SYSTEMS

Fujitsu Computer Systems today announced its new Intel Itanium 2-based PRIMERGY(R) RXI600, a high performance 64-bit, 4-way rack server to round out the company's Intel-based product portfolio and offer enterprise customers a foundation for the future. "The introduction of the PRIMERGY RXI600 from Fujitsu gives customers greater choice and maximum flexibility to meet the most demanding requirements for technical and data-intensive environments," said Dennis Mull, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Fujitsu Computer Systems. "Our broad server and services offerings allow our customers to plan for the future and maximize their IT investments." Available throughout North America in January 2004, the PRIMERGY RXI600 is optimized for large databases, business intelligence and data warehousing. With one to four Intel Itanium 2 processors and a 64-bit architecture, the server is ideal for investment calculation models, extracting and analyzing data from enormous databases, and security applications such as data encryption or decryption. The PRIMERGY RXI600 combines this high performance with the extensive high availability and management features required in these types of environments. "The addition of this new Intel Itanium 2 processor-powered server to the PRIMERGY server family has enabled Fujitsu to deliver a high performance system to support a broad range of customers," said Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Systems Group, Intel Corporation. "The combination of the Intel Itanium 2 processor and enterprise computing expertise from Fujitsu will provide businesses with powerful, flexible and scalable IT solutions, helping them to realize cost savings and achieve growth." Large software houses are increasingly supporting Itanium 2 architecture and 64-bit computing. The launch of the Microsoft(R) Windows Server(TM) 2003 64-bit edition and availability of the 64-bit version of Microsoft SQL Server will encourage greater penetration of Itanium 2-based systems into the high-end server market. With the addition of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other software based on the 64-bit platform, businesses are now able to run their entire infrastructure, including operating system, database and most critical applications, in a 64-bit environment. The full binary compatibility of the Intel Itanium 2 processor family with 32-bit hardware means existing software can also run on the Itanium 2-based PRIMERGY RXI600 server. The IA32 Execution Layer from Microsoft, to be released in 2004, will be able to optimize the processing speed of 32-bit applications. Technical Highlights -- 1 - 4 Intel Itanium 2 64-bit processors at up to 1.5 GHz with 6 MB 3rd-level cache and high multiprocessor scalability -- Based on the EPIC architecture (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing) -- Up to 32 GB PC2100 DDR-SDRAM directly addressable main memory -- Up to 3 hard disks with a maximum total capacity of 438 GB -- 2-channel U320 SCSI controller onboard and 1-channel LSI MegaRAID PCI controller -- 8 hot-plug PCI-X slots (3 x 64-bit/133 MHz) -- Redundant and hot-plug fans and power supply -- Design optimized for 4U -- Tool-free installation and de-installation of all important modules Pricing starts at $23,000 (USD) for the PRIMERGY RXI600.