Ibm Fleshes Out Pc X Architecture Roadmap

Computergram International, Nov 5, 1998

IBM Corp this week fleshed out more details of how it plans to incorporate high-end, mainframe features into its Netfinity server range. The effort, called X Architecture, is designed to boost the spec of the Netfinity series while keeping prices down, in a bid to gain more market share in the increasingly competitive Microsoft NT/Intel server space.

Big Blue has already made a start on the initiative (CI No 3,501) by incorporating various high-end features in three of its Netfinity servers. These include IBM's Light Path Diagnostics (a series of internal lights that lead engineers to a problem area), hot swappable fans, power supplies and I/O controllers, error correcting memory and a systems management processor for remote troubleshooting and predictive failure alert on internal components. Tom Bradicich, director of systems architecture and technology said the next stage would be to port clustering technology from the SP parallel server range to the Netfinity line by the middle of 1999. By the end of next year, he said IBM would incorporate hot swappable memory chips and by late 2000, early 2001, it will have the ability to do the same with processors. IBM aims to incorporate this feature to coincide with the launch of Intel's 64 bit, Merced processors, he said. IBM is also working closely with Microsoft, under an initiative called Onforever, to try to "reduce the amount of server failures, and scheduled server failures, to zero." Ongoing development initiatives include the creation of a next generation I/O channel, based on switch fabric technology, which does away with the old PCI bus system. In a separate article this week (CI No 3,529) Bradicich told ComputerWire he was in talks with Intel to try and persuade the chip giant to collaborate with it on the project. He added that he expected the bus to be implemented by late 2000 at the earliest.