Analysts have told our sister publication IBM System User they believe IBM Corp is losing market share to rival Unix vendors as a result of a lack of power in its RS/6000 SMP models. IBM’s RS/6000 has fallen behind rival Unix platforms as delays to the Power PC 604 processor have left its symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems lacking in power, analysts argue. It is a three horse race. Hewlett-Packard, Sun and Digital are the top three Unix vendors, IBM has fallen back, said Brian Richardson, Meta Group program director of the Open Computer group. IBM executives admit the RS/6000 SMP models are suffering from a lack of power. One executive admitted that much of the resulting damage to the overall RS/6000 business has been hidden by strong RS/6000 SP sales. However, some users have balked at making the difficult upgrade from SMP boxes to SP2s for extra juice; others have been left waiting for over a year for the SMP power boost that IBM promised to deliver with the PowerPC 604 processor – the 604 upgrades will finally ship next month. Although IBM is confident of a 100% growth rate in the SP commercial market this year, SP sales will do little to fend off the attack to the RS/6000 in the SMP market place, say analysts. Furthermore, the RS/6000 is coming under increasing pressure at the low-end from SMP servers based on Intel SHV parts, giving users a lower cost SMP option. They are a significant threat to RS/6000 sales, said one IBMer. IBM claims it is remedying its performance problems and that the SMP PowerPC 604 processor will ship next month. Existing PowerPC 601 SMP users will get free upgrades. IBM has officially denied any suggestion that its RS/6000 business is suffering setbacks.
