Next-Generation Computers: A New Breed in the Computer Biz

BusinessWeek ^ | DECEMBER 12, 2005 | Peter Burrows

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For the first time in years, hardware startups are trying to break into the market. Their gambit:
Inexpensive special-purpose machines

SPECIAL REPORT: NEXT-GENERATION COMPUTERS>>

Steve Dewitt remembers an incident that occurred soon after he joined startup Azul Systems three years ago. He walked out to the driveway of his Silicon Valley home to pick up the morning newspaper and ran into a neighbor -- Bob Evans, a legendary former IBM (IBM) executive who oversaw the development of the mainframe computer in the 1960s that led to Big Blue's industry dominance. Dewitt had recently told Evans of Azul's plan to create a radically new server, and Evans had been enthused.

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But now that Evans had a few days to mull the plan, Dewitt recalls Evans telling him:.........

That's why for the hundreds of tech startups that have come and gone in the past few decades, only a small percentage have tried to build new computer companies. True, plenty of networking startups were created during the buildout of the Internet. And some have even made important technical advances in storage and the packaging of computers. Traditional servers have been shrunk down to the form of so-called blades, about the size of a pizza box and nothing more than circuit cards with powerful processors that can be slipped side-by-side into racks.

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