IBM Packs Supercomputer In Smaller Box

IBM continued its high-performance computing push
Tuesday, unveiling a Power5-based cluster server that packs the power of a
supercomputer into a small form factor.

An eight-processor machine, the nodes of the eServer p5-575 can be
clustered to run complex supercomputing applications, according to IBM, which
took the wraps off the test version at the Super Computing 2004
Conference
in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The new server appeared a day after the Armonk, N.Y., vendor claimed
the top
slot on the Top500’s latest supercomputer list and began selling BlueGene/L as a commercial product.

The p5-575 is thin, not unlike IBM’s blade server system, BladeCenter.
The
company designed it as the successor to the company’s p655, a system
which
has been used in supercomputing systems that analyze genome research,
automotive crash-testing, petroleum exploration and oceanographic
studies.

IBM said the new systems use multi-chip packaging to provide high-speed
connections between eight Power5 processors to provide some new juice
for
high performance computing. For example, this technology allows up to
64
eight-processor p5-575 cluster nodes to create a single system.

The attraction of smaller, modular systems is that they take up less
space
and often consume less power than their refrigerator-sized server
ancestors
and mainframes.

The trick is packing comparable power into the smaller form factor
without
sacrificing performance and quality. This has been one of IBM’s chief
goals
in improving its hardware to offer clients on-demand computing.

Slated for the first quarter of 2005, the p5-575 will be offered with
1.9
GHz Power5 processors and support for AIX 5L Version 5.2 and 5.3, as
well as
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3
operating
systems. It will house 36 megabytes of dedicated cache memory for each
core.
Pricing will also be unveiled at that time.

IBM plans to extend the capabilities of the IBM eServer pSeries High
Performance Switch (HPS) to the p5-575 system by the second quarter of
2005.
The p5-575 is the latest example of IBM filling out its vaunted Power-5
line, which features virtualization capabilities that make it possible
for
clients to run 10 servers on one processor.

IBM is competing fiercely with HP , Sun Microsystems
and Dell in the server space.

Also at SC 2004, Appro entered the market for high-performance blades
with
the XtremeBlade, according to Appro director of marketing
communications
Maria McLaughlin. With the ability to scale to eight processors,
XtremeBlade
is designed to go head to head with IBM’s BladeCenter, as well as
offerings
from HP, Dell, RLX and Egenera.

XtremeBlade includes such perks as Infiniband
interfaces
to all external data and storage networks, helping systems scale to
handle
large-scale deployments. It also offers hot-swappable blades, redundant
power supplies and cooling fans to minimize downtime.

Specs include: six sub-racks housing up to 12 blade servers in each
sub-rack. An XtremeBlade Cluster can support up to 72 Blade servers in
a
single rack cabinet solution. Appro will make its first shipments in Q1
2005, supporting Windows and Linux operating software.