INDUSTRY
IBM eServer pSeries Product Enhancements
Keeping the heat on server rivals like Hewlett Packard, IBM today is introducing new UNIX Server solutions that provide uncompromising value and further increase performance, functionality and systems management capabilities for businesses seeking on-demand functionality. * More power to the entry class IBM pSeries 615
A new two-way p615 entry server with a 1.45 GHz POWER4+ processor, available
in Express Configuration formats. To reduce complexity while increasing
flexibility, the p615 comes in AIX 5L and Linux-Ready Express Configurations
that can streamline the order process and reduce costs.
Using the fastest available SCSI interface, maximum I/O data transfer rates
of p615 servers have been doubled to 320 MBps, helping to improve
performance for data-intensive applications. The IBM pSeries entry-class
portfolio continues to push the limits in capability and cost effectiveness.
* On demand disaster recovery with pSeries Capacity BackUp Systems
Customers have access to an on demand Capacity BackUp (CBU) solution for the
high end 16-way p670 and 32-way p690 servers to address incremental capacity
requirements as a result of lost or limited capacity elsewhere in the
enterprise. Now customers can address disaster recovery, without system
interruption, at a significant cost savings compared to traditional backup
server solutions.
The pSeries CBU offerings for the p670 and p690 servers are specially priced
and implemented with Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) technology.
CUoD allows instant activation of dormant processors and the ability to test
dormant processors on a regular basis; no monitoring or reporting is
required.
* IBM pSeries High Performance Switch (HPS)
The pSeries HPS provides greater communication bandwidth and lower latency
for IBM p655 and p690 servers in the eServer Cluster 1600 environment. HPS
supports up to 16 p690 or p655 servers, and will support up to 64 p690 or
p655 servers in mid 2004.
The HPS is a cluster interconnect designed to support the most
computationally and memory-bandwidth intensive applications in science and
engineering, including weather and climate modeling, high-end quantum
physics, computational chemistry, crash analysis and reservoir modeling. It
will help customers solve larger problems faster and increase the accuracy
of their most demanding computational models.
* Cluster Systems Management Software
IBM Cluster Systems Management (CSM) software for installing, operating and
maintaining server clusters, is now available for three platforms - AIX 5L
on pSeries, Linux on pSeries, and Linux on xSeries. CSM provides remote
hardware control, utilities for administering software updates across all
servers in the cluster, cluster-wide resource monitoring tools and automatic
triggers that can be used to alert system managers or initiate corrective
actions when problems occur.
* Ultra320 SCSI Support
Ultra320 SCSI adapters, disk drives, disk backplane support and external
storage subsystems are now available for pSeries servers. Ultra320 SCSI,
the latest industry-standard storage interface technology, transfers data
using the SCSI protocol over a 16 bit wide low voltage differential (LVD)
bus at speeds up to 320 MBps - twice the maximum data transfer rate of
Ultra3 SCSI.
