Hewlett-Packard this week plans to release Linux versions of its Virus Throttler security technology and ProLiant Essentials Intelligent Networking Pack, the company confirmed Friday.

The antivirus software was developed at HP Labs as a tool for mitigating the effects of virus infections. It has been available with the company's ProCurve switches and on Windows versions of its servers since February of this year but had not previously been available for Linux users.

Effective Tuesday, HP will begin selling the Linux version of Virus Throttler with its ProLiant and BladeSystem servers, a company spokeswoman said Friday. The software can either be purchased as part of the ProLiant Essentials Intelligent Networking Pack, which will also support Linux beginning Tuesday, or be purchased separately, the spokeswoman said.

Virus Throttler is able to single out systems that behave as if infected by a computer virus. It can then notify a system administrator of the problem and automatically reduce the number of network connections made by that system, which keeps the computer operational but greatly reduces its ability to spread viruses.

The Intelligent Networking Pack is a suite of server software designed to help boost the performance of computer networks.

ProLiant Essentials Intelligent Networking Pack will be priced starting at US$149 per server. The stand-alone Virus Throttler will cost US$90 per server. Both products will run on Red Hat Linux, Suse Linux, and Asianux, a Linux distribution developed by developed by China's Red Flag Software and Japan's Miracle Linux.