The faster Power4+ processor is only available in the high-end Regatta-H pSeries 690, which has sixteen dual-core Power4 processors comprised of four eight-core multichip modules. The circuitry, packaging, and cooling associated with this MCM allows IBM to run these Power4+ cores a little faster than it can with other Power4-based machines, which employ smaller MCMs or single-chip implementations with one or two cores activated. In lieu of faster Power4 or Power4+ processors in the remaining pSeries midrange and enterprise servers, IBM is cutting prices modestly on base systems and cutting prices on main memory a bit more steeply. Pricing is very aggressive on new high-end 128GB memory cards, which have enabled IBM to double the main memory in the pSeries 690 to 1TB and post TPC-C benchmark results above the 1 million transaction per minute mark.

IBM is offering the pSeries 690 with the 1.9GHz Power4+ processors in four different configurations, with eight, 16, 24, or 32 of the cores activated; customers who want a different number of processors than these setting can buy a base machine and then use IBM’s capacity on demand to activate an additional number of processors. All base pSeries 690 machines come with a license to AIX, a rack, an I/O drawer, and two 36GB disk drives. The smallest configuration with eight 1.9GHz cores and 16GB of main memory will cost $641,738, according to Jim McGaughan, director of pSeries marketing at IBM. Prior to the price cuts announced on slower Power4+ chips, an eight core box using 1.7GHz cores and 16GB of main memory cost $601,488. So IBM is, in effect, charging 7% more money for about 12% more oomph.

A pSeries 690 with 32 cores running at 1.9GHz with 64GB of main memory sells for just under $2.1m, while after a 15% price cut a machine with 32 of the 1.7GHz cores now costs $1.65m. The faster Power4+ cores will start shipping on March 5, and on May 28 IBM will offer upgrades to Regatta-H customers with slower processors. IBM may be able to ship 1.9GHz Power4+ cores, but it probably does not have a lot of them, hence the slow ramp up in production.

Both AIX 5L 5.1 and 5.2 are supported on the pSeries machines with the new 1.9GHz processors with the appropriate patches. IBM is also allowing the pSeries 690 machines with the faster Power4+ cores to participate in HPC clusters using Switch Network Interface (SNI) adapters that link the servers into its Federation High Performance Switch for parallel clusters. The ability to use the 1.9GHz Power4+ chips in conjunction with either two-link or four-link SNI adapters will not be supported until April 30.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire