Fujitsu melds Linux, Windows

Fujitsu Computer Systems officials today announced PrimeQuest, a new line of servers that will offer users the ability to use Linux and Microsoft Windows on the same hardware. The first systems will begin shipping in June.

The new line will join PrimePower and Primergy, Fujitsu's other servers. It is especially suitable for customers who need servers to manage large-scale databases, online transaction processing and other applications that call for high availability and performance. Fujitsu officials announced the new line at an event in San Francisco, and officials began to discuss it in Washington, D.C., at the FOSE trade show.

Using PrimeQuest, "you can have huge amounts of memory with very low latency," said Jon Rodriguez, senior product marketing manager, at FOSE.

It bridges the open-source world with Windows, he said. "We have a pretty big investment on the Linux side," he said. "We're also working closely with Microsoft." Users will choose one operating system or the other as needed, and both can exist in separate partitions on the server, he said.

PrimeQuest servers will use Intel's Itanium chip, he added.