NEW YORK—IBM is rolling out a family of servers that combine Advanced Micro Devices’ Opteron processor with its own hardware and software technology to increase performance and system utilization while addressing the growing problems of power costs and heat generation.
At an event here Aug. 1, IBM and AMD officials jointly announced the new systems, saying their continued collaboration is an example of what needs to be done to bring more performance and power efficiency to the data center.
“The thermal issues we’re feeling here are here forever, and they’ll get more difficult over time,” said Bernie Myerson, chief technology officer of IBM’s STG (Systems and Technology Group). “Power will not magically go away as an issue.”
By 2007, he said, many companies will be spending more on powering and cooling their data centers than on the technology they put into them, Myerson said. In 2000, power costs were only 5 to 10 percent of overall systems costs.
The two companies also announced a deeper relationship based on their chip technology partnership.
IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., introduced five new Opteron-based systems—two blade servers and three rack-mount systems—targeted at what officials called the “business performance” sector. These are companies that want to leverage high-performance computing capabilities to address mainstream business needs using industry-standard technology.
The systems include the BladeCenter LS41, which can scale from two to four sockets, and the two-socket LS21. In addition, IBM introduced the System x3755, aimed at midmarket and larger enterprises, x3655 for such high-end workloads as database and business intelligence, and x3455 for HPC and technical computing nodes.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: IBM Unveils New Opteron Servers
