IBM Corp debuts its long-awaited 64-bit RS/6000 Raven servers and 64-bit AIX 4.3 operating system this week with a performance of 18,000 transactions per minute, hoping they will help its fourth quarter numbers rebound after a disappointing first half (CI No 3,248). The four-to-12 way Micro Channel Architecture-based S70 models use the commercially-oriented 250MHz 64-bit PowerPC Apache chip – called RS64 – developed by its AS/400 cousins and are priced from $160,000. Plans for other systems which were to have used the ill-fated 64-bit PowerPC 620 have been scrapped. They accommodate up to 16Gb RAM. Promised 250MHz PowerPC 604e ‘Wildcat’ upgrades to the F50 server are now due early next year now as the F60. It will also be available as a node on the parallel SP systems. The division is also rolling out two new workstations, the P2SC-based Model 397 – also suitable for use as an SP node – and a new 43P with a 332MHz 604e. RS/6000 bills itself as a $3.5bn concern, claiming a 10% share of a $35bn Unix market, behind leading vendors Sun Microsystems Inc and Hewlett- Packard Co. IBM breaks out its Unix business as 25% workstations/workgroup servers, 50% enterprise servers, and 25% large systems (SP2). RS/6000 sales were off about 15% in the first half. Workstations declined 15% to 20%, enterprise servers were down as well, while the division’s star performer continues to be SP2, up around 40%. Raven’s follow-on, Blackbird, the S70 ‘plus’ will use a 550MHz Northstar rev of RS64. The merged PowerPC/Power 630, dubbed Pulsar, will take over thereafter. IBM’s got its own brand of distributed shared memory architecture waiting in the wings too.
