IBM unveils 4-way server

    Tuesday, April 6, 1999

    At 11,744 hits per second, computer giant claims Web server is world's fastest.

    CNN Financial Network:

    SOMERS, NY (Reuters) - IBM Corp. said it introduced the world's fastest 64-bit, four-way Web server Tuesday, designed to provide e-business customers and Internet service providers with unparalleled speed, performance and high availability.

    The RS/6000 Model H70 addresses the e-business, enterprise-resource planning, supply-chain planning and business intelligence applications, IBM said in a statement.

    The server set a new industry record of 11,774 hits per second in the latest benchmark tests that measure basic Web server performance, making it the fastest four-way Web server.

    The computer giant, in a separate announcement, detailed its advanced Internet projects to help customers transform the way they do business by benefiting from high-speed networks. As part of these projects, IBM will focus on developing advanced technologies and applications that take advantage of bandwidth-rich networks.

    It launched a global project, International Center for Advanced Internet Research, with Northwestern University and others for creating advanced Internet applications.

    IBM (IBM) also said it would form a European Advanced Internet Application Center in the Netherlands in partnership with the Telematics Institute and SURFnet. The center, which is slated to be operational in the second half of 1999, will extend IBM's innovation to European customers who are ready to deploy advanced Internet technologies and will focus on ways to maximize distributed storage technology to enhance network performance.

    IBM's stock was up 2-1/4 to 186-3/16 in early Tuesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
    Tru64 Unix 5.0 delivers dynamic allocation of resources, mainframe-like partitioning for running multiple workloads, and management via the Web from any system on the network. Drawing on OpenVMS, TruCluster 5.0 will let users install apps or add disks across an ES40 Tru64 cluster in one step. "Our strategy is to provide the most easy-to-use Unix clusters," says Tim Yeaton, VP and general manager of Compaq's Unix software division.

    Due later this month, IBM 's H70 server starts at $26,900, with AIX and support for four 340-MHz RS64-II CPUs. Its $111,920 HA- H70 Cluster Server bundle has everything needed for high availability and easy administration, says Mike Maas, IBM 's manager of server product marketing for RS/6000s. That includes two servers, integrated storage, High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing software, optional hardware and software for pretested apps, and high-availability services.

    Compaq and IBM are wise to embrace simplicity, says Jonathan Eunice, an analyst at Illuminata. "Customers can't afford to be system engineers," he says. IBM Unix server customer David Frampton, IS manager at Tape Products Co., a Cincinnati distributor, agrees. He says integrated solutions offer "ease of administration for reduced downtime."

    Server Specs
    - Compaq AlphaServer ES40, with up to four 500-MHz Alpha CPUs, 16 Gbytes of memory, starts at $30,000. Low to midrange cluster configurations from $50,000 to $100,000.
    - IBM H70 , with up to four 340-MHz RS64-II CPUs, 8 Gbytes of memory, starts at $26,900. HA- H70 cluster configuration starts at $111,920.