In an effort to boost its Netfinity line of Intel-based
servers, IBM has committed $80 million to a multi-year effort to help Microsoft
beef up the next version of Windows NT with high-end server features. Part of an
IBM plan called "X-architecture", the effort will focus on writing drivers
and other operating system components which will allow Windows 2000 systems to swap
out defective memory, hard disks, and even CPUs without shutting down.
Initially, the developed drivers and patches will ship with its servers, but eventually
IBM hopes to have the features ship with Windows itself. The ability to add or remove
devices plugged into a server's Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots is
in the current beta version of Windows 2000.
The new technology will be developed at IBM's Kirkland Programming Center, a short
5 miles from Microsoft. The Center has been renamed the "Center for Microsoft
Technologies".
The X Architecture technology is being adopted from IBM's more sophisticated computers.
Other features expected as a result of this effort are clustering, 8-processor systems
based on Intel's forthcoming 64-bit chips, special connections to high-end IBM servers,
a "light path" system that automatically directs troubleshooters to faulty
equipment with a chain of lights, and the MoST (Mobile Service Terminal) Connect
system of diagnosing an ailing machine by plugging a diagnostic computer into a
special port.
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