SWsoft, whose Virtuozzo software lets several copies of Linux run simultaneously on the same Intel server, plans to expand its reach next year. The company will announce next week plans to improve its software so it works on Itanium, Intel's new high-end chip family that is able to support much larger amounts of memory than Pentium and Xeon products. What's more, SWsoft plans to work its software for the Windows market. The South San Francisco, Calif.-based SWsoft expects to release its Itanium product in the first or second quarter of 2003, said Craig Oda, vice president of business development. The Windows version is due in the first half of 2003.

SWsoft has an early-access agreement with Intel that allows the company to test new technology. The company also is working to formalize a marketing agreement, spokesman Alex Plant said. Similar to established competitors VMware and newcomer Connectix, SWsoft is trying to tap the trend of "server consolidation," in which jobs previously handled by several separate servers are rolled into a single physical machine, divided into separate partitions. It's an idea that's deeply embedded into mainframe computers, maturing in Unix servers, but still quite new with Intel servers.