IBM Adds 64-Way pSeries, iSeries

Computerworld - IBM last week completed its lineup of servers based on its Power5 chips by adding high-end pSeries and iSeries models that can support up to 64 processors, double the previous threshold for CPUs.

The systems are priced from $451,000 for an eight-way system to $4 million for a system with 64 processors, IBM said.

The eServer p5-590 and p5-595 systems can run either Linux or IBM's AIX version of Unix. IBM said that when a server is equipped with AIX 5.3, its processors can be split into as many as 10 partitions that can each run a copy of the operating system and handle different applications.

Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. in Beaverton, Ore., said the key advantage of the p5 systems for large IT shops is their virtualization management capabilities. "Now you're talking about a large Unix server that is a heck of a lot more useful than they used to be," he said.

IBM's eServer i5-595 system, the newest member of the iSeries line that was formerly known as the AS/400, runs the i5 operating system that's compatible with OS/400 releases dating back to 1999. The i5 also runs AIX, Windows and Linux.

Better App Management

An early i5 adopter, Beverly Russell, IT director at E.D. Smith & Sons Ltd., a food products manufacturer in Winona, Ontario, is using a two-processor system to run compute-intensive business intelligence applications. Russell noted that the system's virtualization capabilities can manage application resources at the microprocessor level.

In one instance, the i5 shifted computing resources from one partition to another but carefully managed the reallocation, "never taking it down to the minimum where the performance will be impacted," Russell said. The Power5 processors also boost application performance, she said.

Clay Ryder, an analyst at The Sageza Group Inc. in Union City, Calif., said boosting the iSeries capacity to 64 processors creates "an awful lot of horsepower" for a system that has long been aimed at midsize companies. "It's kind of hard to not think about it as a kind of a miniframe," said Ryder, who sees the i5 systems being adopted for server consolidations.

Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC, said IBM is bringing out the systems at a time when IT managers are once again starting to buy high-end systems. Interest in low-cost servers isn't waning at all, Bozman said. But she added that many companies are interested in improving server utilization by consolidating applications onto larger machines.

IBM officials said the new systems are three times faster than their predecessors in the Regatta line, and they cost 40% less than the Regatta products. It also maintained that the new systems offer better pricing and performance than rival products do, but analysts said that's a race that never ends.