Linux is typically seen in two- and four-processor servers and is often feared to be too unstable to handle big, critical computing chores.

FORBES: Fujitsu's Big Server Play

Torvalds, who keeps control of the Linux kernel, or core functionality, promised that the next version of Linux would run on servers with more than one processor, a big step up in computing power.

CNN: Celebrated freeware OS Linux grows up

Now it is up to customer demand to deliver those top-line numbers--in particular, demand for flash memory chips in advanced cell phones as well as strong sales of AMD's 64-bit Opteron processor for computer servers, due to launch on April 22.

FORBES: AMD Learns To Share

For example vehicles are rarely hooked up to the internet or to remote servers, and therefore the computer processor already installed by the car manufacturer handles speech recognition.

BBC: Speak up! Tell your microwave, fridge and TV what to do

It allows users to increase the speed of PowerEdge R620, R720 and R720xd servers with the Intel E5-2690 processor by 13 to 31 percent just through downloading a free BIOS update.

FORBES: Dell Accelerates Servers For High Frequency Algo Trading

Intel intends these products for use in data centers and servers to provide support for multithreaded computing workloads with multi-core processor systems that are becoming increasingly common in enterprise data systems.

FORBES: New Solid State Drives for Enterprise Applications

IBM, ever the salesman, has thrown gobs of its fancy server hardware at the project, with 10 racks full of IBM Power 750 servers, stuffed with 15 terabytes of RAM and 2, 880 processor operating at a collective 80 teraflops.

ENGADGET: IBM demonstrates Watson supercomputer in Jeopardy practice match

The computer company has created firmware, the Dell Processor Acceleration Technology, for several of its high end Intel-based servers.

FORBES: Dell Accelerates Servers For High Frequency Algo Trading

Servers often use special virtualized software allowing data from multiple companies to be stored on one server or processor (an analogy would be instead of a cabinet containing files from a single customer, it holds files from numerous clients).

CNN: How safe is cloud computing?