Supermicro Ships AMD Systems Through Distribution

The San Jose, Calif., systems and motherboard maker added a line of AMD-based white-box servers and motherboards in April, a significant move from a company that previously offered an Intel-only lineup. Now, as production of those products ramps up, SuperMicro is adding broadline distribution to the mix.

Among the products offered through distribution will be SuperMicro&s A+ motherboards, towers, and 1U and 2U rackmount systems.

For AMD, the distribution announcement means that smaller system builders and VARs now have access to the SuperMicro products.

“We can really reach down for the tier-two and VAR level,” said Pat Patla, director of server and workstation marketing at AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif. “We are [also] hitting some of the smaller VARs and smaller resellers through the distribution network.”

Gautam Shah, president of Sunnyvale-based system builder Colfax International, agrees. Though some system builders were buying from SuperMicro direct, the distribution agreement means more of them will have access to the product line, he said.

“The entire reseller channel will look for them to aggressively roll out their product portfolio in the next few months,” said Shah.

SuperMicro is the latest win for AMD, which has been gaining converts with its single- and dual-core Opteron processors. AMD, which beat Intel to the punch with the first x86 64-bit processor and x86 64-bit dual-core server processor. has grabbed additional customers over the past year, though it is still only a small portion of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel&s share.

According to research firm Gartner, AMD claimed 8 percent of the server market in the second quarter of 2005, nearly twice the 4.8 percent for the same quarter a year ago.

AMD currently has more competition as Intel shipped its first dual-core server processors this month. SuperMicro is also shipping a full line of products to support Intel&s Xeon servers. Included in the lineup are a variety of motherboards, servers and 1U and 2U rackmount systems. The products are available direct and through SuperMicro distributors.