IBM speeds up the clock on the RS/6000 model 550 – at what cost performance?
IBM is heralding its recently launched RS/6000 550 machine as a deskside minisupercomputer ideal for scientific and engineering applications as well as for general computing. Whether IBM can really get away with calling a machine that delivers 56 MIPS and 23 MFLOPS a minisupercomputer is a moot point. Indeed so much was made of the beast’s power – its full title is the POWERstation/POWERserver 550 – that cynics must wonder what sort of machine IBM is hiding behind the POWERful flack. It offers a speeded up clock rate of 41MHz against 25MHz previously, but offers only 25% more MIPS with 56 MIPS as opposed to 44 MIPS for the previous top-end model. Such reservations aside, IBM also announced that 4M-bit memory technology, previously available only on the Model 540, will be available in the new model and as an option across all other models in the RS/6000 family. The new model runs the same AIX Version 3 operating system as the other members of the family. It incorporates IBM’s 0.5 micron effective gate length CMOS custom logic technology in the RISC architecture. The company plans to offer model conversion options that will enable Model 530 and 540 customers to move to a 550 configuration. Customers can already upgrade from a 520 to a 530 systems. The new model 550 comes with 64Mb of system memory, expandable to 512Mb. A base configuration has 800Mb of fixed-disk storage, provided through a pair of IBM’s own 400Mb high-capacity fixed-disk drives. Maximum internal fixed-disk storage on the 550 is 2.5Gb. Additional external disk storage may be attached. The base processor price for the 550 (which includes 64Mb of memory plus 800Mb of fixed-disk storage) is $130,000. List prices for a complete 550, including AIX operating system, start at $135,322. Planned availability is March 1991. The field conver-sion package for the model 540 will be available in April 1991, while the planned availability date for the conversion package for the Model 530 is third quarter 1991.
RS/6000 systems memory is quadrupled across the range
IBM says that the expansion of 4M-bit memory technology across the RS/6000 family, which it has announced, quadruples the maximum system memory that will be available to RS/6000 users. This increased capacity is provided in new 32Mb and 64Mb memory boardfeatures, with planned availability on November 30, 1990. Using these 32Mb and 64Mb cards, the Model 320 can now accommodate a maximum of 128Mb of system memory. The 520, 530, 730 and 930, models, on the other hand, that previously had a maximum memory capacity of 128Mb can now accommodate 512Mb of memory.
New Fortran compiler for the RS/6000 offers a 25% performance improvement
IBM also announced AIX XL Fortran Compiler/6000 Version 2, which includes AIX XL Fortran Run Time Environment/6000 Version 2. These are new versions of IBM’s Fortran application development environment for the RS/6000. The new compiler, featuring an optimising preprocessor, adheres to industry standards and IBM says provided better than 25% performance improvement when tested under several numeric-intensive benchmarks. Other new functions include pointer support and 16-byte real floating-point precision. Planned availability of the new AIX XL Fortran products is March 1991. A no-charge upgrade will be available for users of the current version. The price for the new compiler and run-time environment when used on RS/6000 deskside systems is $2,900, and the price for the run-time environment alone is $970.
You can get a lot more in the model 930 workstation SCSI Device Drawer
The 930 workstation model has been enhanced to increase the maximum quantities of most supported media devices that may be configured in the SCSI Device Drawer. These enhancements allow installation of: up to three 2.3Gb 8mm tape drives, up to three CD-ROM disk drives, one 150Mb quarter inch cartridge tape drive, up to two 5.25 disk drives, or any combination of four devices. The total number of media devices which may be configured
on the server Model 930 is unchanged.
AIX Personal graPhigs Programming Interface/6000 Version 2.2 is here
IBM also announced the AIX Personal graPHIGS Programming Interface/6000 Version 2.2 – an extended graphical application interface which provides ANSI/ISO Fortran binding and standard Computer Graphics Metafile file format output. Version 2.2 enhancements support the workstation 550 and use the super-graphics adapter capabilities in the workstation 730. The graPhigs product supports Professional CADAM Version 3 and CATIA Version 3 Release 2.1 on the RS/6000. The planned availability date is November 30, 1990. A basic licence charge is $826.
AIXwindows Version 1 Release 1.1 arrives as AIXwindows RT is killed
The graphical user interface environment AIXwindows Environment/6000 Version 1 Release 1.1 is now shipping. Enhancements include OSF/Motif User Interface Language support, Double Byte Character Set support for OSF/Motif Toolkit and Window Manager. A one time basic licence charge costs $500 before December 31, $520 after that date. Furthermore, IBM announced that it is withdrawing from marketing AIXwindows Environment for the RT.
