A Sneak Peek at Cisco’s Big Announcement
The rumor mill has been swirling for months now that Cisco Systems, the giant maker of networking hardware, is going to start selling computers, too. The big reveal is almost here: Cisco (CSCO) on Monday plans to tell the world what it has been working on in secret for the last two years.
Though the company is still holding back details, it has not disputed speculation that points to a kind of “blade” server, the compact back-office machines that power corporate data centers. The blade design uses hardware modules that are arranged vertically–-like books on a shelf–-and plug into a chassis. People who have seen the hardware describe a refrigerator-sized chassis that can accommodate computing blades–powered by x86 microprocessor chips from Intel (INTC)–as well as networking blades.
