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During the 1990's servers have undergone a fundamental change in price/performance and functionality, just as PC's did in the 1980's. The rapid pace of server technology redefined the Intel architecture server from a desktop PCs deployed as servers to robust, purpose built, multiprocessing systems. To accommodate these changes manufacturers developed a new server chassis for each generation of technology. With each new chassis came a set of unique system elements that could share a common form factor. Instead each new server is designed from ground up since no server standards exist for system designers and industry suppliers. This process forces longer development cycles, greater R&D cost, and low re-use of prior design.
The Intel Server System Infrastructure (SSI) initiative will establish an open industry specification for two common elements of today's and tomorrow's server system infrastructures: power supplies and electronic bays. The latter term refers to the physical space in the server chassis allotted to the motherboard—including the microprocessor, memory, I/O and related chip sets for entry-level servers (in high-end servers, I/O functions are typically handled off the system motherboard).
For power supplies, the SSI specification will address such factors as physical dimensions, wattage range and electromechanical interface parameters. In the case of electronic bays, the spec will cover such parameters as size and space, cooling functions, and even physical mounting considerations.
In its final form the SSI specification will define two stacks of common server elements and a set of system design guides. One stack will contain a series of power supplies and the other a series of electronics bays addressing each segment of the IA server market, from entry-level products on up through advanced enterprise servers.
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- Common specifications for computing devices, systems and interfaces provide multiple benefits to end users.
- Reduced time span from technology advancement to commercial availability.
- Faster enterprise configuration and integration projects.
- Lower product cost as multiple manufacturers compete in an open market based on end user valued features and benefits.
- Reduced risk of adopting new technology when a wide range of suppliers support the same technology with common specifications.
- Improved product quality and reliability as manufacturers focus on product quality improvement and volume production.
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A common specification for server power supplies and electronics bays allows the server manufacturer to design or procure a server chassis with greater assurance of longevity across multiple generations of microprocessor technology. Chassis longevity will allow a system manufacturer to shift a portion of today's R&D budget toward greater value add efforts rather than repackaging existing technology.
An industry specification for electronics bays and power supplies increases the availability of vendors offering competitive products. A wider base of products to select from provides greater flexibility in a make vs. buy decision. A system manufacturer can choose to develop or procure a mix of chassis, boards and power supplies that all work together minimizing system integration time and expense.
Common power supply specifications allow the industry to achieve manufacturing efficiencies and quality improvements based on volume production. Common electronics bays allow chassis suppliers to create off the shelf products which will accept off the shelf power supplies and server electronics based on the SSI specifications.
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The SSI specifications offer power supply, chassis and server board suppliers a wider range of potential customers. Suppliers can develop products for broad industry application. This reduces the risk associated with development of custom products for specific customers. Time and cost expensed in repackaging technology to fit a customers unique format can be better spent on feature enhancement, quality improvement and manufacturing efficiencies. Suppliers can build their competitive market advantage based on volume production efficiencies of common server elements as compared to competition based on winning new custom designs.
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The SSI draft specification is available for industry review and comment via the web. From this site companies may view the latest draft, download contributor and adopter agreements and enter the controlled contributor comment site to offer recommendations for specification improvements. A signed contributor agreement is required to gain access to the contributor input section of the SSI web site.
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Release 0.6 of the draft specifications are available for industry review and comment. Release 0.7 of the draft specifications will be posted in May . Please bookmark the SSI web site to keep in touch with the specification as it develops over the next few months.
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Please return to this page and the SSI web site for more information and links to other web sites relating to the SSI initiative.
SSI Industry web site
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* Legal Information © 1998 Intel Corporation
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