IBM Corp opened a new front in the low-end Unix desktop market last week, when it released of PowerPC-based RS/6000s and related products at Unix Expo in New York. It also added mid-range and high end models using its new Power2 or RIOS2 chip set to the line, but is intent on pursuing a strategy of world domination, offering machines that scale from palmtops to TeraFLOPS.
IBM claims exceptional versatility for PowerPC 601 boxes
IBM claims its new PowerPC-based desktop RS/6000s offer customers functionality ranging from two-dimensional graphics to multimedia, all from the same computer they use to do their everyday tasks. Furthermore, it attests, the new machines provide more than twice the performance at the same price as the existing 230 series, the prices of which are cut by up to 17%. The new PowerPC family comprises an unconfigured base 250 system unit at UKP4,333; a PowerStation 25W workstation without a monitor at UKP5,502; a Powerstation 25T workstation plus monitor at UKP7,014; and a PowerServer 25S server that supports up to 100 users at UKP7,087. Each of the machines has 16Mb of RAM and a 2Gb internal disk expandable to 30Gb of total storage. They all run the new version of AIX – 3.2.5 – and are compatible with existing RS/6000 product lines, which means that current applications don’t need to be recompiled to run on them. First comes the base PowerStation or PowerServer 250 – this can be configured to meet individual customer needs. Next are the 25T and 25Ws – fully configured entry-level graphics workstations, aimed at such markets as mechanical and electrical computer-aided design and desktop publishing. Both support the newly announced Softgraphics program, which implements IBM’s first software version of Silicon Graphics Inc’s OpenGL three-dimensional de facto standard for graphics, plus PEX and PHIGS. This means that customers can develop and convert OpenGL applications as well as run entry-level three-dimensional graphics, such as mechanical computer-aided design. The 25T also incorporates IBM’s new Power GXT 150 graphics accelerator and has a Powerdisplay 17 monitor, while the 25W sports a Power GXT 100 accelerator. Finally the PowerServer 25S, an entry-level server, is aimed at retail or small business. This includes an 8-port RS-232 adaptor, which can connect to ASCII terminals and other RS-232 devices. Each of the PowerPC boxes will be available on October 15.
PowerPC: born where King Arthur united warring knights
The PowerPC 601 is the first member of the PowerPC family of RISC uniprocessors that IBM jointly developed with Motorola Inc and Apple Computer Inc. Big Blue describes it as RIOS1 plus a Motorola 610 bus – and says it called its Austin development site Somerset because it was in this English county that King Arthur brought his warring knights together. There are currently four design teams at Somerset, which comprise about 50% IBMers and 50% Motorola staff. About eight Apple employees are involved too. One team is working on the PowerPC 603 chip, intended for battery-operated notebooks and laptops – the design of which was completed two weeks ago, and has since gone into pilot production; another is focussing on the 604 processor for mid-range desktop and entry-level servers, which IBM says offers between two and three times the performance of the 601; a third is concentrating on the flagship 620 64-bit high end chip for technical and commercial workstations and servers – the 604 and 620 designs should be finished by the end of this year or the start of next; and the last is engaged in designing the next generation of Power3 processors. An embedded processor is also in the pipeline for use in consumer products, such as video players, camcorders and cellphones. Each of the chips is based on a common design model.
Industry’s broadest line with common architecture
IBM Corp says it intends to build the broadest product line in the industry based on a common architecture, and to emphasise the point, declares it will make two or three product announcements a year on boxes spann
ing from the low to the high end, almost simultaneously. While it will continue to sell RIOS1-based machines, it will build no new models, and instead commits to double the performance of its uniprocessor family every 12 to 18 months (don’t laugh, AS/400 folk).
Under the hood of the 601
The 601 chip went into volume production about two weeks ago and is currently being manufactured only by IBM Microelectronics in Burlington, Vermont. Motorola will also get involved with forthcoming offerings, but the two companies may well charge different prices depending on the volumes they can sell. The 601 runs at 66MHz, and like the others mentioned above, is based on IBM’s Performance Optimisation with Enhanced RISC – or POWER architecture. It has 2.8m transistors, incorporates fixed and floating point execution units, a branch unit and 32Kb of cache memory. Although faster versions of the 601 will be introduced in due course, the processor will eventually be phased out and replaced with the others as they become available. It will be sold direct, via US distributors such as Bell Industries Inc and Marshall Industries Inc, and through IBM Design Centers and field application engineers.
AIX 3.2.5 release headlines the new software on offer
All the new hardware – binary-compatible with past releases – will run existing applications under a new AIX 3.2.5 release, out on October 15 starting at UKP650. To make the transition to future versions easier, 3.2.5 includes a Preventive Maintenance Package, which enables users to install any subsequent code changes selectively. Enhancements have also been made to TCP/IP, IBM’s Virtual Memory Manager, Logical Volume Manager, and InfoExplorer on-line information system. And a new Visual Systems Manager, which customers will get separately, but at no charge, on February 25, provides an icon-based interface for systems management.
The Power2 RISC pitches for the high-end technical market
The Power2 – formerly known as RIOS2 – is aimed at the high-end scientific supercomputer market, and according to IBM outperforms rival Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha chip – Power2 is said to achieve 120 SPECint compared with the Alpha’s 107. In fact, it attests, the Power2 offers performance akin to a supercomputer, but at one-tenth of the cost. It can do 500m operations per second and provides nearly double the integer and floating point performance of the Power or RIOS1 processor. Power2 comprises eight chips on a multi-chip module. These consist of one instruction cache, one fixed point, containing two fixed-point units, one floating point, containing two floating point units, four data cache units and one storage cache unit. The processor will be used in high end RS/6000s and AS/400s in future. To ensure that users buy such products, IBM will provide an upgrade path from its model 500 and 900 deskside and rack-mounted servers. No pricing or availability dates were given.
