Intel Releases Low-Cost Clear Bay Server Platform

Intel has developed a white-box blade server based on standardized components, instead of specialized parts usually used to produce such systems.

Called Clear Bay, the server is based on the Server System Infrastructure Forum's Modular Server Specification announced last July.

The Modular Server Specification lays out standards for blade servers and, where possible, aims to use off-the-shelf components for connectors, power supplies and heat sinks. The aim is to bring down the cost of blade servers -- which are denser and generally easier to manage than rack-mount systems -- and make them available to a wider range of users, including small businesses.

Clear Bay is based on a 6U-high blade chassis that can support up to six two-way server nodes running dual-core or quad-core Xeon processors, 14 hard-disk drives, two storage-control modules, a management module and two Ethernet switch modules. The platform includes Intel's Multi-Flex Technology, a set of management and storage technologies. Among the technologies included are virtual storage mapping, integrated storage-area network, diagnostics, and single sign-on, among others.

Officially known as Intel Modular Server Products, the Clear Bay platform is intended to be assembled and sold by local manufacturers instead of top server vendors like IBM or Hewlett-Packard.

Pricing for servers based on the Clear Bay platform was not immediately available. But Intel expects pricing for Clear Bay servers to be roughly similar to rack-mount servers based on the same processor and configuration.