IBM Offers Family of Blade Servers Based on Multiple Processor Technologies

ARMONK, N.Y. November 18, 2003 – IBM today revolutionized the ultra-dense blade server market with the unveiling of the JS20, the industry’s first blade server based on POWER™ architecture. With this announcement, IBM is extending its blade technology to 64-bit computing and now offers customers the choice of either POWER processor-based or Intel® Xeon™ processor-based blade servers.

The eServer™ BladeCenter™ JS20, which supports both SuSE Linux and Turbolinux, utilizes the POWERPC® 970 (PPC 970) processor. The PPC 970 is derived from the same POWER4 technology currently used in IBM eServer pSeries® systems that support UNIX and Linux applications.

“The BladeCenter JS20 delivers on the promise of IBM eServer – one platform that offers businesses the ability to choose the processor and operating system that best meets their needs,” said Jeff Benck, vice president IBM eServer BladeCenter. “The introduction of POWER architecture running Linux on the JS20 brings world class, 64-bit performance and scalability to the ultra-dense, low-cost blade server market.”

The IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 is the lowest priced POWER processor-based server available on the market with a starting price of $2,699. This aggressive price point provides customers with an affordable high performance solution that can be clustered together in an ultra-dense server environment. The JS20 will be ideal for customers in financial services, research and life sciences.

The introduction of the industry’s first 64-bit blade server based on IBM Power architecture is a major step forward in the evolution of blade systems. IBM now offers blade servers powered by differing processors and running differing operating systems that are capable of sharing the same chassis at the same time – streamlining systems management and saving customer’s time and money.

The IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 PPC 970 chip has the speed, cache and datapaths that have made the POWER architecture a favorite of IBM customers. At its heart, the JS20 will have POWER processor-based, 2 way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), a base memory of 512MB, and be an ideal solution for customers in the high performance computing area via its low-cost, high performance capabilities. Developed with the same BladeCenter chassis features and systems management features to ensure easy integration and low operational costs, the JS20 adds the reliability and scalability of the POWER architecture to the BladeCenter family.

IBM eServer BladeCenter Solution for Bioinformatics IBM also announced the eServer BladeCenter for Bioinformatics, a complete solution designed to deliver affordable, high-throughput computing and application performance in life science research environments, where a diverse set of jobs often makes workload balancing difficult. Widely used applications for sequence analysis, such as BLAST, FASTA, and HMMER, have been ported and pre-tested to run optimally on the IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20. The new life sciences offering also can incorporate popular open source middleware and development tools and implementation services for tailoring the solution to a customer's environment.

About IBM IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com

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