IBM sharpens BladeCenter server

IBM has introduced a 64-bit PowerPC chip version of its previously 32-bit Intel Xeon-based BladeCenter server system, aimed at organisations running data-intensive functions.

The release is part of Big Blue's strategy of converging the hardware in its eServer product ranges to reduce costs while maintaining processor and operating system flexibility.

The two-way eServer BladeCenter JS20 blade server uses the 1.6GHz PowerPC 970 processor, and is introduced at $2,699 (£1,600) - the lowest price so far for a PowerPC-based server.

It has a base memory of 512MB and will initially support SuSE Linux and Turbolinux operating systems, with Red Hat Linux and IBM AIX Unix flavours to follow.

IBM's main target markets for the system are financial services, research and life sciences, where blades can be clustered to create an ultra-dense server.

Tikiri Wanduragala, IBM senior eServer and storage consultant, said the blade system was not to be designated as x-, i-, z- or pSeries, IBM's system ranges.

"The idea is to build a generic template [in this case] for big databases. The joker in the pack is virtualisation, with virtual blades giving better utilisation," he said.

Since IBM launched BladeCenter at the end of last year it has shipped over 42,000 systems, some three times the volume of arch-competitor Hewlett Packard.

In that period the market has grown 600 per cent, and analyst IDC is predicting that blades will account for over a quarter of all servers by 2007.