UPDATED: IBM and Intel go public with design specs of the BladeCenter platform

By Steve Malone

Posted on 3 Sep 2004 at 13:32

IBM and Intel have announced that they are to open up the design specifications of their BladeCenter platform. The partners say that the publishing of the specs is intended to enable third parties to design and build compatible kit and grow the market.

A Blade Server consists of a motherboard with single or multiple processors, memory, a network connection and sometimes storage. These ultra-thin devices are intended for use by large computing centres where space is at a premium.

Companies which base their designs on the BladeCenter platform will not have to pay any royalties or license any patents. The only charges the partners will make is if manufacturers need the assistance of their engineers.

IBM is already the market leader in servers according to a recent report by Gartner with BladeCenter taking an increasing share of that market. The recent IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for Q2 2004 gave IBM 38 per cent of the blade market.

IBM and Intel hope that by publishing the design specs on a royalty-free basis it will create an explosion in innovation for the design similar to that of the original IBM PC over twenty years ago.

IBM denies that it has given away the farm by publishing the specs. A spokesman told us, `The announcement relates to the opening of the design specification for the blades and blade switches and other plug-in devices within the chassis. In order to ensure a stable compatible platform, we need to control the management module and chassis design specifications, so IBM did not release the design specification for the BladeCenter chassis.'

The specs and other information about the open BladeCenter design are on IBM web site.