IBM builds on-demand power into new hardware
Published: 19 Jun 2003 10:28 BST
IBM said on Thursday it was shipping its new mainframe and servers, including its top-end p690 Unix server, a system the company claims will be 65 percent faster than its predecessor and which will let customers rent more computing power as needed.
The z990 mainframe, code-named T-Rex, belongs a new family of multi-processor behemoths that Big Blue hopes will revitalise its business in that class of computer. The 32-processor IBM eServer p690 comes with either 1.5GHz or 1.7GHz processors. Multiple p690 servers can be linked to create supercomputers with more than 1,000 processors, IBM said.
IBM's "on-demand" feature in the p690 allows computing resources such as processor power, memory and software to be turned on for peak use or off for off-peak periods, with the user paying only for the capacity used. A 30-day free trial lets users try the feature at no cost, but after that they pay for added power 60 days at a time.
In addition to the high-end eServer p690, IBM introduced the new mid-range eServer p670 featuring 1.5GHz processors and the eight-processor p655, optimised for clustered supercomputing applications.
A p690 with 8 1.5GHz processors and 8GB of memory has a list price of $493,000 (£300,000). With 16 1.7GHz processors and 32GB of memory, the price tops $1m. With 32 1.7GHz processors and 64GB of memory, it's $1.9m, and topped up with 512GB of memory, the price is $3m.
The p670 starts at $190,411 for a four-processor machine and the p655 starts at $50,000 with four processors.
The new machines put pressure on the first-place Unix server seller Sun Microsystems and No. 2 Hewlett-Packard. It also could help IBM do better in the high-end Unix server market, where Big Blue has a lot more catching up to do.
Unix servers are steadily encroaching on the capabilities of mainframes for running business-computing tasks like managing constantly updated information, such as airline reservations or warehouse inventory.
The z990 mainframe will come with 32 processors initially, with a 48-processor version by the end of 2003 and a 64-processor version in 2004, according to analysts. The current top-end z900 mainframe, introduced in 2000, has 16 processors.
The mainframe can be subdivided into several independent partitions, each running a separate instance of the operating system. "The z990 architecture can support hundreds or even thousands of virtual Linux servers in a single box. That roughly equates to an entire data centre on one server the size of a refrigerator," according to IBM.
Mainframes, powerful but pricey business computing systems that are under fierce competition from Unix and more recently Windows servers, set the standard for resistance to crashes and the ability to juggle many computing tasks simultaneously.
IBM dominates the market for mainframes, and many would-be competitors such as Amdahl and Hitachi have left the market to Big Blue. Unisys continues to put up a fight.
The new low-end eServer p615 features one or two 1.2GHz processors and runs AIX 5L, IBM's UNIX operating system, or Linux.
Available in rack-mounted or deskside versions, the p615 is aimed at enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and other business applications and can also be clustered to perform scientific research or data modeling. The new IBM eServer p615 starts at $10,000.
News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.
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