Intel eyes storage

Intel produced a blueprint for a low-end storage product and showed such devices at a trade show earlier this year. The company created small so-called Network Attached Storage, or NAS, boxes, which serve up data in file form. "The buzz around these devices was just incredible," Bobroff said. The company is making the NAS reference design available to interested companies. Bobroff said Intel has a price goal for products based on the blueprint of less than $1,000.

Intel is also primed to put together technologies at the silicon level. The company currently sells RAID controllers and Serial ATA controllers. Last year it began working with partner Emulex to integrate more functions into input-output processors. Bobroff says the company is working to add SATA and Serial-Attached SCSI -- another new disk interface technology. Intel is on target to see initial results of the effort by the end of this year and volume production late next year, he said.

Creating a single piece of silicon with multiple storage functions, rather than having to create a variety of chips and connect them via copper wires on a motherboard, can improve a system's performance and reduce production costs, Freund said.

Investing in storage
One way Intel is prodding the storage world is through its investments. The company has sunk its dollars into storage-related hardware and software companies, including storage system makers Panasas, Exanet and Silverback Systems, which makes processors for storage networks that can run on common Ethernet networks.

The emerging iSCSI protocol allows computers and storage devices to connect over Ethernet networks and is seen as a way to create networked storage setups that are cheaper than those using the Fibre Channel standard often employed today. Intel currently sells an adapter for servers to connect to storage systems using iSCSI.

All of Intel's storage activity might seem threatening to partners such as IBM, HP and EMC. IBM, for example, declined to speak on Intel's possible storage white box efforts, saying it doesn't comment "on its competitors' plans." A Dell representative also declined to comment on Intel's specific storage initiatives. EMC declined to speak specifically about the white box issue, but noted that EMC's Clariion line of midrange and entry-level storage products use Intel components.