Symmetric multiprocessors, $4,000 unix herald Solaris, NT, end of Micro Channel at IBM RS/6000 division
IBM Corp made its belated entry into the worlds of symmetric multiprocessing and low-cost desktop Unix in New York last week, (CI No 2,515) offering no real surprises and apparently little that is likely to cause a disturbance among its main competitors in those markets, Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc. There are three 75MHz PowerPC 601 servers; the two-way minitower G30, the two-way and four-way deskside J30 and two-way and four-way rack-mount R30, all set for general release at the beginning of next year. IBM’s first sub-$4,000 Unix desktop is the 66MHz entry-level, bi-endian, PowerPC Reference Platform-compliant 40P workstation which ships at the end of this month. All run server or client implementations of a new version of 4.1.1 of AIX for PowerPC. In addition to AIX 4.1.1 and OS/2, when it eventually arrives, the new bi-endian systems will also be offered with Windows NT and SunSoft Inc’s Solaris factory-installed on request, though according to RS/6000 assistant general manager Jeff Mason, the division will not ‘merchandise’ these configurations. The same operating system choices will be offered as the bi-endian PowerPC architecture spreads up and down through the RS/6000 line. Meanwhile, the arrival of the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus into the formerly Micro Channel Architecture-only line, introduced where it does the least harm, according to IBM, is expected to become the dominant bus mechanism across the range. Although it is not the end for Micro Channel, the end is in sight. In future IBM admits that Micro Channel will play only a supporting role for input-output tasks, hanging off and being driven by Peripheral Component Interconnect. By the time PowerPC 630 arrives, expect Micro Channel to fade away gradually. PowerPC 604 RS/6000s will supersede Power-based RS/6000s and some Power2s; PowerPC 620 takes the reigns from there and the Power3 is still touted as the PowerPC 630.
Now the AS/400 and RS/6000 commercial balancing act
Although the new servers were launched without so much as a nod towards Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, on whose Pegasus technology they are largely based, the guts of the new machines are perhaps their least interesting aspect, as the ground has already been widely covered. Observers are focused more on IBM Corp’s intriguing marketing balancing act. Traditionally IBM has offered RS/6000s as ‘technology solutions’ and its AS/400 machines as ‘business solutions’. With the servers pitched directly at commercial users and the future AS/400s incorporating PowerPC and greater Unix interoperability, IBM is trying to broaden the client base for each, without harming each other’s business or confusing customers. It is also entering a market in which the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc already have well-established symmetric multiprocessing Unix offerings that scale well beyond what IBM is offering here, or will be able to offer by the middle next year when the Pegasus technology moves up to support six processors, to eight-ways in the second half of the year, with PowerPC 604 somewhere in between. AIX 4.1.1 lacks critical commercial functions like HACMP/6000 clustering, which will not feature on 4.1.1 until 1995. SNA services and a Distributed Computing Environment are not yet included and there are doubts over 4.1.1’s scaling and backwards compatibility. IBM looks to have priced itself uncompetitively against Bull’s implementation of the same Pegasus technology – its machines appear to be as much as $10,000 more expensive than the similarly configured Escalas.
IBM’s $4,000 Unix desktop makes most of the PCI bus
The much-previewed RS/6000 Model 40P PowerPC desktop is out from IBM Corp’s Power Personal division. It is the first PowerPC Reference Platform-compliant unit and the first to use the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus in the formerly Micro Channel Architecture-only RS/6000 line. The 66MHz machine sits below the 25T and 25W, and is
the first of a claimed line of PowerPC Reference Platform-compliant Peripheral Component Interconnect bus machines that the Power Personal crowd will supply across the RS/6000 range. It comes with 16Mb to 192Mb RAM, 360Mb to 4Gb of disk, SCSI, two Peripheral Component Interconnect slots, three AT bus slots, optional 256Kb level two cache and an AIX 4.1.1 client. It is upgradable to the PowerPC 604, which is supposedly due in volume by the end of the year, and it starts at $4,000 with 16Mb main memory, 360Mb disk, floppy drive, Ethernet interface, 13 colour screen and AIX pre-installed, which is a price point already achieved by Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc. It performs 63.7 SPECint92 and 67.8 SPECfp92 without level two cache, 75.1 and 77.0 respectively with second-level cache, IBM asserts.
PowerPC servers come with two or four processors, and retain the old Micro Channel bus
The two-way or four-way G30 minitower comes with up to 512Kb of second level cache per processor, 32Mb to 512Mb RAM, 1Gb to 13Gb disk and has five available Micro Channel slots. An entry-level configuration with a two-user AIX licence is $41,000. A four-way with 64Mb RAM and 4Gb disk is estimated at 1,100 TPC-C and 7,500 SPECrate_int92. The J30 deskside comes as a two-way or four-way, as a six-way during the first half of 1995 and an eight-way from the second half of 1995. The functionality is all a question of software, IBM Corp says. It comes with up to 1Mb second level cache, 64Mb to 2Gb RAM, 2Gb to 18Gb disk and six available Micro Channel slots. An entry system starts from $70,500. The $114,000 model with four processors, 128Mb RAM and 8Gb disk, is estimated at 1,250 TPC-C and 8,000 SPECrate_int92. The R30 rack-mount is the same configuration with 1Gb or 2Gb disk and 15 available slots, starting at $84,000. A four-way with 128Mb RAM and 8Gb disk is estimated at 1,250 TPC-C and 8,000 SPECrate_int92. IBM may be in trouble with its numbers, we hear, having provided only estimated TPC-C figures against the reported figures of equivalent Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc machines on graphs in its overheads. Various storage expansion units are available. IBM is offering buyers of the 300, 500 and 900 series RS/6000s a route up to R30, J30 and G30 respectively for $10,000 less than the cost of waiting and purchasing the PowerPC servers when available and is adding free upgrades to PowerPC 604 when that arrives. Software licences, adaptors and storage are transferable to the new servers.
