Do you think that IBM has a place for MPE?
Ron Horner
Legacy Systems Supervisor
ronh@ladyremingtonjewelry
Lady Remington Jewelry
(630) 860-3323
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Tom Brandt
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OpenMPE on an IBM?
This is the full article:
==============================================
I.B.M. Plans to Build Servers That Act Like Mainframes
April 28, 2004
By STEVE LOHR
I.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.
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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/technology/28blue.html?ex=1084165907&ei=1&
en=529ba33cdc17df8e
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
--
Tom Brandt
Northtech Systems, Inc.
130 S. 1st Street, Suite 220
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1343
http://www.northtech.com/
* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
|
