The system is based on a Xeon processor, the L3426, which consumes 45 watts of power, although Intel is developing a 30-watt chip that it says it will release in the first quarter next year. Sixteen small server boards each slot vertically into a 5u server rack, along with 16 storage bays that each can accommodate three or four SCSI drives.

It's designed for companies doing horizontal, scale-out computing who want high compute density with minimum power draw. Intel is competing in this area with Via Technologies, whose Nano chips have been used in custom servers built by Dell, and Advanced Micro Devices, whose processors are used in Rackable Systems MicroSlice servers.

Waxman said Intel will submit the reference design to an industry group called the Server System Infrastructure Forum, in the hope that it will be adopted as a standard that server, storage and networking manufacturers will adopt.