IBM System p5 announcement

July 25, 2006—Today, IBM completes the IBM System p5™ server family with the introduction of new powerful, value-packed systems and solutions for AIX 5L™ and Linux® operating system environments. These announcements deliver on the IBM commitment to provide innovative systems and solutions that are open, support collaboration and provide IBM unique leadership technologies, such as Advanced POWER™ Virtualization, that enable clients to dramatically lower the total cost of ownership of their systems infrastructure.

Announcing high-end System p™ servers with IBM POWER5+™ processors

For every requirement, from datacenter to entry server installation, there is a System p5 server offering 64-bit IBM POWER5+ processors, innovative virtualization technologies and leading-edge reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) capabilities. The two high-end System p5 servers announced today set the standard for enterprise UNIX® and Linux computing. The flagship of the System p5 lineup—the 16- to 64-core System p5 595 server—provides truly amazing performance with the fastest ever POWER5+ processors running at 2.3 GHz. Not far behind is the System p5 590 with up to 32 POWER5+ processors at 2.1 GHz for outstanding enterprise-class performance and value.

Joining these two powerhouses is the new IBM System p5 505Q Express, a compact 1U (one EIA unit) 4-core server using IBM’s QCM (Quad-Core Module) technology. Today’s announcements also include new higher-speed processor options for all POWER5+ processor-based System p5 Express entry servers and for the IBM IntelliStation® POWER 285 Express workstation. And the new BladeCenter JS21 Express is the premier SMB (Small and Medium Business) blade for 64-bit UNIX and Linux applications.

Take back control of infrastructure costs

Consolidate multiple UNIX [AIX 5L] and Linux operating system applications on the new System p5 590 and 595 servers, both designed with features to help maximize the operational efficiencies of the data center and reduce overall infrastructure costs like energy, software licensing, maintenance and floor space.

And, that's not all. With unique IBM virtualization technologies—standard on the p5-590 and p5-595—clients can 'virtually' put an end to the time-consuming tasks involved in managing multiple servers, while improving service quality and mission-critical application availability.

Realize value quickly with solutions from IBM and IBM Business Partners

Look to System p for solutions and tools that help minimize the cost and complexity of developing and tuning AIX 5L and Linux applications. Also available are solutions designed to help clients improve infrastructure efficiencies and deploy applications more responsively. Specialized solutions for specific high performance computing challenges provide outstanding performance for the price.

Learn more about IBM UNIX innovations backed by roadmaps to support future infrastructure requirements and planning.


¹ IBM TPC-C result of 4,016,222 tpmC, $2.98 on a 64-core (32 processor chips, 128 threads) 2.3 GHz POWER5+ System p5-595 (configuration planned to be available 12/20/06) running DB2 9.1 on AIX 5L V5.3 vs. HP TPC-C result of 1,231,433 tpmC, $4.82/tpmC on a 64-core (64 chips, 64 threads) 1.6 GHz Intel® Itanium® 2 Integrity Superdome (configuration available 6/05/06).