By Michael Hall, LinuxToday
Transmeta’s Crusoe processor and Linux will be key to a group of
ex-Compaq executives’ plans to “redefine server economics” with a
high-efficiency server platform aimed at Internet data centers.
RLX Technologies
was unveiled in a teleconference today. Headed by former Compaq
Systems Division chief Gary Stimac, and former president of
Compaq’s North America operations Michael Snavely, the company has
yet to produce a prototype of the new platform, code-named “Razor”,
but they promise it will leverage Transmeta’s low power consumption
and heat output to provide a more cost-efficient server
platform.
In addition to the server hardware, Razor is also comprised of a
collection of management tools and applications. The company plans
to sell several different packages, ranging from “total solutions”
of hardware, tools, and applications to more economical collections
of software and drivers.
Stimac is undeterred by early reports that the Transmeta
processors are proving underpowered:
“We’re extremely pleased [with the Crusoe’s performance]”, he
said. “We believe they can very quickly enhance the megahertz of
the system, and we’re very pleased with Transmeta’s roadmap.”
Though the company plans to provide eventual support for a
variety of operating systems, Linux will lead the lineup. According
to Stimac, RLX plans to base which distribution is included with
the Razor platform by region. Red Hat will ship with North American
orders, Turbo Linux will ship with Asia/Pacific region orders, and
the company has yet to decide which distribution will ship with
European orders. In addition, he said the platform can be made to
work with organizations who prefer a distribution other than the
two the company’s announced support for.
The company is still working on a prototype of the full
hardware/software platform, but said alpha testing on the software
is nearing completion and that a beta release is expected shortly.
Though Linux will be supported at launch, Stimac said there’s no
set date for when Windows 2000 Server Edition support will be
finished, except to note that it should be available in the first
half of this year.
According to a press release, RLX Technologies’ executive team
has invested several million dollars of their own finances in the
company start-up. To date, the RLX executive team, angel and local
private institutional investors have invested approximately $19
million in the company, which is currently raising an additional
round of private financing.