Service Pack 3 delivers state-of-the-art, quality-assured Linux technology for all hardware platforms supported by SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 - x86, Itanium2 processor family, AMD64 with support for 32-bit and 64-bit systems of various manufacturers, IBM iSeries, IBM pSeries, IBM S/390 (31 bit), and IBM zSeries (31 bit and 64 bit).

The SUSE-optimized kernel 2.4.21 provides customers with a stable operating system basis intensively tested for optimum compatibility with existing software certifications. Features of kernel 2.4.19 such as the 0(1) scheduler, asynchronous I/O, and multipathing storage access were integrated and improved in kernel 2.4.21. In contrast to the previous kernel, which managed up to 600 physical hard disks, the new kernel is capable of managing up to 2,000 physical hard disks.

The first manufacturer to deliver a server operating system for the 64-bit platform AMD Opteron - SUSE now offers the first operating system to support IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 - the latest member of the IBM eServer family. Customers who opt for the new BladeCenter JS20 will benefit from the proven stability of SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 and its uniform code base for all relevant hardware architectures - a characteristic unique in the Linux market.

Service Pack 3 includes improvements from which users of all supported hardware architectures will benefit. Large, powerful hard disk drives can be bundled with redundant, reliable access paths (multipathing). Using Service Pack 3, up to 27 hard disks can be bundled in a multiple device.

For Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions, more configurations are available thanks to a more dynamic and improved detection of SCSI-3-based devices. Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions combined with NFS-based file systems now support mounting of up to 1,024 file systems, enabling flexible access to large amounts of data. Thanks to the support of variable block sizes, which can be written to the disk asynchronously and without intermediate buffering, data base access has been accelerated by up to 25%.

Through the implementation of the Linux Audit System (LAuS) in SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server, administrators can increase the security of the administered systems.

The latest x86 hardware, which had not already been introduced to the market when SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 was released in November 2002, is now supported with improved hyperthreading and ACPI, numerous updated device drivers, and new PCI device detection lists.

In the Itanium growth market, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server already supports a variety of systems of vendors like IBM, HP, and SGI. For customers for whom the computing power of 32 CPUs in one system was not enough, Service Pack 3 enables vertical scaling of up to 64 CPUs per machine.

With Service Pack 3, SUSE also supports the latest IBM zSeries hardware. The crypto hardware of z990 can be utilized with SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server. Storage Area Networks based on the Fibre Channel Protocol enable the utilization of inexpensive disk storage in connection with IBM S/390 and IBM zSeries mainframes.

Service Pack 3 for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 is prepared for compliance with the DII COE (Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment) directive that is used for rating the suitability of IT products for deployment in federal departments in the United States.