Processors Toolkit

Comdex 2001: IBM takes high road with Summit chipset

Sandeep Junnarkar CNet

Published: 13 Nov 2001 15:47 GMT

IBM is using this week's Comdex Fall 2001 trade show to display its new family of Enterprise X Architecture servers.

Big Blue plans to show off the new systems to customers this week and announce them later this month, a source familiar with the company's plans said.

Enterprise X Architecture uses a combination of Intel chips and IBM technology aimed at creating lower-cost, mainframe-like servers based on mainstream hardware.

For example, the servers can be partitioned, allowing a customer to run up to four operating systems and their related applications at the same time, therefore dividing up various computing tasks.

The servers, which use IBM's own chipset technology, code-named Summit, will launch first with Intel Xeon processors. At a later date, the new servers will adopt Intel's second-generation 64-bit chip, known as McKinley. A chipset is used to accompany a processor or processors, providing a path for various data and input/output related functions.

The Summit chipset also allows IBM to incorporate mainframe-like features such as the ability to swap out memory and processors while the computer is running.

The resulting servers will be modular in design, featuring four processor blocks that can be strung together to create servers with as many as 16 total processors.

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