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IBM releases low-end Unix server

Big Blue brings its Power4+ processor to the low end of its Unix server line, making the new chip an option across the company's entire line.

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Stephen Shankland principal writer
Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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  • I've been covering the technology industry for 24 years and was a science writer for five years before that. I've got deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and other dee
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Stephen Shankland
2 min read
IBM has brought its Power4+ processor to the low end of its Unix server line, making the new chip an option across the company's entire line a year and a half after it was first introduced.

IBM plans to announce the new system, the dual-processor p615, on Wednesday, the same day it goes on sale. The server replaces a model with the older Power III processor and attacks a stronghold IBM had largely left to rival Sun Microsystems. It also indicates that Big Blue isn't leaving the low-end server market just to Intel-based systems.

The system's starting price of $5,745 with a single 1.2GHz Power4+ processor and 1GB of memory rises to $11,695 with two processors and 4GB of memory. It's available either with IBM's version of Unix, called AIX, or with Linux, which costs somewhat less. For example, a two-processor model with 4GB of memory costs $10,695.

As part of a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion from IBM, Unix intellectual property holder SCO Group has threatened to revoke on June 13 IBM's license to ship AIX. IBM argues it has a perpetual and irrevocable license.

The p615 is available as a standalone machine or as a rack-mounted model 7-inches thick. Its memory capacity is 16GB, and it has three PCI-X slots for plugging in devices such as extra network cards. The p615 also can be included as a component in a supercomputing cluster assembled from many smaller systems.

IBM's Power4 processor is at the heart of the company's effort to dethrone top Unix server seller Sun and to gain against No. 2 Hewlett-Packard. The Power4, which debuted in the 32-processor p690 "Regatta" in late 2001, will be succeeded next year by the more powerful Power5 with the coming 64-processor "Squadron" server.

IBM is competing not only with Sun in the market, but also with Fujitsu, the fifth-largest server maker, according to market analysis firm IDC. Fujitsu sells systems using its own Sparc V processor, which runs Sun's Solaris version of Unix. Last week, Fujitsu released two new models, the Primepower two-processor 250 and the four-processor 450.

The Primepower 250 has a starting price of $7,500.

The Fujitsu systems use 1.1GHz Sparc64 V processors, which include 1MB of on-chip high-speed cache memory and a feature called instruction retry taken from the company's mainframe line. That technology reissues a failed command without requiring the processor and software to be reset, making the error-checking process less disruptive, Fujitsu said.

Fujitsu also upgraded its eight-processor Primepower 650 and 16-processor 850 with faster 1.08GHz Sparc64 V processors, with 1.35GHz models planned in the future, the company said.