GRIDtoday Logo Digipede

DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /

   ( Table of Contents )   

Breaking News - Platforms:

New IBM, Intel-Based Server Provides Customers With Choice

IBM announced a new Intel-based server and released the results of crucial benchmarks that solidify IBM's leadership in providing value and choice to customers in the high-end, Intel-processor-based server market. The new IBM eServer xSeries 455 offers customers the capability to run transaction-intensive workloads with Intel-processor-based, 64-bit performance.

The IBM eServer xSeries 455 is based on industry-leading Enterprise X-Architecture (EXA), the IBM technology that helps enable Intel-processor-based servers to scale to new levels with mainframe-inspired technologies. IBM is the first major server vendor to manufacture a system that scales from 4-way Intel Itanium 2 processors to 8-way, on up to 16-way by adding affordable building blocks of 4-way nodes. Those building blocks of 4-way nodes include processors, I/O expansion and up to 56GB of memory to help maintain a balanced system. In this way, the eServer x455 can double or quadruple processing capacity, allowing customers to easily increase capacity within the 64-bit environment as business demands require.

"Today's expansion of IBM's eServer line exemplifies our commitment to customer choice and to delivering server technology matched to customers' critical business needs," said Doug Oathout, director of IBM eServer xSeries Products. "Our 'pay-as-you-grow' model for server scalability is perfectly aligned with the customer mandate to do more with less as they optimize and consolidate their server infrastructures. The x455 is the right choice for IT administrators seeking a reliable solution when performance levels are variable or unknown, helping prevent costly mistakes and protecting investments."

The eServer x455 leverages all features associated with the proven Intel Xeon processor-MP-based eServer x440, including IBM's EXA, rack-dense packaging and storage drives. The system also adds the benefit of 64-bit data addressing for transaction-intensive database and enterprise resource planning (ERP) application workloads. The eServer x455 complements existing Microsoft Windows and Linux server environments with top performance in a small, scalable package.

"IBM continues to deliver enterprise-level performance and reliability using its eServer technology built upon Intel Xeon processors MP and Intel Itanium 2 processors," said Richard Dracott, general manager of Enterprise Marketing & Planning at Intel Corporation. "The new xSeries 455 and the Enterprise X-Architecture technology will help accelerate the adoption of Intel Itanium 2-based servers for Windows and Linux environments."

Benchmark Leadership From IBM

IBM reinforces its leadership in the high-end, Intel-processor-based server market with new results on leading industry-standard benchmarks:

  • The fastest 4-way performance for an Intel Xeon processor-MP-based server on the TPC-C online transaction processing benchmark. The eServer x445 performance result is 7 percent higher than results posted by HP and Dell.
  • The best 16-way SAP Standard Application SD two-tier result on Microsoft Windows, running SAP Standard Application Sales and Distribution (SD) Benchmark, using SAP R/3 Enterprise Release 4.70.
  • Strong performance for a 4-way Intel Itanium 2 processor-based server on the two-tier SAP SD Benchmark, SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.70.

Additional Product Features For The IBM eServer x445

IBM also announced a new option kit for the eServer x445 that upgrades its remote management capabilities. The Remote Supervisor Adapter II now supports servers based on the IBM XA-32 chip set architecture, delivering up to five times the graphics redirection capabilities of the first-generation offering and allowing remote control from any standard Web browser. The faster performance, virtual CD and virtual floppy disk-drive capabilities mean systems administrators can truly run "lights out" data centers, managing their servers through local graphics consoles and storage devices.

( Top of Page )

   ( Table of Contents )