The 995 completes Gateway's rack-mount server line. But it is also part of a broad strategy designed to return the company to profitability after a long string of quarterly losses. As part of that effort, Gateway is seeking to become a brand-name consumer electronics seller  with new digital televisions and other products. But the company has also been working to reinvigorate its sales to businesses. Earlier in the year, it launched a new Systems and Networking Division that's charged with launching new products for businesses of all sizes as well as government and education customers.

Gateway is mainly aiming for government agencies and educational institutions with the new four-processor server. Those customers, and some businesses, are likely to use it to replace a number of older servers or to run power-hungry applications such as databases or customer relationship management software, Gateway said.

The company also designed the 995 server with features such as redundant power supplies and fans that allow the machine to continue to run if one component should fail. The machine's base price includes a single 2GHz Xeon MP processor, 512MB of RAM and a single 36GB SCSI hard drive that runs at up to 10,000 revolutions per minute.

Customers will be able to configure it with up to four 2GHz, 2.5GHz or 2.8GHz Xeon MP processors, 24GB of RAM and up to five hot-swappable hard drives with between 36GB and 146GB of capacity each. It also comes with a total of eight PCI slots and dual network interface cards. Hot-swappable components can be added or removed without powering down the system.

Along with its beefed-up products, Gateway has also added new services. It plans to announce on Monday that it will use IBM's Global Services Division to provide field support for its servers. The relationship will allow Gateway to offer nationwide coverage with a minimum response time of four hours.

The 995 server can be ordered on Monday with Microsoft's Windows Advanced Server 2000 or Red Hat's Linux operating system. It will ship within a week, Gateway said.

The new server joins a rack-mount server family that includes a pair of Xeon-based dual processor  machines that start at $1,699.