Intel Corporation is shipping its first carrier-grade server ‘building block’ products that conform to stringent reliability requirements as defined by the Network Equipment Building Specification (NEBS) and European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI). The first shipment will be in a 2U-sized dual processor server and the second will be a 1U, dual-processor form factor.
General Manager Intel, Middle East and North Africa, Gilbert Lacroix said “These systems are highly appropriate for this region as they are able to give guaranteed performance in extreme heat and excessive humidity in addition to other factors such as extreme cold, earthquakes, fires, and lightning. These specific requirements include the ability to operate on DC power, provide a deep chassis of less than 20 inches to fit in standard telecom carrier racks, a flexible telecom alarm system compatible with conventional telecom environments and extended life cycle support.”
A number of computer Original Equipment Manufacturers and Telephone Equipment Manufacturers will start shipping systems based on these new platforms in the first quarter of 2002. The new product family will initially include Intel Pentium III processors with a choice of operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Unix. Carrier-grade servers based on the Intel Xeon and Itanium processor families are expected in the future.
These Intel-based systems will power core telecom, wireless and communication infrastructures for use in high-speed, high-traffic networks used by the carriers, telecom service providers and large corporations. The platforms will run a wide range of wire line and wireless applications, such as software-enabled switches or ‘soft switches’, used to bridge the telephone network and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Unified Messaging Services, which handle voice, fax, and regular text messages as objects in a single mailbox that a user can access via email client or by telephone, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, providing advanced encrypting and decrypting technologies to companies allowing secure sharing of public telecom resources for data transmission such as voice mail.
Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
