By William Fellows

IBM Corp hopes to capitalize on the continued momentum in the mainframe MIPS market by offering a new G6 series of high-end 9672 mainframes from May 28, the first Big Blue systems to use its CMOS-7S copper chip process. With up to 12 637MHz CMOS processors the G6 S/390s will deliver a claimed 1,600 mainframe MIPS. The current 10-way G5 CMOS mainframe performs at 1,065 MIPS. The new systems are based on chipsets that are essentially the same as those in the G5 except for their higher speed, and deliver single engine power of 201 MIPS, more than 50% better than G5’s 125 MIPS. IBM said it is bringing G6 to market earlier than expected – analysts had been predicting June – to take advantage of the favorable conditions reflected in its first quarter which include increased MIPS shipments and surging interest in e-commerce.

IBM says the G6 S/390s is an ideal e-business and ERP platform. In the fourth quarter OS/390 will be supported as an application server environment for SAP R/3, enabling users to run SAP applications and database servers on S/390. Although functionally identical to G5, the G6 offers improved Parallel Sysplex clustering performance, Ficon fibre channel connectivity and Gigabit Ethernet due in June. G5 users can upgrade to G6 CPUs and to the other enhancements. There will be 50 configurations offered across the G5/G6 lines. From July 1, IBM will extend is S/390 systems software usage pricing model to its largest customers, claiming that will deliver price reductions of up to 25% on DB2, CISC, MQSeries and IMS. A new application license charge for OS/390 version 2 will be reduced by 15%.

G6 gives S/390 users more headroom, and they will pay for it, though IBM won’t say how much the new systems will cost. By comparison Hitachi Ltd’s Bi-CMOS/ECL Skyline II series of S/390- compatibles ships at the beginning of next quarter. A 16-way, 3,000 MIPS system ships in the first quarter of next year. The current Skyline can perform up to 975 MIPS as a 12-way, 152 MIPS as a uniprocessor.

Meantime, to drive home its image as the e-business company, IBM is to create a design center in Poughkeepsie, New York – mainframeland – staffed by Research, Software, Server and Global Services employees. It will develop prototype systems and support customers building internet-based transaction environments from July. á