's innovative design satisfies customer requirements for performance, functionality and serviceability even in space-constrained data center and remote site environments.

The ProLiant 1850R allows up to 14 servers to be housed in a standard rack occupying under 5 1/2 square feet of space to give Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other enterprise customers the power of up to 28 next-generation Pentium II processors for building robust, highly-available multi-server rack solutions.

"Customers are increasingly bringing industry-standard servers into space-conscious, data center environments," said Mary McDowell, Vice President and General Manager, Industry-Standard Server Division, Compaq Computer Corporation. "Compaq is addressing the growing customer requirement for rack server density by delivering innovative solutions for rack-mountable server flexibility and functionality. The ProLiant 1850R was designed based on feedback from these customers who require maximum performance and availability in a minimal amount of space without sacrificing high-availability features."

Complete Feature Set Gives Customers More Options The chassis of the ProLiant 1850R houses state-of-the-art components, such as the new 400MHz Pentium II processor, scaleable to dual processors; 100MHz registered SDRAM ECC DIMM memory - expandable to 1GB; a 100MHz GTL bus; an Integrated Dual Channel Wide Ultra SCSI-3 Controller; and a Compaq Netelligent 10/100 TX embedded UTP Network Controller. The hot-plug drives and hot-plug redundant power supplies provide maximum availability making this rack server ideal for both remote site and data center deployment. The server's chassis houses seven bays allowing customers to deploy the drive and backup devices they require, including DATs, SLRs and DLTs for their Web hosting, mail, file/print or small database applications without having to make any functionality tradeoffs. This revolutionary combination of features, performance and a space-saving form factor makes the new Compaq ProLiant 1850R the ideal rack server.

Fault Tolerance and Redundancy Features Minimize Downtime The breakthrough fault tolerance and redundancy features of the ProLiant 1850R, such as hot-plug drives and an optional redundant hot-plug power supply, work in conjunction with Compaq Insight Manager server management tools to minimize downtime and the need for on-site IT resources. For customers requiring even greater levels of availability, the ProLiant 1850R will be certified by Compaq and Microsoft to support Windows NT Clusters, which can be configured with both Fibre Channel storage systems and SCSI storage systems.

New Rack-Optimized Design Provides Enhanced Serviceability The ProLiant 1850R design utilizes the superior Compaq rack mounting scheme with sliding rails -- instead of space consuming rack shelves -- and provides tool-free, internal component access and cable management for easy, in-the-rack serviceability. All expansion cards, hot-plug drives and the optional hot-plug redundant power supply can be accessed and swapped without removing or even opening the server. The internal layout of the server allows tool-free, unobstructed access to all major components, such as processors, memory and processor power modules, for easy upgrade or replacement. This quick and easy serviceability increases the operational ease of maintaining the server and lowers the total cost of ownership of the server - particularly at remote locations that do not have on-site service technicians.

Compaq Solutions Turn Web Technology into a Business Advantage Compaq is currently the number one provider of Internet servers, intranet servers and firewall servers(1). Now, Compaq is building on its leadership in the Internet market by offering customers more flexibility and choice for successfully implementing their company's Internet and electronic commerce infrastructure. The new ProLiant 1850R is an ideal platform for Internet applications due to its space-saving design, advanced features and serviceability. As a result, the recently announced ProLiant Web Server, ProLiant Firewall Server and ProLiant E-Commerce Server solutions are all now available on the ProLiant 1850R platform.

Compaq ProLiant Web Servers comprise a family of tested industry-standard Web server solutions that eliminate the guesswork from establishing, managing and maximizing a website. These servers are ideally suited for use as enterprise Internet/intranet servers, remote office Web servers, and departmental Web servers, as well as for use as Web hosting servers by ISPs.