Sanmina-SCI Grabs Newisys, Plans OEM 64-bit Server Push Around Opteron

San-Jose, Calif.-based Sanmina-SCI, which counts IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell among its outsourcing customers, entered into an agreement to acquire privately-held Austin, Texas-based Newisys for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close shortly.

Newisys specializes in the design of enterprise-class server technology, including technology which helps in the transition from 32-bit computing to 64-bit computing, Sanmina-SCI officials said.

Tier-one vendors are already outsourcing more and more of their design and manufacturing business to electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies such as Sanmina-SCI in an effort to concentrate on their own specific R&D, said Michael Gibson, director of technical marketing for the company's Enterprise Computing and Storage Division.

Newisys gives Sanmina-SCI a team of about 100 software and hardware engineers in the enterprise server field who can help Sanmina-SCI improve its ability to grab more of the design business from large OEMs, said Gibson.

More specifically, Newisys has a roadmap for enterprise-class servers based on AMD's Opteron processor, Gibson said. The company had already developed two-way servers based on the Opteron, and plans to have four-way servers ready for manufacturer by October of this year. The roadmap goes all the way to being able to offer 32-way Opteron servers in late 2004 or early 2005, he said.

Sanmina-SCI can use the Newisys-designed servers to offer such products to its OEMs, said Gibson. "Some customers already outsource designs," he said. "This includes desktops, laptops, and entry-level servers in the x86 space. The Newisys team is well-positioned to take advantage of outsourcing."

Gibson said the Newisys relationship with AMD will not affect Sanmina-SCI's relationship with Intel. "We're bringing (Newisys) in for OEM customers," he said. "We have no plan to brand our systems. We are also looking at using the Newisys team to develop Intel-based systems in the future."

Sanmina-SCI previously worked with Newisys on white boxes sold via Avnet whereby the systems were designed by Newisys and built by Sanmina-SCI for shipment to Avnet's solution providers, said Gibson. He said that relationship will continue unchanged.

The company plans to look at how to use the Newisys technology to develop storage devices for its OEM customers, Gibson said.

Moving forward, Sanmina-SCI hopes it can someday work with Sun Microsystems to design, develop, manufacture, and distribute some of that companies x86-based platforms, Gibson said.