Hewlett-Packard Seeks Slice Of Rising Server Blade Market New Products Set To Debut Makers target companies that want a low-cost way to buy powerful machines.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: MURRAY COLEMAN

With or without a megamerger on its books, Hewlett-Packard Corp. is moving to capture more of the $50 billion-plus server market.

The printer and computer making giant is expected Tuesday to step into the crowded blade server field. That could turn into a major tactical turn for HP, say analysts, since such hardware is a sliver of the size of most servers.

"Electronics have been shrinking for years," said Lin Nease, HP's chief technologist for servers. "Blades represent a new way of incorporating those advances into server lines."

Normal servers contain tens to hundreds of microprocessors, which act like a computer's brains. Also included are other chips and tools. These big boxes, as they're often called, take up a lot of space.

Blades use smaller chip sets. "It's like a complete system on a PC board, but even smaller," said Brian Cox, HP's worldwide product manager for entry-level servers.

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