Hewlett Packard's range of Intel and AMD-based free-standing, rackmount and blade servers.
ProLiant describes a range of servers originally marketed by Compaq and later, by Hewlett Packard following the merger of the two entities.
- BL is the prefix for the Blade servers.
- DL is the prefix for 'dense' rackable servers, and includes the entry-level DL1xx-series, the midrange DL3xx-series, and the high-end DL5xx, DL7xx and DL9xx models.
- ML designates the expandable tower/rack-capable product line.
- SL denotes the scale-out product line intended for cloud and high-performance computing.
The second number gives a rough indication of the physical size within a range, and the third number indicates Intel (0) or AMD (5) CPUs: ProLiant DL360 is 1U high Intel-based, DL385 is 2U high AMD CPU(s).
All ProLiant servers also have a generation number, e.g. the DL580 G7 is a later version of and obsoletes the earlier DL580 G5. Note that due to marketing reasons, generation numbers on some models were skipped (for example there was no BL460 G4).
cf. IBM's System X, Dell's PowerEDGE
