ServerWorks
| Company type | Public (until acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductor |
| Predecessor | Reliance Computer Corporation |
| Founded | 1994 in Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Founder | Raju Vegesna |
| Defunct | 2006 (product line discontinued) |
| Fate | Acquired by Broadcom in 2001 |
| Successor | Broadcom (as parent company) |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Raju Vegesna (Founder, former CEO and President), Duane R. Dickhut (CEO from 2003) |
| Products | Server and workstation chipsets for IA-32 processors |
Number of employees | ~100 (circa 2000) |
| Parent | Broadcom (from 2001) |
ServerWorks Corporation was a fabless semiconductor firm headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States, focusing on developing chipsets tailored for server machines and workstations powered by IA-32 processors. Initially established in 1994 under the name Reliance Computer Corporation by Raju Vegesna, who acted as both CEO and president, the enterprise went public in early 2000 before being acquired by Broadcom in a transaction valued close to US$1 billion.
1994–2000: Establishment and Expansion
The company was founded in 1994 in Santa Clara, California, by entrepreneur Raju Vegesna alongside his partners, originally operating as PRQ before quickly adopting the name Reliance Computer Corporation. Vegesna, formerly the principal architect behind the hyperSPARC microprocessor at Ross Technology, financed much of the startup through personal funds. The initial team was compact, consisting of about 12 individuals who often undertook multiple responsibilities.
Reliance achieved a significant milestone when Compaq selected its Champion 1.0 chipset for the Professional Workstation 5100 in 1997, which was subsequently implemented in Compaq’s ProLiant server line. By 1998, Fujitsu had acquired a 60% stake in Reliance after incorporating the Champion chipset into their Fujitsu–ICL Teamserver product. That same year, Fujitsu assisted Reliance in obtaining a license from Intel for PCI bus technology patents, enhancing Reliance’s technical capabilities.
By 1999, Reliance had secured contracts with leading companies such as NEC, Acer, Dell, IBM, Intergraph, and Siemens. Reflecting its broadened market scope and strategic emphasis on server chipset solutions, the company rebranded itself as ServerWorks Corporation at the start of 2000.
2000–2003: Public Offering and Acquisition
At the turn of the millennium, ServerWorks had grown to a workforce of 85 employees and concentrated on producing server and workstation chipsets compatible with Intel’s 32-bit x86 processors. The firm had also secured a decade-long license agreement for Intel’s PCI architecture back in 1998. ServerWorks maintained a "cooperatively competitive" stance with Intel—acting simultaneously as both rival and key client. Their product strategy prioritized input/output (I/O) performance rather than sheer processing speed to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.
By the end of 2000, ServerWorks employed nearly 100 staff members, had completed its initial public offering, shipped millions of chipset units, and achieved roughly $200 million in annual revenue. In January 2001, Broadcom announced intentions to acquire ServerWorks through a stock transaction valued at up to $1.87 billion. Unlike Broadcom’s earlier acquisitions of underperforming companies, ServerWorks was profitable and revenue-generating at the time, making this purchase a strategic move aligned with Broadcom’s growth plans. The deal concluded mid-January 2001 with an adjusted stock exchange value of $957 million.
2003–2006: Leadership Changes and Phase-Out
Following the acquisition, ServerWorks functioned as an independent subsidiary within Broadcom for several years. Broadcom adopted a largely hands-off management style partly because ServerWorks’ PCI patent license from Intel did not extend to Broadcom’s own products. Post-acquisition relations with Intel worsened as Intel aggressively pushed its own server chipset offerings. Nevertheless, by 2002 ServerWorks maintained a dominant share of the server chipset market based on Intel architectures.
In March 2003, Broadcom removed founder Ravi Vegesna along with several senior executives and installed Duane R. Dickhut as CEO. This leadership overhaul followed reports of chipset supply shortages and was described as a "public spectacle," possibly stemming from Vegesna’s attempts to assert greater control that conflicted with Broadcom’s management style. Vegesna and others subsequently filed wrongful termination lawsuits that Broadcom settled for $111 million.
By 2006, ServerWorks’ leading position eroded as Intel reclaimed dominance in the server chipset sector. The company remained under Broadcom ownership until approximately May 2006 when Broadcom decided to discontinue the ServerWorks product lineup.
Chipsets
- ServerSet I (Champion 1.0) – incorporated dual 32-bit PCI buses and accommodated up to six Pentium Pro processors; phased out by the early 2000s
- ServerSet II – featured a single 64-bit PCI bus, capable of supporting as many as four Pentium II Xeon processors; discontinued by the early 2000s
- ServerSet III – included one 64-bit PCI bus, designed to support up to four Pentium III Xeon processors, with potential for six processors through bus modification
- Champion – came in three configurations: Champion LE (Entry) and Champion HE-SL (Volume), both supporting up to two Pentium III Xeons with a 100 MHz front-side bus (FSB); Champion HE (Enterprise), which supported up to four Pentium III Xeons with a 133 MHz FSB; the HE-SL and HE models incorporated the CIOB-20 I/O bridge chip, while the HE variant also featured the MADP memory controller chip
- Grand Champion – offered in three editions: Grand Champion SL (Entry) and LE (Volume), each supporting up to two Pentium 4–based Xeons operating at 533/400 MHz FSB; Grand Champion HE (Enterprise), supporting up to four Pentium 4 Xeons with a 400 MHz FSB