by Rainer Mauth
The future direction of the x86 platform will probably be decided in 1998, and CeBIT 98 will be a good place to see what this year will bring in PCs, servers, and workstations. Look for systems that support power management according to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification, include 3-D graphics boards based on the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), and can play back MPEG-2 video from digital versatile disc (DVD) drives.
Better manageability and reduced costs are key issues in the design of new systems. For example, new PC designs will feature a sleep mode with a power consumption of less than 5 W and start-up times of just a few seconds. This enables a machine to resume instantly from sleep mode and, for example, receive faxes 24 hours a day. In a corporate environment, it permits system administrators to remotely wake up machines for administration purposes.
Some vendors will show PCs equipped with prototypes of the Device Bay, which enables you to add and upgrade peripheral devices without opening the chassis and without turning off or rebooting the PC. Device Bays also permit you to easily swap peripheral devices between platforms. This, of course, requires standards for the connector receptacle, bus interface, mechanical form factor, and controller logic. As defined by Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft, Device Bay devices must use one or both of the extensible bus interfaces: IEEE 1394 or universal serial bus (USB). But because the industry hasn't completely settled on either the IEEE 1394 or the USB standard, PCs equipped with Device Bays will not be commercially available before late 1998 or early 1999.
Siemens Nixdorf's innovative MultiMedia Integration Box (MIB) connects to a standard TV and converts digital signals into analog signals. For the first time, all interactive and digital services can be received and viewed on a conventional TV. The MIB, which h
as a built-in smartcard reader, can also be used as a platform for electronic commerce and videoconferencing.
The European consumer PC market may see a price dumping in 1998 similar to the one that occurred in the U.S. last year. Asian PC manufacturers are expected to play a major role in the effort to build market share and keep prices low. According to market analysts, the consumer PC market will be separated between so-called value systems, which are priced at around DM 1400 (sub-$1000-dollar PCs), and higher-quality premium systems, with prices starting at DM 2000. Says Johannes Plockross, a technical manager at Siemens Nixdorf, "It's not a black-and-white market segmentation, but it indicates what we will see in 1998."
Servers
CeBIT highlights in the server arena will be multiprocessor systems with up to eight Pentium Pro processors from companies including Data General, Hewlett-Packard, and Siemens Nixdorf. Compaq says that it will exhibit its new quad-Pentium Pro servers, which are e
asily upgraded to Intel's Deschutes Pentium II chips. HP and Siemens Nixdorf have even hinted that they will preview the first eight-processor systems based on Deschutes (slot 1).
Several vendors, including Compaq, HP, and Siemens Nixdorf, will show systems running Intel's Deschutes with 440LX chip sets and a 66-MHz front-side bus and synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) memory technology. At press time, several sources indicated that, either shortly prior to or at the show, Intel will officially announce the availability of 350-MHz Deschutes systems based on the 440BX chip. This chip enables the front-side bus to run at 100 MHz, which greatly improves the performance of Deschutes systems. Therefore, look for previews of these systems at the booths of the aforementioned vendors.
Server-cluster technologies will be another hot item at the show. "In 1998, standards-based clustering technologies will empower unprecedented server scaling and performance," says Brian Allison, Compaq's European director of server busin
ess. "It's an important step toward higher reliability and availability in mission-critical applications." Compaq will show several clustering applications based on Tandem's ServerNet technology with Microsoft's Clustering Server running on top of it. Similarly, Siemens Nixdorf will demonstrate its Micro Mesh clustering technologies in a series of mission-critical applications. Digital Equipment will have its first European preview of its Galaxy clustering and load- and resource-balancing technology. This technology allows you to combine as many as 256 Alpha CPUs (running Digital's OpenVMS OS) and supports up to 200 I/O devices within a single server.
With its new S150 series of models, Siemens Nixdorf will be showing the world's most powerful CMOS processor in the 390 architecture. These mainframes incorporate up to 12 processors.
At a Glance:
Intel's new Deschutes CPU may be the scoop at the show. Look for systems that run Intel's new 440BX chip with a front-side bus spee
d of 100 MHz.
What's Hot at CeBIT
