Apple plans on shipping a Xeon-based Xserve cluster node variation of its Xserve server line along with the previously announced Xeon-based Xserve, according to a new report. It is expected to ship in October--alongside the Intel-based Xserve, which was introduced earlier this month at Apple's developer conference. The cluster node variation of the Xserve, which has been used in variety of top 500 supercomputer projects, does not have all of the standard computing parts such as an optical drive and video ports to conserve costs. CNET News.com reports that "the 1.75-inch-thick cluster system is designed to be used in high-performance computing applications that are farmed out across a group of computers. They therefore lack features such as video ports and DVD drives that business server customers prefer and that are in regular Xserve models." All of the Xserve's will use the "Woodcrest" Xeon chip, which was introduced by Intel in June and ships in Apple's professional Mac Pro systems.