IBM Corp’s April announcement – tipped for April 7 – is now expected to include a new PowerPC-based Powerparallel server aimed at mainframe users as well as the first iteration of IBM’s so-called parallel mainframe. The parallel AIX system is billed as a network file server with Escon channels, so that it will be able to use mianframe disks, although whether it will be able to share mainframe disk controllers and drives is unclear. The announcement will also include the CMOS 9221 microprocessor based query-only DB2 co-processor for mainframe users, initially with up to 48 processors, although later in the year, the company is promising a High Performance Transaction Server variant running CICS, which will take up to 192 processors, and could grow to 320 by the end of next year. For traditionalists, the company will extend the 9021 top-end water-cooled line with a 10-processor model some reckon will deliver about 475 MIPS.
