IBM joins Nehalem server rush

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 02:08

Business IT - Technology

Following on yesterday's announcement by Intel of a new series of server-oriented processors, IBM has introduced two new System x servers, a new BladeCenter, and a high-performance iDataPlex server.

Picking up on the flexibility touted for the Xeon processor 5500 series, IBM's announcement emphasized the new systems' suitability for virtualization and their ability to produce higher performance at reduced cost. The company claims that the new designs can cut energy costs up to 93 percent while, in some models, provide twice the performance.

First up are two new rack rack servers, the 2U System x3650 M2 and the 1U System x3550 M2. The former supports up to twelve storage drives and four I/O slots, while the latter supports half that. Each unit  features two Xeon 5500 processors.

Then there's the BladeCenter HS22, which, according to IBM, can run applications twice as fast as the previous generation of blades. With two 5500 processors running at up to 2.93GHz and up to 96 GB of memory, the HS22 will still fit in any existing BladeCenter chassis.

And on the high-performance computing side, IBM introduced the iDataPlex dx360, a two-socket server that supports up to 16 memory modules. The iDataPlex is designed for data centers with limited space and power and cooling infrastructure. IBM claims that the design puts more processors into the "same power and cooling envelope as traditional servers."

To complement the new hardware, IBM also announced Systems Director 6.1, its software for managing physical and virtual compute resources, as well as various other management tools.