Linux speeds IBM servers

IBM today launched two new midrange Unix servers and boosted its support for Linux.

The company claims that the new servers, the p620 and p660, will be 30 to 40 per cent faster than its current range by using IBM's SOI (silicon on insulator) chips that allow higher speeds without higher temperatures. And the new edition of IBM's flavour of Unix, AIX 5L, is designed to make bringing Linux into large corporate systems easy. IBM announced that it plans to support Linux on its own on the pSeries servers. The six processor versions of the new servers will use a 668MHz chipset, while the 1, 2 and 4 processor versions will use a 600MHz chip. Previous servers were limited to a 450MHz chip. The comparable Sun servers, announced in March, have 750MHz chips, which will be boosted to 900MHz this summer. They also have partitioning, which IBM is not due to bring in until it unveils its Regatta range of servers in October. IBM's Lou Gerstner features in silicon.com's Agenda Setters 2001. For more information, visit http://www.silicon.com/as2001