BLUE BELL, Pennsylvania and TOKYO, September 16 /PRNewswire/ -- NEC and Unisys (NYSE: UIS) today announced that they have completed development of the first generation of a common platform for both companies' enterprise servers. NEC has begun manufacturing systems based on this common platform, and each company will market the systems as part of its own branded server line.

The common platform is the result of an alliance agreement the two companies signed in 2006. The alliance aims to provide industry-leading systems that leverage both companies' expertise in enterprise server products and enable them to reduce research and development costs.

"This important collaboration with NEC enables us to provide Unisys clients with increasingly powerful, scalable, resource-efficient and cost-effective enterprise servers," said Rich Marcello, president, Unisys Systems and Technology. "Drawing on Unisys design expertise and NEC's manufacturing prowess, we can expand the range of choices customers have in deploying enterprise servers in real-time infrastructures that enable them to address continually evolving business demands."

Systems based on the common platform employ the latest Intel Xeon Processors. These enterprise servers can scale up to 16 sockets and 96 processor cores, and support up to 1 terabyte (TB) of memory. The systems are targeted for high-end enterprise computing tasks such as database-intensive activities (online transaction processing and business intelligence), enterprise requirements planning (ERP) and server consolidation using virtualization technologies.

"Combining Unisys long-standing expertise in designing high-end enterprise servers and NEC's high-quality manufacturing, we can deliver world-class computer systems that enable each company to address new market opportunities," said Yukio Ito, senior vice president supervising NEC's IT Platform Business Unit. "This collaboration significantly contributes to NEC's global business and marks the company's entry into the high-end Xeon server space. Going forward, NEC anticipates expansion beyond its chipset and manufacturing role through innovative new collaboration with Unisys."

"Intel is excited with the results of the NEC-Unisys collaboration in bringing to market the highly scalable NEC-Unisys Common Platform," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Server Platforms Group. "With NEC and Unisys chipset technology supporting up to 16 high-performance, multi-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) 7400 processors, Intel believes the common platform will deliver the performance and scalability required for the most demanding enterprise applications."

Manufacturing of the common platform has started in NEC COMPUTERTECHNO, a subsidiary of NEC located in Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan.

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. We provide consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and infrastructure services, combined with powerful enterprise server technology. We specialize in helping clients use information to create efficient, secure business operations that allow them to achieve their business goals. Our consultants and industry experts work with clients to understand their business challenges and create greater visibility into critical linkages throughout their operations. For more information, visit http://www.unisys.com.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC website at: http://www.nec.com

NEC Contacts: In Japan, Seiichiro Toda , +81-3-3798-6511, s-toda@cj.jp.nec.com; Unisys Contacts: Brian Daly, +1-215-986-2214, brian.daly@unisys.com, Janet Martin, Voce Communications, +1-415-848-2585, jmartin@vocecomm.com