IBM to Launch Powerful Line of Unix Servers

Jul. 13–Big iron is back at Big Blue.

Today, IBM will launch a line of Unix computer servers that are more than twice as powerful as those offered by Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.

The eServer P5 series computers feature IBM’s newest Power5 microprocessors, with different models offering from four to 16 processors. Analysts said that rivals Sun and HP may not be able to match the machines for some time, allowing IBM to widen its lead in the $46 billion server market.

“This is going to put IBM’s competitors on the defensive,” said Brad Day, an analyst at market researcher Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

The new IBM machines, which go on sale Aug. 31, are designed to run large corporate networks and handle huge database transactions. IBM is in the enviable position of launching a new generation of chips even while its 2-year-old Power4 chips remains competitive, company executives said.

But Sun and HP executives contend that IBM systems often come with hidden costs, like the need to upgrade software to take advantage of performance or new features. “We continue to drive performance higher on our side as well,” said Vish Mulchand, HP’s director of server marketing, noting that the company plans to introduce similar servers in the future.

IBM executives said the new servers are compatible with existing software. Big Blue will promote its eServer P5 machines as being more than twice as fast as any other Unix server on the market. The eServer features chips ranging in speeds from 1.5 gigahertz to 1.9 gigahertz. Each Power5 chip has two processors and each processor can handle two tasks at once. Hence, the Power5 can juggle four tasks at once while a typical processor handles only one.

Prices for the servers range from $12,920 to more than $25,928.

Ravi Arimilli, the Power5′s chief designer, said IBM will also market the servers for their high reliability, flexibility and ability to save customers money, features typically available only on mainframe computers. The servers have a feature dubbed “virtualization,” which lets the computer remain busy 80 percent of the time, compared to the typical 15 percent. It does so by partitioning a processor to run as many as 10 different operating systems at once, commanding additional processing power as needed.

“I think that the virtualization features will make a big difference,” said Dan Olds, president of the market analyst firm Gabriel Consulting Group in Portland, Ore. “IBM is pitching business value, and that is where the market is going.”

In the first three months of the year, IBM held the No. 1 spot in server revenues with 29.7 percent of the worldwide market, according to market research firm IDC. However, in the $21 billion market segment for machines running the Unix operating system, IBM trails behind HP and Sun in revenues.

Beating out IBM’s current Power4 machines in performance, HP currently sells a faster-rated Integrity server that uses Intel’s Itanium 2 chips, according to the TPC benchmark consortium. But Arimilli said the new Power5 systems will run twice as fast as the current Itanium-based systems.

Intel spokesman Robert Manetta said the chip maker will unveil its faster Itanium chips later this year. By that time, IBM is expected to launch a server that will have as many 64 processors.

“It’s a two-horse race between Itanium and Power,” Manetta said. “You will see the advantage see-saw back and forth. It will be fun to watch.”

But IBM’s Arimilli said the performance increase, based on Intel using a faster 1.7 gigahertz chip vs. its current 1.5 gigahertz chips, won’t be as big a leap as IBM’s. Next year, Intel will introduce its first Itanium chip with two processors.

Jeff Howard, manager of IBM’s P5 products, said the machines and chips were under development for three years and will run IBM’s version of Unix, called AIX. The company launched its mid-range eServer i5 servers with Power5 chips in May, and it is expected to launch systems with Linux software next month. “We are looking forward to more gains in the Unix market,” he said.

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