Christopher G. Hipp (August 6, 1961 – July 14, 2009) was an American inventor and

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

who received a patent for his invention of the

blade server A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, wh ...

, a compact, stripped-down

computer server A server is a computer that provides information to other computers called " clients" on a computer network. This architecture is called the client–server model. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called "services", such as sh ...

that includes all of the necessary components to operate as a computer while taking up minimal space on a standard rack mount and minimizing power consumption. Hipp was born in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. Raised in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, he educated himself in the field of computers after he left college and pursued this avenue after seeing how technology would change the

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

realm.Vance, Ashlee
"Christopher Hipp, Who Bolstered Computer Power, Dies at 47"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', July 17, 2009. Accessed July 17, 2009. Until 2000, Hipp ran Digital Media Performance Labs, a Dallas-based company he founded in 1995 that served the technology needs of the graphics and video industry, selling the

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

(SGI) line of

high-performance computing High-performance computing (HPC) is the use of supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Overview HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into ...

workstations and software. He established RLX Technologies in

The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a Special district (United States), special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands ...

, near Houston, staffed primarily by former employees of

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

. The company shipped the first blade server in 2000, a technology that allowed more computers to be packed into a smaller amount of space, with many using less power than comparable servers. IBM was an early investor and reseller of RLX's servers. A patent on what became known as the blade server was applied for on July 20, 2000, and the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency in the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark ...

awarded patent number 6,411,506 for a "High density web server chassis system and method" on June 25, 2002, the first commercialized blade server architecture, to Hipp and David Kirkeby.

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

bought out RLX in October 2005,Zarley, Craig
"HP Will Acquire RLX To Bolster Blades"
''

InformationWeek ''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United State ...

'', October 3, 2005. Accessed July 17, 2009. though Hipp stated that he had only earned $1 from the sale as his holdings had been diluted when stock was issued to

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firms to obtain the funding needed to get the business off the ground. By the time of his death, the blade server market had exceeded $5 billion in annual sales, much of it driven by efforts to cut energy costs. Hipp focused on other ventures developing computer technology, most recently at

D-Wave Systems D-Wave Quantum Inc. is a quantum computing company with locations in Palo Alto, California and Burnaby, British Columbia. D-Wave claims to be the world's first company to sell computers that exploit quantum effects in their operation. D-Wa ...

, a start-up based in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard In ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, that announced a working prototype of

quantum computer A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using specialized hardware. ...

in 2007. Mark Seager,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

's head of advanced computing, described Hipp as a "visionary" looking to find "where the next industry innovation would come from and working... to make that happen".

Personal

A resident of

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...

, Hipp died at age 48 on July 14, 2009, while cycling in nearby

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, having collapsed during his ride. Cause of death was a

cardiac arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. Essentially, this is anything but normal sinus rhythm. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beat ...

. He was survived by his brother, as well as by Lorraine Sneed, his partner of 15 years, who she later said "got him" when she asked Hipp on their first date "if he wanted to come see my SGI". Hipp was described as a "semiprofessional cyclist" and had won a number of races in the Southwest. While competing in the

2009 Tour de France The 2009 Tour de France was the 96th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on 4 July in the principality of Monaco with a individual time trial which included a section of the Circuit de Monaco. The race visite ...

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...

released a Tweet of condolence on Hipp's death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hipp, Christopher 1961 births 2009 deaths Businesspeople from Dallas People from Houston People from Redwood City, California 20th-century American inventors