Sep 11, 2001 : IBM Introduces New UNIX Midrange Server

📅 September 11, 2001 - IBM introduced what it is calling the world's most powerful midrange server, an IBM eServer UNIX system that the company claims outperforms a much larger machine from Sun Microsystems while costing a third less. The IBM eServer (http://www.ibm.com/eserver) provides advantages in power, scalability and reliability that IBM says beats out competitor Sun'sbrand-new UltraSparcIII technology.

An eight-way server for Web serving and Java applications, the system iswell-suited for service providers as well as the data centers of largecorporations and other demanding e-business environments. The rack-mountedIBM eServer pSeries server provides the same advanced technology that hasmade IBM a leading vendor in the high end of the UNIX market. Powered by 750MHz RS64 IV processors featuring IBM's copper and silicon-on-insulatortechnologies, the system is also bolstered with self-managing andself-healing technologies inherited from IBM's larger UNIX and mainframesystems.
"The IBM eServer system offers customers far superior performance at abetter price," said Val Rahmani, vice president, marketing operations, IBMWeb Servers unit. "We've packed a data center's worth of reliability,performance, and availability into the server and made it an ideal platformfor the most demanding applications."
In the important java benchmark, IBM eServer p660 Model 6M1, equipped witheight processors, beat every competing system under 24 processors. a leadingbenchmark results achieved when the IBM eServer is stacked up against thecompetition are as follows:
Java performance tests by the company revealed the eight-way IBM p660 6M1handles 15% more operations/second than Sun's twelve-way UltraSparcIII-basedSun Fire 6800, and 80 percent more operations/second than an eight-way HP9000 N4000 Web serving (SPECweb99 benchmark).
The server's Capacity Upgrade on Demand capabilities - available for thefirst time in an IBM UNIX midrange server - helps customers meet unexpectedgrowth in their businesses. Customers can quickly activate additionalprocessors with a single command in IBM's AIX. A simple "pay as you go"configuration option, IBM Capacity Upgrade on Demand is an alternative tomore complex offerings.
IBM includes self-healing and self-managing technologies in the IBM eServerp660 Model 6M1 that are more commonly seen in larger, more complex systems.The IBM eServer system's built-in service processor is designed to monitorsystem operation and take preventive or corrective action. Dynamic ProcessorDeallocation, working with AIX, can automatically reassign tasks from apotentially failing processor so applications continue to run. The systemalso features Chipkill technology derived from IBM's mainframes. Chipkill isdesigned to virtually eliminate memory-based system failures, one of themost frequent causes of server downtime. Chipkill is estimated to be 100times more effective than the Error Checking and Correction technologyimplemented by most server vendors. If a memory error does occur, Chipkillis designed to automatically and gracefully take the inoperative memory chipoff-line while the server keeps running.
IBM says the eServer system's rugged design meets the rigid NetworkEquipment Building System NEBS Level 3 Standards - the most stringentlevel of disaster resistant certification in the telecommunicationsindustry. The server is able to stand up to harsh environments includingearthquakes, high temperatures and high humidity, making it an excellentchoice for telecommunications central office operations.
The IBM eServer p660 runs IBM's AIX 5L operating system, which features astrong affinity with Linux allowing pSeries customers to build and run manypopular Linux applications on AIX.