IBM's fast "Regatta" serverArmonk 04 October 2001 IBM introduced its new UNIX server. The IBM eServer p690 offers enterprises an efficient platform for both server consolidation and large, single-system applications. When tackling the most complex problems, multiple p690 servers can be linked together to create supercomputers powered by more than 1,000 processors. Initial p690 customers include Raytheon, Ahold Corporation, Telia Net, Tokyo Metro University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences.
With fewer, more powerful processors, the eServer p690 achieves leadership business, scientific and Java performance benchmarks while delivering greater reliability and lower electricity, maintenance, operating and system administrator costs. Fewer processors also translates into lower cost of ownership, since many key software applications priced according to total number of processors are significantly less expensive to run on the eServer p690.
The machine includes IBM's POWER4 microprocessor. It is the first "server on a chip," containing two one-gigahertz-plus processors, a high-bandwidth system switch, a large memory cache and I/O. This design enables the server to conserve energy and dramatically outperform servers that have more than twice as many processors.
The eServer p690 building block is a palm-sized, eight-processor, multi-chip module with the equivalent processing power of much larger system boards in competing high-end servers. As a result, the IBM server packs more computing power in less floor space and consumes less power than these other systems.
The eServer p690 can either be operated as a single large server or divided into as many as 16 "virtual" servers, running any combination of the AIX 5L and Linux operating systems. The p690 offers the UNIX market's most flexible and efficient use of processors, memory and I/O resources, enabling customers to create virtual servers with a single processor or multiple processors. By contrast, the "hard" partitions in competing systems require at least four chips, which typically wastes valuable system resources and degrades performance. The p690 will be able to dynamically reconfigure partitions -- while still operating -- to meet changing workload demands.
Built with technology from IBM's Project eLiza initiative, the eServer p690 is the industry's only UNIX server that offers multiple layers of self-healing technologies that allow the server to continue operating -- even through major failures and system errors. By contrast, other high-end servers only offer manual hot-swapping of already-failed components or simple failure isolation within a partition that may not prevent failures from crashing applications.
The IBM eServer p690 runs AIX 5L, and is ready for 64-bit Linux.
Pricing for the eServer p690 starts at $450,000 for an 8-way 1.1 GHz system with 8 GB memory and 36.4 GB of storage. The system will begin shipping in volume in December 2001.
The eServer p690 achieves leading scores in key industry benchmarks:
Thousands of sensors can predict when a component -- such as a CPU, cache or memory -- is likely to fail, then automatically take the component off-line, while keeping the server running. Mainframe-class system logic capabilities are designed to locate the root cause of problems before they are able to initiate chain reaction failures, preventing them from spreading to the entire system.
For continuous operation and extreme scalability, multiple servers can be clustered together with IBM's clustering management software.
To make it easy for customers to expand their infrastructure, IBM will offer Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) for processors and memory. When needed, system resources can be activated incrementally.
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