Lenovo is supposed to start selling a line of IBM x86 servers outside China in the next 12 months.

Lenovo will be building one- and two-socket tower and rack server, aimed at SMBs, under a manufacturing license with Blue, which of course, sold the Chinese firm its PC operation in 2005.

The widgetry, which will compete with Dell and HP, will carry a Lenovo brand, but IBM Global Services is going help the effort along with financing, maintenance and service contracts.

The new Lenovo server operation will be run by Marc Godin, the current head of marketing for Lenovo's notebook unit.

Lenovo already sells servers in China. IBM expects to get new business out of the arrangement.

Meanwhile, Lenovo just reported fiscal Q3 sales of $4.6 billion, up 15% year-over-year, and earnings of $172 million, almost triple the $58 million it realized a year ago.

It said its PC shipments were up 22%, better than the industry average of 16%. Despite economic uncertainty, it projects double-digit growth this year thanks to Asia and the emerging markets.

It also said it was going sell its flagging mobile phone business to private equity investors for around $100 million.