The reason why the JS20 Power blades didn’t ship immediately in November, and why IBM dillydallied throughout the summer of 2003 before announcing them, was as much because it was having chip yield issues and shortages of the PowerPC 970s as it was that the company was not sure what to do with a Power blade. The latest delay, according to our sources at IBM, is not related to problems with the PowerPC 970 processors.
The story, so we are told, is that one customer using the new Power blades in an atypically hot environment discovered some issues with memory. Our sources would not be more specific about what exact memory components were affected, but they were adamant in saying that it was not a chip-yield or bug issue.
IBM is committed to shipping in volume on June 11, and says further that it has the problem licked and is now spending time going through its rigorous testing processes. For the most part, the delay only affects Linux customers, since AIX support is not slated for the JS20 blades until AIX 5L 5
.3 ships in the third quarter, probably in September or October.
