Houston Hannah leaks Compaq server roadmap

BECAUSE THE HURRICANE was nearing, Compaq's Houston Hannah, a disillusioned member of the ISSG group at the outfit, had to dash off to display her ID at the usual below-the-belt regulation spot, but not before she spilled Capellas' beans on what the "industry standard" (Intel) group is up to.

There's some good news and some bad news but altogether there's a lot of news Hannah dished me, so please be patient while I consult the notes I scribbled on her business card using my eyeliner crayon.

Compaq Server - Roses...
We're going to see the C4000, Models 30, 40 and 50, but they'll last be built on the 30th of June this year.

The W Series will see the W2000 Model 30, and its last build will be on the 30 June. The same last build dates apply to the W2200 Model 20 and the W2200 Model 10.

The CL380, a 2P piece at 1GHz, will come to the end of its effective life on the same date too.

The DL380 will hit 1133MHz but won't be built after the 30th of June, while the 1266MHz G2 will survive until the 31st of August, and the 1400MHz G2, launched April time, will last beyond December of this year.

The same goes for the ML350 and the ML370, while the Tualatin based DL360 will cease its 1GHz existence at the end of April, and the 1266MHz Tualatin will take over to last until the end of August, at which time we'll see the very fine Tualatin 1.4GHz G2 and that will last beyond the end of the year. The DL320 gets to live beyond 2002 in a 1.13GHz incarnation.

Compaq Server - More Roses...
Hoorah, said Hannah. Now Intel has sorted out its Itanium "sighting" with Compaq servers, the DL590/64 lives. There will be McKinley based beasties but see my other story for that.

The DL580, which uses Intel "Cashcades" technology, at 900MHz and 700MHz also last until the end of this year - somewhat surprising given the Intel roadmaps the INQ published before.

The ML570 only lasts until the 30th of September.

Hannah was excited about the PL8500/DL760, which PCI solution also uses these chippies until the end of the year, and the PL800/ML750, which does the same.

Compaq... Thorns...
There is a supply difficulty with the 72GB 10K RMP U3 one inch disk drive. The drives are available but will be in shortage for the whole of this quarter. The 36GB 15K RPM one inchers are delayed but Compaq has some of those too. At the end of the year, Q discontinued all of its 9GB hard drives except for an SSB one which dies on the 30th of September.

Q reckons that its new PCI-X controller will launch this quarter, while its Smart Array cluster storage kit should be available some time this month.

At last, the 900MHz "Cashcade" is shipping. You will remember that Intel only admitted that there was a problem with this part after Magee rumbled it, and it first said they would ship in August. January 2002 is the oddest August we ever saw, we said to Hannah. She said.. there... were... issues....

You're gonna have to get your EDO 512MB and 1GB parts from Kingston if you need 'em because Q scrapped them late last year because of "lack of demand", said Hannah.

Compaq racks, cabinets, PSUs and NICs... Roses with ....Thorns
Compaq is happy to announce that its 42U and 22U 10000 racks are available and they've got a new colour scheme which matches Hannah's lipstick!

This month Q launches modular power distribution units, using parallel redundant UPSs with Skymaster configs. The software is delayed to include some technical fixes and the like. First half of this year some time.

Goodbye to the 164 PCI IBM Special Token Ring NICs - that's network interface cards to you and me. There isn't going to be an IBM replacement NIC now, while the NC3131 64 dual 10/100 and the NC3132 dual 10/100 have had their lives extended until the end of this quarter, god bless their cotton socks.

Compaq Racks.... Roses!
Come April we'll see the 10647 (47U) series as well as the 36U racks. Hooray! The 52U racks, the 22U racks will reach the end of their build life come December this year. µ