IBM Rolls Out Low-Power Servers

IBM is looking to offer customers a way of reducing power consumption in the data center by offering System x and BladeCenter systems with low-watt Intel and Advanced Micro Devices processors.

At the BladeSystems Insight conference April 12 in Savannah, Ga., IBM is scheduled to introduce plans to offer these low-watt processors in its BladeCenter systems and several of its 1U (1.75-inch) and 2U (3.5-inch) System x servers.

The Armonk, N.Y., company is also planning to announce April 12 that it will offer a version of its BladeCenter H21 system with a 4GB modular flash drive.

The use of a solid-state hard drive, according to Doug Balog, vice president of IBM’s BladeCenter business line, can reduce power consumption within a single server. This flash drive option can reduce power either by using it as a Linux boot device or as a storage device for low-bandwidth applications, Balog said.

Compared with a traditional hard drive with moving parts, the flash drive with the BladeCenter H21 XM can reduce power consumption by about 95 percent, Balog said.

IBM is looking at offering its System i for small businesses. Click here to read more.

To further reduce power consumption, IBM will start offering low-watt processors in several of server models. Starting April 12, Big Blue will be one of the first OEMs to offer Intel’s 50-watt, quad-core Xeon processor in several of its systems.

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