IBM to announce new computers with mainframe talents

Houston Chronicle ^ | April 28, 2004, 12:39AM | New York Times

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

IBM plans today to announce new server computers that behave more like mainframes and are priced as low as $1,500.

The servers will be able to run as many as 10 operating systems on a single machine. One processor can divvy up the workload — packing the capability of several machines into one — by building several virtual machines that run on the underlying hardware. It is a technology that has existed for decades in the mainframe market long ruled by IBM.

The first of the server computers, which uses IBM's virtualization engine technology, will begin shipping next month, and the prices of some models will range up to $1 million.

IBM asserts that its new technology promises to simplify the management of corporate data centers and improve the utilization rates of the server computers that run those data centers. Mainframes, analysts say, typically run at 80 percent of capacity on average, compared with 10 percent to 30 percent for servers running the Unix operating system, Windows or GNU Linux.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

VM on a PC?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And from Reuter's wire:

__________________________________________________________

IBM Rolls Out Software to Ease 'Virtualization'

Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:02 AM ET

|   |

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM on Tuesday announced what it called its virtualization engine, software that it said will allow customers to run as many as ten computer servers per microprocessor.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said the software will be embedded in its non-mainframe servers and would essentially let them "clone" themselves, allowing customers to partition their servers or other systems, as with a mainframe computer.

Virtualization refers to the ability to gather the computing resources of many servers and units of data storage equipment in centralized "pools" of computing power and data that can be easily allocated as demands on the system change.

IBM's Virtualization Engine will also, for the first time, use basic provisioning and management tools from its Tivoli software unit, as well as functions in its WebSphere software product, across a range of IBM systems, the world's largest computer company said.

IBM said that because of the technology, for the first time customers will be able to run as many as 10 servers running the Unix operator system or other non-mainframe systems, off of one microprocessor. A server typically has one or more processors, which are the brains that run a computer.

A four-processor system, using the software technology, could be run like a 40-processor system, using one or multiple operating system types or versions at the same time, IBM said.

Armonk, New York-based IBM isn't alone in offering virtualization software. Rivals Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , with its adaptive enterprise strategy, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , with its N1 architecture, also offer software with different levels of virtualization.

Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market research firm Illuminata Inc., said that it was a good start for IBM.

"Each successive version will be more unified, have the parts more aggressively connected, and have fewer visible seams," Eunice wrote in an e-mail. "And that's actually pretty important, given that users are just coming to grips with how to systematically virtualize and simplify their (information technology) infrastructures."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I.B.M. Plans to Build Servers That Act Like Mainframes

By STEVE LOHR

Published: April 28, 2004

.B.M. plans today to announce new server computers that behave more like mainframes and are priced as low as $1,500. The servers will be able to run as many as 10 operating systems on a single machine. One processor can divvy up the workload - packing the capability of several machines into one - by building several virtual machines that run on the underlying hardware. It is a technology that has existed for decades in the mainframe market long ruled by I.B.M.

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The first of the server computers, which uses I.B.M.'s virtualization engine technology, will begin shipping next month, and the prices of some models will range up to $1 million. The machines, I.B.M. said, are the result of a three-year research and development effort.

"Much of the technology is harvested from our mainframe business," said William Zeitler, senior vice president of I.B.M.'s computer systems group.

I.B.M. asserts that its new technology promises to simplify the management of corporate data centers and improve the utilization rates of the server computers that run those data centers. Mainframes, analysts say, typically run at 80 percent of capacity on average, compared with 10 to 30 percent for servers running the Unix operating system, Windows or GNU Linux.

Many companies are working on data center management and virtualization technologies, including Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Intel, EMC, Veritas, Opsware and others. And virtualization is even being brought to personal computer technology, enabling several versions of Linux or Windows to run on Intel microprocessors or Intel-compatible Advanced Micro chips. In December, EMC paid $635 million to buy VMware, which makes virtualization software for running Windows and Linux. And Microsoft last year bought Connectix, which makes virtualization software.

I.B.M. will offer some of its new technology on its Intel-based servers, but analysts say the company's real advantage should come in servers using I.B.M.'s Power family of microprocessors. In the Power machines, the virtualization software is built right into the chip, as microcode, instead of as a separate layer of software. Today, I.B.M. uses the Power chips in servers that run Unix and in its midrange I-series machines, the former AS-400 minicomputers.

But virtualization technology opens the door to eliminating the tight link between a specific microprocessor and a certain operating system. Microsoft's Windows, for example, runs on Intel and Intel-compatible microprocessors.

Strategically, the I.B.M. approach is quite different from technology leaders, like Intel and Microsoft, that specialize in either hardware or software. "In the future, advantage is not going to be so much in the chip or the operating system, but in the management and control layer of technology," Mr. Zeitler said.

No company, analysts say, has more different pieces of technology it can deploy, so the integrated hardware-and-software strategy makes sense for I.B.M.

[GeronL]

I sure hope someone pinged John Robinson to this thread =o)

Anyone do a thread on the hard drive crash??

[HiTech RedNeck]

Amazing. The whole corporate data center, in a broom closet.

[brityank]

Amazing. The whole corporate data center, in a broom closet.

Know those fuzzy dice on your rear-view mirror? One cube for the servers; the second for the storage-I/O, and the string represents the optical linkages.

I started in the IBM/OEM hardware business in the '70's; and now carry more computing power/communications on my belt than any data center from back them. It truly is amazing.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

ye gads, they're bringing back OS/2!

[Anvilhead]

Yeah, but the important question is, will I be able to play 10 GAMES at the same time?

[OKSooner]

Later read.

[chimera]

Sounds like back to the future. I ran my first program from a card deck on the old IBM 1132 system back in the late 1960s. We thought it was the berries to go from DOS to OS to VM/MVS on the System 360.

Please, Big Blue, not punch cards and card sorters...:-(

[Fifth Business]

I.B.M. will offer some of its new technology on its Intel-based servers, but analysts say the company's real advantage should come in servers using I.B.M.'s Power family of microprocessors. In the Power machines, the virtualization software is built right into the chip, as microcode, instead of as a separate layer of software. Today, I.B.M. uses the Power chips in servers that run Unix and in its midrange I-series machines, the former AS-400 minicomputers.

So will this be available on Intel platforms or not? Sounds more like p-series and i-series.

[jokar]

Later read.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!

I remember all that !

[ShadowAce]

VM on a PC?

Sure--I run a VM on my laptop. It's called VMWare.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OS/2 was great, I thought.

[Nick Danger]

Jonathan Eunice, principal analyst at market research firm Illuminata Inc., said that it was a good start for IBM.

A good start? I take it this guy just fell off the turnip truck. We have people right here on FR who can remember doing these things on IBM 360's with punch cards. I don't think IBM is just starting out in this.

The more I turn into an old fart, the more I understand why human beings keep making the same mistakes over and over again. By the time somebody figures out what all the mistakes are, he's been replaced by a guy who hasn't made them yet.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!

So true!

[stainlessbanner]

By the time somebody figures out what all the mistakes are, he's been replaced by a guy who hasn't made them yet.

bump!

[tang-soo]

Amazing. The whole corporate data center, in a broom closet.

I was a student at Ohio State in the mid 70s and I remember reading an article about the replacement of the IBM 360 with an Amdahl 460. Before they could replace the system, they had to redesign the heating equipment of Baker Systems (the name of the building) because they could no longer count on the extra heat derived from the 360.

Could be urban legend (did they have those in the 70s?) but it still makes a good story.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More detail :

IBM packages server virtualization tools