We recently got rid of this old 2U rackmount server. I set it up as a personal file server 10+ years ago, and recently realized that the server was not starting. We determined that the power supply had failed and then tried to figure out where this machine came from. With some help from our supporters, here’s what we found:
“Alaska” was a computer brand sold in Mexico in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its server line was called “Alaska Arctic Power”. The brand was created by Mexmal Mayorista S.A. de CV and Dynastia International Corp., both of which belonged to the same ownership group based in Laredo Texas and Monterrey.
The 2U rackmount unit we have is the Chenbro RM21200, a general purpose 2U chassis manufactured by Taiwan’s Chenbro in the early 2000s. We found reference to RM21200 compatibility with Intel motherboards like SCB2, perhaps it was targeted for Intel server builds?
alaska brand
Dinastia and Mexmal launched the Alaskan brand in 1998. Product names were based on cold weather themes: the servers were “Alaska Artic Power” and “Alpine”; Desktops included “Icy Blue,” “Coastal,” “Equinox,” “Fortuna,” “Altura,” “Vidro,” and “Paxon,” and notebooks included “Avalanche.”
Alaska Computers were generally marketed as Intel-based and Microsoft certified, and the company described itself as ISO 9001:2000 and Microsoft WHQL certified. In statements to the Mexican trade press in 2002 and 2003, the company described Alaska as a leading home PC brand in Mexico. A 2011 retrospective reported sales of approximately $160 million for 1998 and approximately 40 percent of the local white box market. The distribution extends throughout Mexico and parts of Latin America, including Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
Retrieved from the dinastia.com web store at the Internet Archive The Alaska Artic Power server line ran from dual Pentium III models around 2000 to AMD Athlon based models (Artic Power 3500/600) until 2003.
company
The group operated as three companies under common ownership: Dynastia International Corp. in Laredo, Texas, which handled purchasing and assembly; Mexmal Mayorista S.A. de CV, Mexican distribution branch in Monterrey, Nuevo León; and a networking products arm, CNet. The founders were Patrick Wong and Alfredo Flores, and the business began around 1990. Dinestia’s reported sales grew from about $1 million in 1990 to nearly $81 million in 1996, and in 1997 the Laredo Morning Times named Wong and Flores Small Business Persons of the Year.
Downfall
The group ran into financial trouble in the early 2000s. On June 27, 2003, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, granted a $10 million loan to Mexmal Mayorista. On March 10, 2005, the United States Dinastia entities filed Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas (In re Dinastia, LP, No. 05-33650), and Mexmal Mayorista entered a Concurso Mercantil, a Mexican commercial bankruptcy in Monterrey. On August 30, 2006, Mexmal Consorso was liquidated and ASI Computer Technologies acquired the IFC debt and assets.
The opinions of two United States federal courts document what follows: Enterasys Networks, Inc. v. Mexmal Mayorista (In re Dinastia, LP), 381 BR 512 (SD Tex. 2007), and Flores v. ASI Computer Technologies, Inc., Civil Action L-06-135 (SD Tex. 2010).
Reference
It was very difficult to find materials about this company – so we have posted them online for reference
https://files.serialport.org/Alaska/
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