AUTOMOTIVE

Comprised of high-performance server "blades" designed by Dell, the PowerEdge(tm) 1655MC accommodates up to six servers with two Intel(R) Pentium(R) III processors in a single enclosure. This design -- the first in Dell's new modular server line -- offers dramatically increased density and simplified server management making it ideal for server consolidation, thin client computing and high-performance clustering. For applications requiring greater computing power, such as large database or on-line transaction processing, Dell introduced the PowerEdge 6600 and PowerEdge 6650 servers with Intel's Xeon(tm) multi-processors. These are Dell's flagship tower and rack-optimized enterprise servers, designed for corporate data centers, with advanced features for availability, system expansion and to accommodate large amounts of internal data storage. Dell also disclosed plans to broaden its line of modular PowerEdge systems with additional "blade" server designs based on Intel's low-power processors that offer even greater levels of density for Web processing applications, as well as next-generation "brick" servers, which will combine the flexibility of blades with the power of traditional enterprise servers. These new modular systems are designed for large-scale enterprise applications and will include emerging industry-standard technologies, such as InfiniBand, for improved system performance. "While some vendors have focused on niche applications and non-standard products, we believe that Dell's modular computing strategy is very focused on key customer requirements, with the features that integrate easily into existing environments," said Mark Melenovsky, research manager for IDC. "Dell's strategy for blades and bricks is one of the leading industry solutions that addresses market demand for a more cost-effective and modular infrastructure." High Performance and Density: PowerEdge Blades The PowerEdge 1655MC is a 3U (5.25 inches) enclosure featuring hot-plug, redundant power supplies and cooling fans, an integrated management card and redundant Ethernet switches. PowerEdge server blades lower hardware acquisition costs relative to traditional servers, while further reducing costs for power and cooling. Due to their modular design and shared resources, server blades reduce rack space requirements by as much as 50 percent and cabling by more than 80 percent. Product specifications for each server blade includes: -- Up to two 1.26GHz Intel(tm) Pentium(tm) III processors with 133MHz front side bus -- ServerWorks' ServerSet LE Chipset with a 64-bit/66MHz PCI bus -- Two SCSI hard disk drives with integrated hardware-based RAID chips -- Up to 2GB of memory -- Two embedded 10/100/1000GB network interface cards The PowerEdge 1655MC comes with hardware and software features to help ease administrative and management tasks for customers. Each enclosure comes with an integrated Embedded Remote Access Module that monitors chassis and server blade status, providing remote power control and out-of-band management capabilities. Dell's system deployment and management software gives customers the flexibility of installing software locally through a USB connection or remotely with Dell's OpenManage(tm) software, also announced today. Dell's OpenManage software allows customers to simultaneously provision hundreds of servers from any location. The software also will be available for all traditional PowerEdge rack-dense and tower servers. High Performance Xeon MP The Dell PowerEdge 6600 and PowerEdge 6650 servers support up to four Intel Xeon MP processors and include the ServerWorks(tm) Grand Champion HE (GC-HE) SystemI/O(tm) chipset. These new systems offer local management features and advanced memory technologies that enable customers to quickly diagnose system issues locally and help ensure improved system uptime. The 7U (12.25 inches) PowerEdge 6600 offers 12 internal hard drives for maximum expandability up to 876GB. The server provides a high performance solution for collaborative and infrastructure computing, including applications such as on-line transaction processing, data warehousing, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and e-mail. The 4U (7 inches) PowerEdge 6650 includes five internal hard drives for storage totaling 356GB and eight PCI-X/PCI slots, making the system ideal for customers who need to consolidate and centrally manage servers in Oracle Database, Microsoft Exchange, storage area network (SAN) and clustering environments. High Performance and Modularity: PowerEdge Bricks Dell's PowerEdge brick servers will offer increased density and scalability for high-end applications such as database computing, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning. These servers will be designed to provide customers with the flexibility to build a server with the exact levels of I/O, processing and storage requirements for their particular environment. "Dell has long been a leader in industry-standard enterprise servers, but today we have taken a major leap forward in the enterprise platforms we offer customers for server consolidation, e-mail infrastructure and database applications," said Randy Groves, vice president of Dell's Enterprise Systems Group. "As we deliver these innovative systems for customers, we will continue to distinguish Dell from the competition through an unwavering focus on simplifying and lowering the cost of enterprise computing." For more information visit www.dell.com/poweredge.