IBM Introduces World's Fastest 4-Way Web Server; World's First Entry UNIX System With Copper Chips Shatters Sun's Commercial Performance - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Jan 31, 2000

IBM Monday introduced the world's fastest 4-way web server, providing companies with an affordable, yet powerful, foundation for deploying potent e-business solutions. The first entry UNIX server to implement performance-enhancing copper technology, IBM's RS/6000 44P Model 270 trounces a comparable system from Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the critical area of commercial performance.

Powered by up to four 375 MHz POWER3-II microprocessors and IBM's industry-leading UNIX operating system, AIX, the symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) Model 270 is an ideal server for running sophisticated e-commerce applications as well as the general business applications used by small- and medium-sized companies.

"The Model 270 brings a new level of performance to the entry UNIX server market," said Rod Adkins, IBM general manager of RS/6000. "It provides the kind of serious processing muscle previously available only in much larger servers. And it's aggressively priced, making it an unbeatable value."

Web Serving and Commercial Performance Leadership The Model 270 became the world's fastest 4-way Web server by establishing a new SPECweb99 benchmark record of 1359 simultaneous connections. SPECweb99 is an industry-standard benchmark for measuring Internet and application serving performance.

The Model 270 also offers excellent performance for commercial applications, handily beating the comparable Sun Microsystems' offering. Matched against Sun's 4-way 400 MHz Enterprise 450, a 4-way Model 270 provides about 40 percent greater power, according to SPECint_rate95, a benchmark that measures commercial processing performance. An entry 4-way Model 270 is about the same price as the 400 MHz Sun Enterprise 450.(a)

To complement this powerhouse server, IBM announced the RS/6000 44P Model 170, a uniprocessor system that contains either a 333 MHz or 400 MHz POWER3-II copper chip microprocessor. The design of this entry server is optimized for high performance Web and application hosting, firewalls, Web caching, and messaging solutions like Lotus Domino.

Copper Chip Technology The blazing-fast performance offered by the Model 270 and Model 170 is in part derived from the IBM-pioneered copper wiring technology incorporated into the 64-bit POWER3-II chip. Copper increases microprocessor performance substantially over chips that use aluminum wire. A single POWER3-II chip contains about 400 meters of copper wiring.

The only other UNIX server to contain copper technology is IBM's high-end S80 enterprise server, which was announced in September 1999.

Scalable and Reliable The Model 270 and Model 170 are designed for seamless growth, allowing companies to meet the unpredictable demands of e-business. With the Model 270, customers can upgrade quickly and easily from a one- to four-processor configuration and from 256MB to 8GB of ECC SDRAM memory. There are also five disk/media bays accommodate up to 54.6GB of internal Ultra2 SCSI disk storage. The Model 170, which includes up to 2GB of ECC SDRAM memory capacity and 72.8GB of Ultra2 SCSI internal disk storage, can be upgraded from a 333 MHz to a 400 MHz microprocessor.

In addition, the Model 270 and Model 170 can be attached directly to the IBM 2104 Expandable Storage Plus (Ultra2 SCSI), which houses up to 10 bays of drives that can range in size from 9.1GB to 36GB each. The servers can also be attached directly to the IBM 7133 Serial Disk System (SSA). Both provide terabytes of highly-reliable, hot-swappable external storage.

The servers are exceptionally reliable. Each contains a built-in service processor designed to continuously monitor operations and take preventative or corrective actions. The service processor also enables a variety of "lights out" remote system management capabilities, such as communicating overall system status, triggering a remote shutdown, and automatically re-starting the system on loss of power.

Software developers are praising the new servers. "We are very pleased to extend our relationship with IBM, by supporting the new IBM Internet-ready RS/6000 44P Model 170 and Model 270 server product lines," said Asheem Chandna, vice president of marketing and business development for Check Point Software Technologies. "Check Point's Secure Virtual Network solutions and RS/6000 provide key enablers for e-business and e-commerce in the new Internet economy."

Pricing for the Model 270 starts at $16,995 for a single processor system and $35,995 for a 4-way system. Pricing for the Model 170 starts at $10,495 for the 333 MHz-based system and $15,495 for the 400 MHz-based system.(b).

More than 1 million IBM RS/6000 systems have been shipped to over 125,000 commercial and technical customers around the world. The RS/6000 family of computers features IBM RISC-based microprocessors and runs AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system. RS/6000 delivers the industry's most complete UNIX offerings by combining applications with hardware, software, service, and support -- a combination that yields new levels of high availability, scalability, system management, performance, and Deep Computing capabilities. FMI: http://www.ibm.com. Additional information on IBM servers can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers. Additional information on AIX can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix.>